Tag: Christianity

President Donald Trump Jan. 28 signed an executive order stating his administration would seek to prohibit certain types of medical or surgical gender reassignment procedures for minors who identify as transgender.

The order directed that the government “will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures.”

“Across the country today, medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions,” the order stated. “This dangerous trend will be a stain on our Nation’s history, and it must end.”

At least 25 Republican-led states have adopted laws restricting or banning gender reassignment surgery or related hormonal treatments for minors, although not all of those bans are currently in effect amid legal challenges, according to data from the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ+ policy group.

A still-pending ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in United States v. Skrmetti, a challenge to one such law in Tennessee, could potentially have a significant impact on the future of those laws.

Supporters of banning gender transition surgeries or hormonal treatments for minors who identify as transgender say such restrictions will prevent them from making irreversible decisions as children that they may later come to regret as adults. Critics of such bans argue that preventing those interventions could cause other harm to minors, such as mental health issues or increase the risk of physical self-harm.

A 2022 study by the UCLA Williams Institute found there are approximately 1.6 million people in the U.S. who identify as transgender. Nearly half of that population is between the ages of 13 and 24.

A recent JAMA Pediatrics study found 926 U.S. adolescents with commercial insurance and a gender-related diagnosis received puberty blockers from 2018 through 2022, and none of them were under the age of 12. The study did not include minors covered by Medicaid.

In guidance on health care policy and practices released in March 2023, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine stated the church’s opposition to interventions that “involve the use of surgical or chemical techniques that aim to exchange the sex characteristics of a patient’s body for those of the opposite sex or for simulations thereof.”

“Any technological intervention that does not accord with the fundamental order of the human person as a unity of body and soul, including the sexual difference inscribed in the body, ultimately does not help but, rather, harms the human person,” the document states.

Bucharest, January 29, 2025

Photo: ​orthodoxwitness.org   

Only a Pan-Orthodox Synod has the authority to discuss initiatives regarding the date of Pascha, says the Romanian Patriarchate.

The Church issued a statement on the matter yesterday in response to recent statements from Pope Francis about finding a common date for all Christendom to celebrate Pascha together.

The dating of Pascha has been a frequent topic of discussion in recent years with the upcoming celebration of the 1,700th anniversary of First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea, which laid down the first Churchwide rules for dating the central Christian feast.

The Pope broached the issue again during a Vespers service on Saturday, January 25, saying:

Providentially, this year, Easter will be celebrated on the same day in the Gregorian and Julian calendars, right during this ecumenical anniversary. I renew my call so that this coincidence may be a call for all Christians to take a decisive step towards unity, around a common date for Easter, and the Catholic Church is willing to accept the date that everyone wants to make, a date of unity.

From the Orthodox side, the issue is of interest to Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople. In his address to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on Monday, January 27, he said:

The Ecumenical Patriarchate is equally committed to the advancement of Christian unity, not only through theological dialogue, but also by vibrant discussions on a common date of Easter. We believe that the historical anniversary of Nicaea should inspire fresh theological conversation as well as renewed Christian cooperation. Let us build a world where Christ’s prayer for unity is finally realized.

For the Romanian Orthodox Church, any such discussions can only take place within the context of a Pan-Orthodox Synod.

The Romanian Church’s statement reads:

Following Pope Francis’ recent declaration regarding the establishment of a common date for celebrating the Lord’s Resurrection, we specify that any consultation regarding the date of Pascha and any potential decision can only take place within a future Pan-Orthodox Synod, with the participation of all Sister Orthodox Churches.

Therefore, this current initiative follows the same working process, taking into account the very important recommendation of the Synaxis of Primates and Representatives of Orthodox Churches, held between January 21-28, 2016, at the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s Center in Chambésy, during which the following was specified: “regarding the topic of the calendar, it is appropriate that each Church be free to implement what it considers suitable for the spiritual formation of its parishioners, but without modifying the date of the common celebration of Pascha by all Orthodox Christians.”

Consequently, any initiative regarding the date of the celebration of Pascha can only be discussed within a Pan-Orthodox Synod.

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The president of Catholic Charities USA has urged the Trump administration to “rethink” its pause on federal funding for executive departments, noting the “millions of Americans who rely on this life-giving support.”

In a two-page memo on Monday the Office of Management and Budget directed all federal agencies “to the extent permissible under applicable law … temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all federal financial assistance” that could conflict with President Donald Trump’s policies as outlined in his recent executive orders.

The memo specified that funding for programs “including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal” would be paused.

Though the memo put the pause into effect on Jan. 28 at 5 p.m., a federal judge in the District of Columbia temporarily blocked the order on Tuesday.

In response to news of the freeze on federal grants, Catholic Charities USA President and CEO Kerry Alys Robinson released a statement calling attention to the work the organization does for those in need.

“For more than a century, the Catholic Charities network has worked with the government to care for poor and vulnerable people in every community in the U.S., and we continue to be eager to work with government to care for our neighbors in need,” Robinson said. “We strongly urge the administration to rethink this decision.”

Robinson pointed to the effect that a federal freeze could have on those who rely on Catholic Charities.

“The millions of Americans who rely on this life-giving support will suffer due to the unprecedented effort to freeze federal aid supporting these programs,” Robinson said. “The people who will lose access to crucial care are our neighbors and family members. They live in every corner of the country and represent all races, religions, and political affiliations.”

Catholic Charities has operated in the U.S. for more than a century. It is currently made up of 168 diocesan Catholic Charities agencies serving millions of people each year. It works to provide affordable housing, food and nutrition, and disaster relief as well as supporting health, workforce development, and immigration services.

“Last year, 92% of the services provided by the 168 independent Catholic Charities agencies around the country covered basic needs — access to food, housing, health care, and other necessities — for families and individuals struggling to get by,” Robinson said.

“These vital services include food pantries for those who can’t afford groceries, child care programs for low-income families, meal deliveries for homebound seniors, job training resources for veterans, temporary and permanent housing, mental health services, and much more.”

Trump administration officials said that programs providing individual assistance to Americans — such as Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, student loans, and food stamps — would not be affected.

What the exact effect will be on Catholic Charities and other charitable organizations is still unclear.

At a White House press conference on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was  asked if the president intended “to permanently cut off funding to NGOs that are bringing illegal foreign nationals to the country, such as Catholic Charities.”

Leavitt responded: “I am actually quite certain that the president signed an executive order that did just that, and I can point you to that.”

Last year, the country’s bishops rejected claims that Catholic nonprofit organizations such as Catholic Charities are complicit in harboring migrants who illegally cross the Texas border.

Athens, January 29, 2025

Photo: YouTube     

A trans man who became a subject of discussion at a church festival in Athens is suing the Athonite elder who spoke about him.

Specifically, the man has filed both criminal charges and a civil lawsuit against Elder Philemon of the Holy Mountain’s Prophet Elias Skete seeking more than $104,00 (100,000 euros) for moral damages after the talk was published on the YouTube channel of the St. Demetrios Church in Athens, reports Ekklisia Online.

In the video, Elder Philemon discusses how the trans man’s father came to Mt. Athos and spoke to him about the problems with his son, while also mentioning the child by name and discussing his physical changes, where he studies, and so on.

Ekklisia Online writes: “It should be noted that Elder Philemon is an exemplary spiritual father, one of the enlightened elders who help thousands of people, and it’s truly unprecedented for someone to take legal action against such a worthy servant of Orthodox monasticism.”

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St. Joseph is the perfect model of listening to the Lord and quietly putting his word and plan into action, Pope Francis said.

“Joseph trusts in God, he accepts God’s dream for his life and that of his betrothed. He thus enters into the grace of one who knows how to live the divine promise with faith, hope and love,” the pope said Jan. 29 during his weekly general audience in the Paul VI Audience Hall.

Also during the audience, Pope Francis spoke to Polish visitors about International Holocaust Remembrance Day, offered his best wishes to Chinese visitors and others celebrating the Lunar New Year and pleaded for an end to violence in Congo.

The pope remembered the many Poles, “who together with members of other nations, were victims of extermination in German concentration camps during World War II.”

The world marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27 each year, the anniversary of the day in 1945 when Soviet troops liberated the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp complex. The camp was the largest of the Nazi work and death camps; an estimated 1.1 million of the more than 6 million victims of the Holocaust died there.

As people remember the anniversary, the pope asked his Polish visitors to “be custodians of the truth and memory of this tragedy and its victims, including many Christian martyrs.”

It is a reminder of the need for “a constant commitment to peace and defense of the dignity of human life in every nation and every religion,” he said.

When greeting Chinese-speaking visitors in the audience hall, the pope expressed his hopes that Lunar New Year celebrations would offer “an occasion to experience family and friendships with greater intensity.” The holiday, Jan. 29 this year, is widely celebrated in China, South Korea, Vietnam and countries with a significant number of people from China.

Addressing “dear brothers and sisters in East Asia and in different parts of the world,” he offered his best wishes for the New Year. “May my blessings reach all of you, as I invoke from the Lord peace, serenity and health for each one.”

The pope also expressed his concern over the worsening situation in Congo, which has also seen violent demonstrations in the capital, Kinshasa, protesting a lack of intervention by the international community regarding the deadly conflict in Goma.

“I urge all sides in the conflict to commit to the cessation of hostilities and to the protection of the civilian population of Goma and other areas affected by the military operations,” the pope said at the audience, adding a call to end the violence in the capital as well.

“While I pray for the quick restoration of peace and security, I call on the local authorities and the international community for their full effort to resolve the conflict by peaceful means,” he said.

In his main address, the pope spoke about St. Joseph, spouse of the Virgin Mary and foster father of Jesus, as part of his series of talks on “Jesus Christ our hope,” which is the theme for his weekly catechesis throughout the Jubilee Year.

When Joseph discovered Mary’s pregnancy, he said, “his love is harshly put to the test.” Instead of terminating the betrothal, which would have been allowed by law, “Joseph acts thoughtfully: he does not let himself be overcome by instinctive feelings and fear of accepting Mary with him, but prefers to be guided by divine wisdom.”

“Joseph is a ‘righteous’ man, a man who lives according to the law of the Lord,” he said, and he is “open and docile to the voice of the Lord.”

“He dreams of the miracle that God fulfills in Mary’s life, and also the miracle that he works in his own life: to take on a fatherhood capable of guarding, protecting and passing on” God’s promise of salvation, he said.

“Joseph does not ask for further proof,” the pope said, and fully accepts God’s plan.

“Joseph, in all of this, does not utter a word, but he believes, hopes and loves. He does not express himself with ‘idle words,’ but with concrete deeds,” the pope said.

“Let us, too, ask the Lord for the grace to listen more than we speak, to dream God’s dreams and to welcome responsibly the Christ who, from the moment of baptism, lives and grows in our life,” he said.

Washington, D.C., January 29, 2025

Photo: ​forbes.com     

President Trump signed an executive order yesterday banning federal support for “gender transition” procedures for minors.

He wrote on Truth Social:

Today, it was my great honor to sign an Executive Order banning the chemical castration and medical mutilation of innocent children in the United States of America. Our Nation will no longer fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support so-called “gender affirming care,” which has already ruined far too many precious lives. My Order directs Agencies to use every available means to cut off Federal financial participation in institutions which seek to provide these barbaric medical procedures, that should have never been allowed to take place!

This executive order follows related orders from earlier this month in which the President proclaimed that the U.S. government will recognize only two sexes, male and female, and ended “radical and wasteful” diversity, equity and inclusion programs inside federal agencies.

The new order, “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” begins:

Across the country today, medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions. This dangerous trend will be a stain on our Nation’s history, and it must end.

Countless children soon regret that they have been mutilated and begin to grasp the horrifying tragedy that they will never be able to conceive children of their own or nurture their children through breastfeeding. Moreover, these vulnerable youths’ medical bills may rise throughout their lifetimes, as they are often trapped with lifelong medical complications, a losing war with their own bodies, and, tragically, sterilization.

Accordingly, it is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called “transition” of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures.

The phrase “chemical and surgical mutilation” refers to medical interventions including puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgeries intended to align a person’s physical appearance with their gender identity rather than their biological sex, the order explains.

The new order represents a victory for at least one Orthodox Christian.

​Jeff and a young James Younger. Photo: dailycitizen.focusonthefamily.com     

Jeff Younger has been fighting for years to protect his son James, now 12, from being chemically castrated at the whim of his mother. Anna Georgulas, a pediatrician and Younger’s ex-wife, has been dressing up James and calling him “Luna” since he was a young boy, attempting to “transition” him since he was at least 5.

Texas courts initially granted both parents joint custody in 2019, but Georgulas later won sole custody in 2021, with the caveat that any medical procedures related to her plans for James required Jeff’s consent.

However, the next year, she moved to California, a “trans sanctuary” state, with James and his twin brother Jude, where she was free to pursue her intentions to chemically castrate her son. Younger petitioned the Texas Supreme Court to have his sons returned to Texas, but lost.

In November of last year, a Los Angeles Superior Court Judge deprived Younger of all parental rights, giving Georgulas the authority to castrate James.

Yesterday, Younger retweeted a video about Johanna Olson-Kennedy, a doctor who is being sued for medical negligence after convincing a 14-year-old to be physically mutilated. “My insane ex-wife put my son in her clinic. He’s now chemically castrated,” Younger said.

However, a few hours later, he posted a link to the new executive order, saying: “President Donald J. Trump saved my son. I will use all possible avenues to get my son off chemical castration drugs. The fight is not over.”

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The following is adapted from the archbishop’s Jan. 18 address to the 11th annual OneLife LA family festival, which this year was focused on supporting those affected by the wildfires.

These days we are being purified, we are being tested by fire. Our city is being tested, and our Church, the family of God.

In good times and hard times, we always need to turn to the Word of God.

So, these days I’ve been spending time with God’s Word. I’ve been trying to discern his will and understand his purposes.

The Scriptures say that in days of old, God came to his people in fire.

He called to Moses from the burning bush. He came to Israel at Horeb, as the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, as it was wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom.

And the Lord God spoke to his people there, from the fire. He promised to love them forever, and never to fail or forget them.

The voice of the Lord is still speaking to us from the midst of these fires. He is still promising his love. Our challenge is to listen for his voice.

The wildfires and windstorms swept away loved ones and homes, they swept away parishes, neighborhoods, and livelihoods. People’s possessions and precious memories have been reduced to ash, their futures left uncertain.

I know some of you lost everything. My heart weeps for you and your families and for all our neighbors.

But keep this in your heart and never forget: You are precious in the Lord’s eyes. Every one of you. God loves you with a love beyond telling.

St. Paul said that nothing can ever separate us from the love of Jesus Christ! Not trial or tribulation, not famine or persecution. And not fire.

In all these things, we can overcome, with the strength of the One who loves us until the end. We need to trust that in everything God is working for the good with those who love him, according to his purposes.

We remember the story from Scripture about how the prophet Elijah was chased by his enemies. God told him to climb the mountain, and he would pass by and speak to him.

Elijah felt abandoned. He couldn’t see God anywhere.

Then a violent wind came that ripped through the mountain, shattering everything in its wake. After that came an earthquake. Then a fire.

The Lord was not in the windstorm. Or the earthquake. And he was not in the fire.

But after the fire, Scripture says, there came a still, small Voice, a tiny whispering sound.

Out of these fires, we need to listen for that still small Voice. God is calling to us now, even if it sounds like only a whisper.

In times like this we realize life is precious, but life is also fragile. What we have, we could lose in an instant. So, we should live for God, enjoy every moment, and never take anyone or anything in our lives for granted.

Now is the hour for Christian witness. We need to stand together in hope! Support one another, sacrifice for one another, take care of one another!

This is the spirit we’ve tried to foster over the years through OneLife LA.

OneLife LA was never meant to be just an event. It was meant to start a movement.

OneLife LA is the dream of a community of love where every human life is sacred, and every life is cared for, from the moment a person is conceived in the womb until the moment their life reaches its natural end.

We need this spirit now to renew our city and our Church.

In this moment, the Lord is calling us to be good friends and good neighbors, to bring his love to those who are suffering.

Let us go, always forward with faith and hope in God: One life, one love, one LA!

Let’s ask our Blessed Mother to protect and guide us. In her tender love, may she help us to hear that still small Voice of her Son speaking in these days of fire.

Our Lady, Queen of Angels: Be a mother to us all!

Kiev, January 29, 2025

Photo: rtvi.com     

The canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church won two small court victories regarding the usage of the Holy Dormition-Kiev Caves Lavra on Monday, January 27.

The ancient monastery, divided into the Upper and Lower Lavra, has been state owned since Soviet times and is run by the Kiev Caves Lavra National Preserve. The Church has already been “Christ is Risen!” Ukrainian faithful sing out in face of persecution (+VIDEOS)On New Years’ Eve, the faithful filled the trapeza church to overflowing, to worship in their beloved church for the last time for the time being.

“>evicted from the Upper Lavra and blocked from using its cathedrals, which have since been used by the schismatics for their “services” and the state for various Song about murdering Russians sung in Kiev Caves Lavra concertMeanwhile, the Uniate church of the Holy Protection in Truskavets, Lviv Province, hosted a laser show with people dressed as demons, death, and President Putin in the church.”>inappropriate events. The Church’s contract for usage of the Lower Lavra, where the monks reside, Ukrainian Orthodox Church fully expelled from Kiev Caves Lavra by end of MarchThe Church has been informed that it has until March 29 to leave the Lavra altogether. The Lower Lavra, which the UOC still had access to, is home to the actual caves, the monks’ cells, and the Kiev Theological Seminary and Academy.”>has also been terminated, though the state has yet to physically evict the brotherhood.

On Monday, in one session, the Northern Commercial Court of Appeals in Kiev resolved to suspend the Preserve’s lawsuit to evict the Church from the Lower Lavra until the unilateral termination of the usage contract is examined, reports Voice of Orthodox Ukraine.

In its case, the Preserve argues that the Church must leave the Lower Lavra since its contract has been terminated, but in its case, the Church argues that the termination itself was illegal.

In another session, regarding the UOC’s right to use the churches of the Upper Lavra, the same court granted the motion to include the Kiev Metropolia as a third party in the case.

The Lavra’s lawyer, Archpriest Nikita Chekman, spoke about the significance of the decision regarding the Lower Lavra:

Why is it important? Because the essence of the dispute is that the Preserve believes the contract is terminated and in this regard asks to forcibly evict the monastery and monks from the territory of the Lower Lavra.

The monastery side believes the termination is illegal.

…The termination of the contract took place illegally. And in general, there are many questions as to the “violations” identified by the Preserve.

He continued about the return of Church property from state ownership:

And in addition, the monastery believes that the entire Lavra should belong to the monastery and monks. Because if we take into account the commitments that Ukraine made to the Council of Europe and other practices of the European Court of Human Rights, there are very important precedents when Church property that was illegally alienated by the Soviet authorities is returned to the ownership of the religious organizations from which it was alienated.

The next hearing regarding the termination of the contract will be held on February 3. “The further fate of the Kiev Caves Lavra monks will depend on it,” the priest-lawyer said.

And regarding the Upper Lavra, Fr. Nikita explained:

We see what’s happening in the Refectory Church. Concerts and other incomprehensible events are being held there. This is a place for God’s service and people’s confession. But now, there are concerts and incomprehensible shows.

Therefore, the monastery side asked to involve the UOC Kiev Metropolis as a third party in the case. Everyone knows that His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine completed his service in the Upper Lavra. And all the premises were transferred in the late 80s, early 90s, precisely to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, to the Kiev Metropolis. There such archival documents about this.

And since the Holy Dormition-Kiev Caves Lavra is a stavropegial monastery subordinated to His Beatitude the Metropolitan, and I want to say, the court agreed with this! Indeed, the court’s decision affects the UOC Metropolis’ rights and obligations.

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Photo: pravoslavie.ru     

The Law of God that’s taught in schools isn’t intended to give children knowledge of God (it presupposes that this knowledge already exists)—it only gives children knowledge about God.

But since knowledge about God, like any other knowledge, is absorbed only by the mind and memory, studying the Law of God in school usually becomes an abstract, external assimilation of religious truths, without penetrating into the depths of the soul. Knowing God is distinct from knowing about God. Knowledge of God is the direct perception of Him by an inner sense, while knowledge about God is a property of the mind and memory.

The Gospel speaks about knowing God: And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Whom Thou hast sent (Jn. 17:3). The Prophet Isaiah speaks about the same: The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know Me, My people hath not regarded Me (Is. 1:3).

The very word “religion” doesn’t mean a simple conception of God, but a living connection between living beings—man and God.

When I was in ecclesiastical school, from my nine-year course in the Law of God, only the preparatory course left an impression on me, remaining in my memory and heart to this day, perhaps because the instructor managed to give his teaching a particular vividness and heartfelt simplicity.

Meanwhile, regardless of the Law of God lessons, I had a religious life then, in early childhood. I truly felt the presence of God, and this feeling was reflected in my love for going to church, in my love for Church hymns, for feast-day religious traditions, for reading religious books, especially the lives of the saints, in my love for Edinovertsi’s Treasure: The Rule of Home PrayerUntil the revolution in Russia, there was a universal tradition of reading the “lay order” of the services. In the absence of the priest in church, or at home, the entire family would read part or all of the daily cycle of Church services. We will talk today about what happened to this good tradition, how to revive it, and what benefit it brings for the whole body of the Church.

“>home prayer, for reading akathists, for religious processions, and so on. Being a child, I wasn’t bored in church, and when I learned to read, I spent what little pocket change I had not on candy, but on the lives of the saints. And I didn’t have this religious life because I somehow, by my external senses, recognized God as an external object for me. Such knowledge of God is impossible, so when non-believers say they don’t believe in God because they never saw Him, and no one else has seen Him or can see Him, they make a gross error, applying the way we know the visible objects around us to the knowledge of God.

On the other hand, no one ever in my early childhood tried to prove the existence of God to me by various arguments—there was no need for this. And if someone had done this, he would’ve only given me an external knowledge of what God can or should be, but not the perception of God Himself as a living being. Like any other child, I came to know God in early childhood not by external experience or reasoned arguments, but directly, by an inner perception, because I was created in the image and likeness of God. Being like God, man, thanks to this godlikeness, perceives Him internally and directly and comes to know Him.

This internal perception of God is characteristic of all men. If we stop sensing God in ourselves, it’s not because we’re incapable of it, but because the feeling of God is stifled in us either by the delusions of our proud mind or the sinfulness of our corrupt heart.

Coming to the knowledge of God doesn’t mean coming to God outside yourself, as some external object, or being convinced of His existence by some logical proofs—it means enabling our inner self, in some mysterious way, to see God with our inner eye.

From this it’s clear that no amount of theological knowledge can achieve knowledge of God. The Jewish scribes, who were strong in theological scholarship, were unable to see in Jesus Christ His Divine power, which simple fishermen, publicans, and harlots saw in Him.

And in our time, theological, seminary, and academic education doesn’t provide for religiosity. If knowledge of God is achieved through the inner vision of the heart, then the main work, the main task of religious influence and education is to be able to preserve or awaken this inner vision of the heart in those being guided, or in other words, to produce such a change in their heart that their spiritual eyes are opened to seeing God.

Of course, I don’t want at all to deny the significance and importance of theological education and studying the Law of God; I only want to note that knowing God must be clearly distinguished from knowing about God, and when communicating the latter to children, don’t think that this is the totality of the task of religious leadership.

Knowledge about God is undoubtedly necessary, because it gives concrete content to our knowledge of God: It clarifies for us our conception of God, the relationship of God to the world and the world to God. A child’s soul, especially one reborn in the Sacrament of Baptism, has a natural ability to know God. This is probably what the Lord Jesus Christ means when He says: Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven (Mt. 18:3); I thank thee, O Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes (Mt. 11:25); Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven (Mt. 18:4); the pure heart … shall see God (Mt. 5:8).

Some people preserve this property of the inner, direct vision of God their entire life. These are, first of all, the saints: St. Sergius of RadonezhUndoubtedly, the most outstanding establisher of the truly selfless “life equal to the angels” in fourteenth century Russia is St. Sergius of Radonezh, the founder of the famous Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Monastery, which embodies in its historical legacy his blessed precepts, and gradually became a kind of spiritual heart for all of Orthodox Russia.

“>St. Sergius of Radonezh, St. Seraphim of Sarov“>St. Seraphim of Sarov, and others.

They didn’t come to knowledge of God through external experience or reasoning and logical conclusions. They knew God just as directly as we perceive the light and warmth of the sun. No one proves the existence of the sun. The Bible doesn’t prove the existence of God; the saints don’t seek proof of the existence of God. To make the recognition of God’s existence dependent upon the considerations of our reason, constantly fluctuating and changing based on the sharpness of our mind and our store of knowledge, would be to base the undoubted on the doubtful, or to examine the sun with the help of a dim candle.

And not only the saints, but also ordinary people sometimes preserve the gift of direct, living, and undoubted perception of the existence of God throughout their entire lives, and this is especially characteristic of simple and humble people, free from temptations of a proud mind or impure heart.

To be continued…

Pilna, Nizhny Novgorod Province, Russia, January 29, 2025

    

A hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church serving in Kazakhstan died in a car accident yesterday.

His Eminence Archbishop Serapion of Kokshetau and Akmola was on his way to Moscow to participate in the annual Christmas Readings when the car he was traveling in got into an accident in the Nizhny Novgorod Province near the village of Pilna, reports the Russian Church.

Hieromonk Evlogy (Scherbak) of the Holy Resurrection Cathedral in Kokshetau, who was accompanying His Eminence, was hospitalized with a concussion.

According to the traffic police a truck heading towards Kazan caught fire, and another truck passing by suddenly braked in front of it, causing the Archbishop’s car to crash into the latter.

He served in the episcopal rank for just over 11 years.

May Abp. Serapion’s memory be eternal!

***

Abp. Serapion was born on July 6, 1964, in the village of Podgorny, Dzhambul Province, Kazakh SSR, to a working-class family.

From 1985 to 1989, he studied at the Moscow Theological Seminary.

On May 18, 1988, he was accepted into the brotherhood of the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra, and on July 3 of the same year, he was tonsured a monk with the name Serapion in honor of St. Serapion, Archbishop of Novgorod. On July 17, 1988, he was ordained to the diaconate.

From 1989 to 1993, he studied at the Moscow Theological Academy. On October 10, 1990, he was ordained a hieromonk.

From 1993 to 1997, he served as canonarch and deputy chairman of the Lavra’s publishing department.

From 1997 to 2002, he temporarily carried out missionary and pastoral service in Abakan. In 1999, he was elevated to the rank of igumen.

In 2003-2004, he served as rector of the Patriarchal Metochion at Kulikovo Field.

From 2005, he served as rector of the Holy Trinity Church in the village of Gnilusha in the Lipetsk Diocese and was a member of the diocesan commission for the canonization of saints of the Lipetsk land.

From September 1, 2013, he served as a cleric of the Astana Diocese and dean of the Ascension Cathedral in Alma-Ata in Kazakhstan.

On October 2, 2013, he was elected Bishop of Kokshetau and Akmola. He was elevated to the rank of archimandrite on October 13 and consecrated a bishop on October 23 at Optina Monastery.

On May 6, 2022, he was elevated to the rank of Archbishop.

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