Tag: Christianity

    

In the hustle and bustle of everyday life, when time flies at the speed of light and life looks like an obstacle course, you sometimes are dying to simply drop everything and listen to what your heart tells you. To close your eyes, to feel the silence that envelops us from all sides, and to contemplate things that really matter. All of us sometimes feel the urge to throw off the weight of worries and just enjoy the here and now.

It is a rather typical situation: When you are working non-stop, without any rest, be it a physical labor or intellectual work, sooner or later you end up with occupational burnout, or worse yet, a mental breakdown. The last one is equally dangerous both for your physical and mental health. Sad, but true! I am sure many of us have heard about someone who fully dedicated himself to work, with sleep deprivation and work overload, and then found himself in hospital before long. Having rest is a must-have.

That’s where another peril lurks. Laziness (or sloth) is one of seven mortal sins. It is a state when man has no desire and motivation to perform his work. If rest is necessary to restore strength to continue working, then in the state of laziness man craves rest constantly. Look how the Proverbs of Solomon described it so accurately: laziness brings on deep sleep; and idle person will suffer hunger (Proverbs 19:15). Because who doesn’t labor will not bear the fruit of his work. So, this sin can lead to negative consequences not only to this person, but also to society. Laziness becomes our enemy, as it doesn’t allow us to move forward, to grow and become better. It is akin to a spider that weaves its web around us and never allows us to break its fetters.

Every sin is manifested in two different ways: it can happen only once, or you may fall into sin periodically, but there is also the state of passion when sin gets a lasting, firm grip on you. If, in the former case, we simply have to collect ourselves and, with prayer, continue working, then in the latter case our battle with sin, just as passion itself, becomes a battle for many years—possibly a life-long struggle.

Laziness becomes our enemy, as it doesn’t allow us to move forward, to grow and become better versions of ourselves

Laziness may occur for various reasons. One of them is simply fatigue. When you are under a physical and emotional stress, you may not be able to find enough strength and motivation to complete the necessary tasks, and rest is all you need. But it is important that rest doesn’t last longer than needed or it will turn to idleness—one manifestation of laziness.

Also, laziness may also have to do with dissatisfaction with the results of your work, when it looks as if you continue working and spend all of your time and effort, but the result is nil. At such moments, you simply don’t want to continue working at all. Probably, the most typical example, for me personally is housework. This is when you’ve worked all day to make your house clean and tidy, but the next morning, what you see around is a thick layer of cat fur everywhere and a pile of dirty dishes in the kitchen sink. However, our experience tells us that if we decide not to keep our house clean, things will become ever so much worse.

And of course our labor always reaps results, it’s just that it may not be as obvious right away. Then again, you won’t immediately see the results of protracted laziness either. If you shall slack in thy deeds, what shall you eat? Being lazy will make you poor (cf. Sirach 4:33, from the Russian).

Our fear of failure or lack of confidence in our abilities may also lead to laziness. A person might try to avoid doing what’s necessary so that he won’t face possible disappointment or criticism. We must keep in mind that everyone can make occasional mistakes, and we can all get bad results. Musicians whose music is known worldwide definitely have other pieces that are often called “passable.” If their creators stopped trying, the world would have never even heard their names. Or the actors who typically have to keep replaying the same episode over and over again in order to obtain the perfect shot—it’s that we simply never see the dozens of outtakes that end up in the trash bin. What we see in the end is the result of someone’s hard work for a long time. Yet still, the internet is bursting at seams with criticism about many pieces in cinema, music, art etc. However, if all of them quit working and laboring out of fear of criticism, there would be no results at all, none.

If a person succumbs to laziness in spiritual life and stops praying or attending church, his own life will change for the worse. It may look as first as if—oh, it’s not a big deal, I missed it once, but I had a good reason. Sure, that’s true; nothing will happen if it is done only once. But later you will do it a second time, and then for the third time. At a certain point, you can’t come up with new excuses, but the sin of laziness already did its work. On the one hand, such a person feels remorse, and on the other, he is ashamed of entering the church, because he is afraid the parishioners will turn on him in condemnation. Without church and prayer, we get further and further from God and become even more irritable and gloomy. Over time, we almost imperceptibly allow our souls to be filled with passions and sins.

There’s a rather old reflection: Why is it that we struggle so hard to stand through a two-hour service, but it’s so easy and fun for us to watch a two-hour movie? The answer is simple. When we watch movies or a TV series, read an interesting book, play computer games, and so on, we have fun. But when we pray, we labor spiritually. Sure, the feeling of lightness and joy after prayer is also enjoyable, but it is the result of labor. As for entertainment, it comes effortlessly, since pleasures are available immediately, without any hard work. Herein lies one of the main traps of laziness. By having pleasures within easy reach, we don’t really want to work, because all we want is to continue having pleasurable experiences over and over again. Sometimes it so happens that a person is horrified at how much time has been wasted, to no avail. Wasted both in physical and spiritual life. Laziness means striving for idleness. Laziness defiles a man, but the desire to do the will of God makes him pure (cf: Proverbs 21:25).

It is so important to force ourselves to pray, visit the church and On Preparation for Holy Communion. “We must raise the standard”As the Lord said in the Gosples, He that is able to receive it, let him receive it (Mt. 19:12): one person may be capable of living an intense inner life, regularly go to church, and continually search his own conscience—as St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov) says, so that their minds would always swim in the Gospels, in the teachings of Christ. Another person might be so inwardly disposed that it is an ascetic labor for him to receive Communion only twice a year.

“>prepare for Communion. The Lord Himself said about this: The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force (Matthew 11:12). It is impossible to achieve results in the spiritual life without effort.

    

However, it is the same principle that applies to our worldly life. Not just personal, but also social. If people didn’t force themselves to work, we would have never built buildings, explored new territories, or made scientific discoveries. Without the effort of a great number of people in the past we would have never had scientific knowledge, power plants, transportation and many technologies, including the ones that help us today to learn something new or, as an aside, to read this very article.

There are several ways to overcome laziness, both psychological and spiritual. One such way is setting goals and planning activities. When a person has a clear understanding of what he wants to accomplish, it can help to overcome laziness and to get things going. It is also important to find motivation to continue working. These could be personal interests, values or extrinsic stimuli. At the same time, you need to find a healthy balance between work and downtime; constant overwork will simply lead to burnout and apathy. But having rest shouldn’t be too protracted either, and we have spoken about that earlier.

Having adequate nutrition and a healthy amount of sleep is no small matter

Having adequate nutrition and a healthy amount of sleep is no small matter—that’s something we often leave neglected in our student days and then continue being ignorant about as adults. If a human body doesn’t receive the proper amount of vitamins and other substances with food, fatigue will set in much faster; there will be nowhere to draw energy from. And without regular and adequate sleep, our brain won’t function properly either. I believe we have all experienced the consequences of regular sleep deprivation in our lives, especially when we were students. Constant drowsiness and fatigue from the early morning can’t allow a person to work properly, especially if it is intellectual labor. These are obvious medical facts.

In spiritual life, overcoming laziness is possible through faith, labor and obedience to God. The first step, like everything else, is about the recognition of a problem that your desire to have rest turns into a desire to remain idle. A good starting point for your battle would be prayer and repentance in order to cleanse your soul. Man can’t overcome sins and passions on his own, without turning to God.

The next step is working hard and diligently as a counterbalance to laziness. This can be both physical labor and spiritual work to improve yourself. As we said above, we should urge ourselves to work and pray. And certainly in addition to the observance of God’s will—going to church, praying and almsgiving; in other words, helping our neighbors in every possible way. Because almsgiving is not only about giving money to beggars, but also giving our loved ones our time, energy and money, to the extent possible. For example, we can help an elderly person carry shopping bags and cross the road, or feed the hungry, even if it is simply your colleague at work; support a friend in a difficult situation, hear him out. Doing good, in general. All people of the world of any religion and worldview know that good deeds always come back to us.

    

Naturally, it is advisable to consult with your priest and loved ones. Such communication will help us not to become confused, as an outside perspective is always important. The devil never sleeps, and those who hope to defeat sin on their own often fall into satan’s traps, unable to see how their path is slowly drifting away. Your father confessor and loved ones will always guide and help by prayer, word and deed. We also shouldn’t forget about reading spiritual literature. The edifying lessons of the Bible and the experience of the Holy Fathers always help us in many moments of our material and spiritual life.

Last but not least, just as during any kind of work performed for an extended period of time, our struggle with any passion requires patience and perseverance. Our fight with laziness won’t be easy. We can experience ups and downs, but there is no way can we give up and back down. As the Lord said, But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved (Matthew 24:13).

Reprinted with permission from National Catholic Register.

When Peter and Jackie Halpin and their six adult children and some of their spouses showed up at the site of the family home in northern Los Angeles County on Thursday morning, there was almost nothing left.

One of the California wildfires had destroyed it, leaving only the foundation, debris, and singed concrete statues of Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Joseph.

They said a prayer near the statue of Mary — a version of the daily consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Then someone said they should sing something. But what?

Peter ended the discussion with an intonation, setting pitch with four notes going up the scale — “La – la – la – laaaaa.” Everyone in the family knows what that means: Regina Caeli, a 12th-century Latin hymn to Mary that Peter’s mother taught all nine of her children.

The Halpin parents, their six children, and at least four spouses — about a dozen people in all — immediately sang it in harmony.

A family friend shot video of the performance. Someone posted it online, where it has caught the attention of thousands of people.

Andrew Halpin, 36, the fourth of Peter and Jackie’s six children (three boys and three girls), described to the Register on Thursday night how he felt during the family prayer.

“I was thinking, ‘I want to be strong for my folks in this moment’— for my parents. And when we started singing, it felt like we were all being strong for each other,” Halpin said in a telephone interview.

“I already feel so much healing because we were able to be there together as a family, and we were able to bond over this song that means so much to our family,” he said.

The Halpins’ performance of Regina Caeli — a seemingly effortless multipart harmony with volume and various pitches — led to a question for Andrew: How did you do that?

“We’re a very musical family. It was instilled in us from Day One, really,” said Andrew, a composer who has a wife and a toddler daughter.

When they were kids, Andrew and his siblings participated in a choir led by an accomplished choirmaster as part of a Catholic home-schooling group. They all played musical instruments from a young age. Nowadays, they also occasionally perform publicly in a family band, called The Haypenny Pigs.

“After our faith, it’s been one of the most cohesive things about my family,” he said. “There really has never been a time joyful or sad when music doesn’t play a part.”

A home filled with music

The Halpins moved into the house, a Craftsman bungalow in Altadena, in 1988. It was yellow and had three bedrooms and one bathroom. The boys shared one bedroom and the girls another. About two decades ago their parents added a master bedroom with another bathroom, Andrew said.

The moment on Thursday morning was sad, even devastating.

His parents lost their home, which is where all the children grew up. One of his sisters and her daughter lost their home, which was at the rear of the same property.

But it hasn’t shaken their faith, he said.

“We have to give everything to God. And if that means our home at this time, we choose to trust that we’re in the palm of his hand,” Andrew told the Register.

Before they evacuated, Andrew’s parents, who are in their early 60s, managed to save 40 years’ worth of family photo albums and some essential documents. But Jackie’s genealogical collection, including old family photos, is gone. So is almost everything else that was in the house.

“You’re standing on the ashes of your childhood, really of your life,” Andrew said. “But you’re alive.”

Peter is a contractor who runs a concrete business. He lost a work truck in the fire, in addition to his home.

A GoFundMe page for Peter and Jackie Halpin had raised more than $60,000 as of early Friday.

Meanwhile, the family is trying to stress the positive.

“What I would want people to get out of this sadness, out of this tragedy, is that we can wring joy out of it. We can instill love,” Andrew said.

Over the years, the backyard of the family home has seen many parties for family and friends, with live music.

“You’d be hard-pressed to find a party at the old yellow house that didn’t end with a jam session,” he said.

Andrew said his dad decided even before he got married that he wanted to host a lot of parties like that.

“He wanted to create a place where his family and friends could celebrate and forget their worries,” Andrew said.

“This was home for more than just us. And that’s hard to let go of,” he said.

“People know that home as a place of faith, a place of fellowship, community and music,” Andrew said. “I tell you what, when we rebuild, there’s going to be music there again.”

  

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

Dear fathers, brothers and sisters! Today is a special service called The Eve of Theophany. This service is very similar to the one we celebrated on Christmas Eve—it begins with the Royal Hours and continues with the Vespers and the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great. Why is this? Because until the fifth century A.D., the The Nativity of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ

“>Nativity of Christ and Theophany “>Theophany were solemnly celebrated on the same day. After the fifth century, these two feasts were separated. But both Christmas Eve and the Eve of Theophany have been preserved.

The Greek name for this service, “Paramoni”, means “the threshold of the feast”, and this day is called Sochelnik in Russian because, according to the tradition of the Church, a special dish of boiled rice and honey, called sochivo, is prepared on this day.

The Feast of Theophany, the Baptism of the Lord, is special for each one of us. At the service the amazing extract from the Gospel of Luke is read, in which the Lord calls on St. John the Baptist to preach repentance. Having gone to the banks of the Jordan, John the Baptist raises his voice; he is like an angel crying in the wilderness, preparing the way of the people to the Lord (cf. Lk. 3:3–18). Different people came to him when he preached; these were Pharisees, Sadducees, publicans, soldiers, and ordinary people. His words about repentance were addressed to all of them.

What is repentance? We’ve talked about this many times. Cleansing the Heart and Mind Through RepentanceThe most perfect and greatest thing a man can desire and achieve is drawing near to God and abiding in solitude with Him.

“>Repentance is not only an awareness of the sinfulness of the actions that are not consistent with the life of a person who believes in the Lord, but also a desire to improve fully and never again commit acts that violate the will of God and are called sins, or iniquities.

The Sadducees and the Pharisees who were present during St. John the Baptist’s preaching were confident that they knew the Holy Scriptures much better than the others did and would definitely inherit the Kingdom of God. But when people asked, “What should we do?”, John the Baptist first of all spoke about almsgiving: “If you have two items of clothing, give the extra one to someone in need, or at least lend it to him to keep him warm.”

When the publicans wondered: “What should we do to repent?” St. John the Baptist did not call on them to abandon their service, their duty before the state to collect taxes, but told them not to take too much. The publicans were called to the service of the Roman Empire, which ruled over what was then Palestine, the people of Israel; and unfortunately, they often abused their authority and levied more money and taxes than the Government demanded of them. Everyone knew this, and therefore the publicans were detested by the people from whom they actually came—they were fellow tribesmen of the Israelites.

    

When the soldiers asked St. John the Baptist for advice: “What should we do?”, he replied: “Do not offend anyone, do not slander and be content with your wages.”

These words may seem strange to some of you. What does it mean, “do not offend”? After all, soldiers are called to defend and even kill in war. They are warriors. But this call was addressed to the civilian population and not during war when every soldier is supposed to defend his country even to the point of death. And he must understand who he is taking up arms against and who he is going against.

What did he mean by “do not slander?” A soldier has special authority, and for personal advantage, such as obtaining a special position and furthering his career, he could slander a civilian, or someone with whom he served. St. John the Baptist put special emphasis on this problem, which was widespread among military personnel and not only them—they slandered for the sake of their prosperity and career opportunities.

John the Baptist’s third counsel to the soldiers was to be content with the wages they were paid. For those who are not content with what they have will neglect everything in order to achieve greater prosperity—they will kill, steal and slander. Nothing will be sacred to them, neither family, nor friends. From now on, they have only one god—their personal prosperithy, and they are just mercenaries. In order not to be such mercenaries we must always be satisfied with the positions and the blessings that we have now and that the Lord is bestowing on each one of us at the moment. It does not mean that we should not develop, it does not mean that we should not have more and more achievements. But all this must be in accordance with the will of God, His mercy, His love, and agree with the commandments of the Holy Scriptures.

To those who will not heed the call of St. John the Baptist he utters dreadful words: The axe is already at the root of the trees, and the tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

    

We all understand the edifying words of John the Baptist. If we do not bear good fruits, if our faith is without works and dead, then our tree—that is, ourselves—will be cast into hell, and there we will have no hope of salvation. Therefore, we must hurry to do good deeds in addition to the faith that is directed towards the Lord in our hearts: charitable acts and works of love for others.

Today after the service the water is blessed with a special rite. Such water is called the great agiasma—that is, Theophany water. Today and tomorrow (January 19), the water is blessed by the same rite, so it has the same power and the same grace of God. Every Christian believer should keep this water at home throughout the year. Traditionally, we consume this water on an empty stomach after prayer, with a piece of prosphora. Our Theophany water is kept in a special place of honor, where other holy objects are kept—closer to the holy corner, closer to our home “iconostasis”.

If a person is sick or attacked by unclean spirits, then Theophany water can be consumed at any time and not even on an empty stomach.

Following the tradition, today and tomorrow we sprinkle our homes with this water, sprinkle the area on which our houses stand, and sprinkle ourselves with this holy water, which bears a special grace and healing properties. According to our faith be it unto us (cf. Mt. 9:29). Let us consume this holy water with all faith and reverence and thank God that we have it.

Holy water has other special properties as well: If we are about to run out of it, we can add ordinary water to it, because we know that holy water sanctifies the latter, which acquires the same power of grace as Theophany water. There is no need to take huge containers of holy water, carry them from church, overstrain yourself and get sick. Take a little, and at home mix it with plain water—and you will have plenty of holy Theophany water.

    

Dear brothers and sisters, let us hear St. John the Baptist’s call for repentance today, let us mend our ways, make our paths to the Lord straight, and come to the Lord without any shadow of sin, trusting in His mercy and love for us. Amen.

Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa, steadfast Nicaraguan church leader, gave his first interview since being exiled to the Vatican in January 2024, and it came amid another cancellation of the legal status of a Catholic organization as the Sandinista regime effectively extinguishes civil society groups and religious orders.

Asked how the faithful can endure in the face of such persecution, the bishop cited Pope Francis’ urging of the faithful “to turn to the Immaculate Conception,” the patroness of Nicaragua. Bishop Álvarez also advised young people “to be brave” like St. Joseph and emulate his “courage and trust in Providence.”

In Nicaragua, the Jan. 8 edition of the La Gaceta – Diario Oficial, the government’s official journal, reported that the Interior Ministry revoked the legal status of the Foundation of Contemplative Dominican Nuns, citing a “voluntary dissolution” due to a “decrease in its members and a lack of resources to carry out its projects.” Fourteen additional organizations also had their legal status revoked, including evangelical churches, charitable groups and Save the Children International.

Nicaragua has canceled the legal status of more than 5,400 religious and nongovernmental groups over the past six years as the government of President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, closed spaces for civil society, persecuted the press and the opposition, and infringed on basic rights such as the freedom of association.

The couple, who have submitted a constitutional reform to make them co-presidents, have infringed on freedom of worship, too — with priests, bishops and religious either exiled and forced to flee the country. The regime has canceled the legal status of dozens of Catholic organizations, including religious orders such as the Jesuits and the Missionaries of Charity.

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, the nominee for secretary of state in the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump, raised church persecution in Nicaragua during his confirmation hearing Jan. 15. “One of the first things they did in the new year is they kicked out every nun from the country. They’ve gone to war with the Catholic Church, which was the last institution in the country capable of standing up to them,” he said.

His comments on nuns reflected perceptions in Nicaragua that many women religious would be forced to leave Nicaragua after their congregations lost their legal status. A source familiar with the church’s situation in Nicaragua was unable to confirm the senator’s assertions that there are no religious sisters left in Nicaragua.

Martha Patricia Molina, a Nicaraguan lawyer in exile who documents repression against the Catholic Church in her home country, says at least 14 religious orders have left Nicaragua since 2018. At least 74 Catholic-sponsored organizations have been closed over the same period, including universities, Caritas chapters and charitable projects, she said.

In her latest report on church repression published in December, Molina said that overall 266 churchmen and churchwomen have been forced from Nicaragua or prohibited from returning after traveling abroad. They included 146 priests, 99 women religious and four bishops.

Bishop Álvarez, whose homilies denounced the excesses of the Ortega-Murillo government, is perhaps the most prominent voice sent into exile. He was exiled to Rome with 18 detained churchmen in January 2024 after being sentenced to 26 years in prison on trumped-up charges of conspiracy and spreading false information.

The bishop gave his first interview since being exiled to a Spanish publication, La Tribuna de Albacete. He told the publication Jan. 12 that he traveled to Spain on a pastoral visit, checking in on priests and seminarians from Nicaragua working and studying in the region.

“I always try to be close to my priests,” Bishop Álvarez said. “For me, this is the main pastoral task, even before any other preferential option. They are my sons, my brothers, my friends and my closest collaborators in the apostolic and evangelizing mission that the Lord has entrusted to me.”

When asked how the Nicaraguan church was doing, he cited a December letter from Pope Francis to Nicaraguans on the eve of the feast of the Immaculate Conception.

The pope told Nicaraguans, he said, “Do not forget the loving providence of the Lord, who accompanies us and is the only sure guide. Precisely in the most difficult moments, when it seems humanly impossible to understand what God wants from us, we are called not to doubt his care and mercy.”

Asked how to confront a difficult reality of persecution at home, Bishop Álvarez cited the papal letter, which counseled, “Be assured that faith and hope perform miracles. Let us look to the Immaculate Virgin; she is the luminous testimony of this trust.” He continued, “Hence, we always turn to the Immaculate Conception, who is the patroness of Nicaragua.”

Another question asked the bishop for his advice for young people. He told them to “look at the Holy Family: Jesus, Mary and Joseph. St. Joseph, as a just man, gives us an example of courage and trust in Providence.”

He added, “I encourage (young people) to be brave, creative and innovators” like St. Joseph. “That they be fearless and to maintain the energy needed to transform the world into a better place for everyone.”

Diveyevo. Our days. Photo: Diveevo-palomnik.ru   

In the summer of 2011 or 2012 I came to Diveyevo Convent for the feast of St. Seraphim to pray and sell my films.

But since the territory of the convent is off-limits to “sellers at pop-up stalls”, like me, we had only two sites available: a round platform at the entrance to the convent from the bus station and a long narrow corridor from Arzamasskaya Street (it has been since swallowed up by the convent).

It was here, under a high fence of planks painted a gloomy dark brown, that I had a place from year to year. However, it was always hard to get it.

At first there was no free spot at all. So, the first thing I did was to run to St. Seraphim’s relics. Then I rushed to the grave of my old friend, Hieromonk Vladimir (Shikin; 1947–2000) just beyond the sanctuary of the Holy Trinity Cathedral, where I would pester him with requests:

“Father Vladimir, you see everything! Please help me! They aren’t giving me a place! You’re kind—we’ll die without this money!”

Next I would return to the alley, and suddenly a place for me would be found…

I would proceed to run to the nearest store, beg for five or six empty cardboard boxes from the saleswomen, set up a complex structure resembling a small table, fix it with sticky tape and lay a red cover on it.

Then, with the help of sticky tape, I would “decorate” the fence behind my back: you cannot do without advertising anywhere! And all this on a patch of one square meter. I went “on duty” at six in the morning and “crawled away” at ten in the evening—and this went on for five or seven days.

Initially, experienced local sellers looked at me from afar. Then they began to come up to my stall, some to change money, others just to chat. One of them was the former director of a culture center, others were former accountants, storekeepers, drivers, machine operators, etc. Everything collapsed in the 1990s, and now they were here, “under the fence”, developing their Orthodox vocabulary amidst a continuous stream of pilgrims.

It was incredibly hard for them; something painfully Soviet and “Party”-like would at times come from their mouths… But it even pleased me, because in this this I could see the mighty parental hand of the Lord.

The street was heaving; crowds of pilgrims, lines of buses, cars—everybody was in a hurry. My “neighbors” had the most popular products: women’s headscarves, plastic containers for holy water and hundred-ruble raincoats. Everything else lay on their counters for weeks. But I only had my own films.

My wife called me periodically, wondering about my progress. I tried to find soothing and optimistic words for her. Sometimes I succeeded, sometimes I didn’t…

I attributed the success of my trade to the Almighty alone. I never pressured passing pilgrims into stopping, but, with a prayer rope behind my back, I repeated the Jesus Prayer in an undertone. The Lord brought to me those whom I needed.

The pirate Serioga

Sellers come from everywhere for the feast of Batiushka Seraphim. There are very colorful figures among them.

Here is Serioga,¹ a former lieutenant colonel. We are opposites: I myself make movies, while he pirates them, copying everything that he finds interesting, including my works. But in Diveyevo, like in Noah’s Ark, predators have no desire to bite.

We’re sort of friends: every now and then Serioga comes up and gives me a dozen of his new pirate CDs as a gift, casting a sharp glance over my counter to see if I have something new.

The pirates even have their “moral code”: not to sell my CDs (which they pirated) in my presence. But Serioga lulls his conscience by saying that he “brings truth to people” and is a “missionary”. Once, many years ago, a priest who was passing by comforted him and blessed him to “spread the Word of God”. Serioga clung to his words and has not wanted to listen to anything else since. Perhaps he feels more comfortable this way!

I only get a little angry when gullible customers, having bought my films from pirates at a give-away price, come to me to replace defective CDs!

I ask them:

“Why have you come to me?”

And I hear in response:

“Well, you’re the author!”

A bawling old man

There was an old man there with a huge magnificent gray beard. He didn’t sell anything—he bawled! He would sit on a stool at the entrance to the alley and rail at all the “creators of cataclysms” loudly and expressively. The customers, cautious and tight-fisted as they are, were frightened away by his yelling and ran past our counters.

“When will he get tired?” I bewailed during those moments. “There’s going to be no trade today!”

Elena the “oligarch”

Elena attracts your attention right away: an open, Slavic face, a direct gaze, an enormous capacity for work, commercial acumen, and a simple manner of communication. A genuine Russian elderly lady! At five in the morning, she’s already there, unloading the stall from the car, assembling it herself, and unpacking the products. I have never heard a complaint or a word of reproach from her. She waits for a sleepy salesgirl, hands her a ready-made stall, and leaves to set up the next point of sale.

In Diveyevo she is a local “oligarch”, as she has five or six stalls. They are scattered at all the key points around the convent, as well as at all the springs. Everyone respects her.

At around six in the evening Elena is back in her place, and everything is repeated in reverse order: paying the salesgirl, collecting the products, dragging them into the car, packing up and putting the stall into the car, and so on at all the points of sale, day after day, year after year.

Elena isn’t a native of Diveyevo. I know that she came here driven by faith soon after the convent had been reopened. That’s why she has the fear of God and is a truly religious person. You can recognize such people right away. Besides, she has a large family: children, grandchildren, and a house to run. I don’t know if she ever rests.

Elena doesn’t have a driver or a loader—she does everything herself, with her rusty, battered old pink car. One day, after setting up all the points in the morning, she rushed to the Moscow region for goods, bought everything she needed and managed to get back to Diveyevo by six in the evening, even though it is almost 310 miles each way!

A musician

And here’s a musician! None of our “standings-under-the-fence” is complete without him. I still don’t know his name, but he plays brilliantly! The flute in his hands both cries and sings. He comes from Moscow for one or two days for the major feasts. Wearing a wide-brimmed cowboy hat, with a mustache and a neat little beard, he took a position in the narrow corridor in front of the convent, and pilgrims walking by listened with tender emotion to melodies from songs by Orthodox singers Zhanna Bichevskaya, Hieromonk Roman (Matyushin), and others. I don’t know if his journeys to Diveyevo and back have paid off, but he brought us all great pleasure.

Beggars

The picture of everyday life in our alley would be incomplete without the description of two or three respectable-looking old gentlemen. They would come to us every day as if they were going to work.

Actually, that was their job: they begged for themselves. They were old and received miserable pensions. So, I had nothing against that. I even liked their honesty; they didn’t promise to pray for anyone. Since I would stand for hours there, I had plenty of time to watch them.

They were pros! How talented and unmistakably subtly they felt the situation! They instantly changed their location if something indicated that the core of the crowd had begun or was about to shift to the side. They were always “in the main stream”!

Our main enemy

It was not the convent guards or the local administration, but the rain, showers! In July and August it went berserk. At first it started drizzling, then the rain got stronger, and suddenly the sky seemed to be bursting with water!

My local “neighbors”, who were selling in cozy stalls, began feverishly unwrapping plastic sheeting over them. Then, when dozens of kilograms of water on the roof bent the canvas almost to the ground, they took sticks and mops and tried to lift the pools of water from the inside. But the water often did not go where the sellers wanted, but onto the heads of passing pilgrims. At best, onto the roofs of the stalls…

Sometimes we couldn’t even hear each other for the roar of water falling out of the sky! Dirty streams were flowing on the ground, and our goods were damp and soaked.

For us such showers were a disaster! There was absolutely nowhere to hide. Under the roaring flows of water, we were standing forlornly with our fragile umbrellas, and my cardboard “counter” turned into a shapeless lump of dirty paper. I covered my movies with transparent film, but for whom? A handful of pilgrims ran past me in horror into buildings.

In the evenings I carried out an inventory: poured water out of the boxes with CDs, took out and dried the covers and calculated the losses…

However, the common misfortune brought us closer, and we all helped one another as best we could.

“Dialogues under the fence”

Everything is free

There was a small group of pilgrims led by a young, intelligent priest with gold-rimmed glasses, an attentive gaze and unhurried, noble movements. He examined my films for a long time, asked me something, and then said:

“You should not sell these movies. They must be posted online for public access.”

“Okay,” I replied after a pause, barely suppressing my indignation. “I agree. But in this case, you, father, or YouTube, will personally support my family of six! Do you agree?! If so, I don’t mind.”

The space in front of my table instantly became empty…

Zealots

There is a group of “Orthodox Romantics” among my regular “customers”. They have many names: “zealots of faith”, “fighters for the purity of Orthodoxy”, etc. I used to be one of them, though after a trip to Mt. Athos I shifted from the edge closer to the center. After five or six “turns” beside me, one of them would always start talking about the end times.

Over the years spent at Orthodox exhibitions I have learned to distinguish them almost unmistakably in a crowd of visitors. Do you know what gives them away? A restless soul, restlessness of the spirit. There is always a certain overstrain in their eyes, sometimes even a tear. They are in the position of “defenders of the besieged fortress” around the clock! Whenever I come to a new city for an exhibition, I expect an inevitable meeting with them and identify them in the stream of people by these signs.

It was the same in Diveyevo. But there are far more of them here. The main reason is the special sacred nature of this place. According to St. Seraphim’s prophecies, the space inside the Holy Canal will be the only place on Earth that the antichrist will not be able to enter. This is all described in detail in Orthodox literature. So, many believers are gathering in this spiritual island in advance.

It was unpleasant for the radicals surrounding my counter to hear my stories about the stance of the Athonite elders, about the examples of moderation and wisdom they show in relation to globalization, and about the spirit of economy. It wasn’t something they had expected to hear from me.

A grateful viewer

And this episode is inspiring and joyful! It still enlivens me.

I was standing under the fence as usual. It was noon, it was hot, the customers were all gone, and I was bored. Suddenly, I saw a young guy riding a bicycle. He was in his work clothes, and it was clear that he worked at the convent as an employee. He saw my CDs, slowed down and, putting one foot on the ground, started scrutinizing the covers…

All of a sudden he almost jumped:

“Oh, are you the author?”

He left his bike and rushed to hug me. I wondered why he was so happy.

He is originally from Irkutsk. He graduated from the local polytechnic institute—a very complicated department related to all types of welding, even in outer space and underwater. And in Diveyevo he was building a welded fence around the perimeter of the convent.

He happened to watch one of my films in Irkutsk, and it impressed him so much—Orthodoxy, the Church, the purity of soul—that he began to attend church. The reaction of the world was not long in coming: He immediately lost half of his friends. But he continued to go to Church, began participating in the sacraments, heeding the words of sermons, and as a result he gave up drinking, smoking, and hanging out with his fellows. The world answered him again: the other half of his friends turned away from him.

His parents were seriously worried: “What’s wrong with the guy? He no longer hangs out with his buddies and goes to church instead. Maybe he needs treatment?”

He ran away from home just when his parents called an ambulance. He hastily took what he had and went on a pilgrimage to various monasteries. He traveled around Russia, from St. Petersburg to the south, and finally he came to St. Seraphim.

They assigned him an obedience, gave him accommodations and paid him. His parents were angry with him for a long time. But recently his father came to visit him. They seem to have resigned themselves to this.

May God bless him!

Fr. Nikolai

​Diveyevo, 2012. With Fr. Nikolai from Kiev     

A priest appeared at the beginning of the alley. Of medium height, he walked slowly, carefully examining the contents of the stalls, now talking with people at pop-up stalls, now blessing someone. At last, he approached me.

Participation in crowded exhibitions had weaned me off rushing to unknown priests for a blessing. And I didn’t do it this time. The priest began to look at my films silently, but suddenly he raised his head, looked closely and said joyfully:

“Oh, are you the author?”

It turned out that he had watched almost all of my films at home.

I found him to be an extremely open and friendly man. His name was Fr. Nikolai. At the time he served in a small village on the edge of the Kiev region. His church was large and ancient, but the parish consisted of only two or three local old ladies.

The priest loved St. Seraphim of Sarov so much that he travelled to Diveyevo for his feast every year. So it was now.

The sun was beating down mercilessly, the pilgrims had hidden somewhere, so no one interrupted us…

“Do you want me to tell you, Sergei, how my wife and I first met?”

He was a locomotive engineer by profession and had studied at the Odessa College of Railway Transport. It was there that he met his future wife, also a student. Their favorite place for walking was the spacious Alexeyevsky Public Garden, situated very close to the college. There was a small square with cozy benches in the middle of this shady garden. One of them was their favorite—they sat on it most often.

After graduating from the college, the young couple was sent on assignment to that very railway station in the Kiev region. As the years flew by, the Lord brought them both to His Church, and one day they returned to Odessa. They wanted to see their favorite places, and their feet themselves brought them to the Alexeyevsky Public Garden. But what did they see there?

They had not known that until the 1930s a beautiful ancient church of St. Alexis, the Man of God, used to tower over the site of an empty lot in the center of the public garden. The Bolsheviks demolished it and leveled the place, turning it into an ordinary public garden. And now Fr. Nikolai and his wife saw that through the efforts of the faithful, the church had been restored to its former glory, on its old foundation.

But the most exciting and joyful thing for their hearts was that the place where their favorite bench used to stand was now… inside the church’s altar!

It was as if the Lord was telling them:

“Children, I blessed your wonderful marriage from the very first day.”

Taking up the spirit of the recently inaugurated Holy Year 2025, the Cuban government has announced the release of 553 people currently serving prison sentences.

Cuba said it would gradually release the prisoners “in the spirit of the Ordinary Jubilee of the year 2025 declared by His Holiness” following a “thorough analysis” of the legal and humanitarian avenues to enact their release, Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced in a statement Jan. 14.

The statement did not specify who would be among the 553 prisoners designated to be released.

That same day, the White House announced that it will no longer designate Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism and that it would eliminate some restrictions on Cuba.

The White House said the actions were steps “to support the Cuban people as part of an understanding with the Catholic Church under the leadership of Pope Francis and improve the livelihoods of Cubans.”

“We take these steps in appreciation of the Catholic Church’s efforts to facilitate Cuba to take its own, constructive measures to restore liberty to its citizens and enable conditions that improve the livelihood of Cubans,” the White House statement said.

Following the announcement, Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley, retired archbishop of Boston, said that for the last several years he had carried messages from Pope Francis to the presidents of the United States and Cuba “seeking the release of prisoners in Cuba and improved relationships between the two countries for the good of the Cuban people.”

In the spirit of the Jubilee, which invites all people to foster forgiveness, reconciliation and various expressions of compassion, “I commend and welcome the decisions of the government of the United States and the government of Cuba to take steps that for years have seemed impossible,” the cardinal said Jan. 14 in a blog post.

The statement from Cuba’s foreign ministry made no mention of the United States’ measures, but noted discussions between Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, the Cuban foreign minister and Pope Francis on international issues “with emphasis on the unjust nature and nefarious effect of the U.S.-Cuba policy.”

“His Holiness has given unequivocal proofs of his empathy and love for the Cuban people,” it added.

In his bull of indiction formally proclaiming the Holy Year 2025, Pope Francis called on governments to implement “forms of amnesty or pardon” as well as “programs of reintegration” for prisoners. After inaugurating the Holy Year 2025 at the Vatican, the pope opened a Holy Door at Rome’s Rebibbia prison Dec. 26 as a symbol of hope for all incarcerated people.

The last major event of the Holy Year will be the “Jubilee of Prisoners” scheduled to take place in December 2025, during which prisoners will make a pilgrimage to St. Peter’s Basilica and celebrate Mass with the pope.

The excitement in the air was palpable as more than 17,000 Catholics descended on the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City Jan. 1-5 for SEEK25.

This year’s SEEK conference, organized annually by the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS), also had a satellite conference attended by more than 3,000 people in Washington Jan. 2-5, and another in Cologne, Germany, attended by nearly 500 people from Dec. 31 to Jan. 2. This was the first year SEEK was held in three separate locations — and the first in Europe.

“The adventure of seeking is no stranger to Utah,” said Bishop Oscar A. Solis of the Diocese of Salt Lake City. He presided at the conference’s opening Mass where he was joined by 489 concelebrating priests from across the U.S. In his homily for SEEK25’s opening Mass, Bishop Solis highlighted the historical significance of seekers in Utah, from Indigenous peoples to early Catholic explorers and pioneers as he welcomed participants to the conference.

Over the course of SEEK, participants had the opportunity to join daily liturgies, engage in Eucharistic adoration and receive the sacrament of reconciliation. They also heard profound messages from inspiring keynote speakers, such as that shared by Father Mike Schmitz of The Bible in a Year and The Catechism in a Year podcasts.

God’s children need him no matter how often they, in their words and actions, ask him to leave them alone, said Father Schmitz. The podcasting priest was the keynote speaker on Jan. 2 for the Salt Lake City SEEK25 conference. Through original sin, he said, all mankind inherits a brokenness which can only be overcome by Jesus Christ.

“Sin is when I say, ‘Listen God, I know what you want. I don’t care, I want what I want,’” Father Schmitz said. When people sin, he explained, they attempt to find happiness without God — but true happiness can only be found in him.

Conference participants were also instructed and inspired in their faith. The Making Missionary Disciples track had presenters ranging from Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, to Trent Horn. Bishop Cozzens is board chairman of the National Eucharistic Congress Inc., while Horn is a convert to the faith and works for Catholic Answers as a staff apologist.

Collectively, the presenters explored SEEK25’s theme “Follow Me” in 42 impact sessions.

Among the topics addressed in the sessions were gender identity, sexual brokenness and social narcissism, drug use and the rise of artificial intelligence. Other sessions focused on relationships: healing them when they are broken, accompaniment and the sanctity of life and of marriage. Still other sessions provided tools lay leaders could utilize in their home parishes with sessions on presenting the Gospel, teaching individuals to pray, building missionary disciples, leadership and the priesthood.

Presenters also outlined what the Church has to offer today; how the Savior heals; loving your neighbor; the pure love of Jesus Christ; along with what the examples of the saints, the Virgin Mary, and the life of Christ can teach the faithful.

Campus ministry and seminarian tracks were also offered.

In the conference’s Mission Way hundreds of vendors connected students to religious orders, educational and service opportunities and other Catholic organizations.

Mallory Griffin, a freshman from Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana, came to SEEK for the first time. Griffin said she has seen the church ministries on her campus flourish and wanted to be part of the greater SEEK experience.

“With having things like SEEK and having different campus ministries on college campuses, I think that’s definitely bringing a lot more young people” to the Catholic Church, she said.

For Utah Catholics, being among so many faithful was awe-inspiring.

“Our church — it’s much bigger than we could imagine,” Rigo Tellez, a Weber State University student from Logan, Utah, said. “I think a lot of us fall into this trap (of thinking) it’s just like the small little thing we do on Sundays, and that’s just all we do — but there’s just so much more richness to it.”

Throughout the conference, along with the formal programming, participants met on an ad hoc basis, prayed and studied Scripture together. For some, these were life-changing experiences.

Father Steve Mateja, a priest of the Detroit Archdiocese, brought a group of about 40 Oakland University students and campus ministry staff to SEEK25. Among his group were non-Catholics: four Protestants and two self-proclaimed atheists, he said.

“One kid just turns to me yesterday in small group and he says to me, ‘I want to become Catholic. Can I be baptized?’” Fr. Mateja said. “That’s the reason why we’re doing this. It’s to bring kids to Jesus Christ, to help them know the encounter that will be life-giving for not just a day, not just at a conference, but to take with them beyond this, in that relationship with Christ.”

FOCUS was founded in 1998 to promote encounters like these, founder Curtis Martin said at a SEEK25 press conference.

“My experience is that the vast majority of Catholics never get a chance to share their faith, never be able to talk about why Christ is important,” he said.

Martin referenced his experience with SEEK in Cologne. “There were people from many Western European countries, and it’s a dark and challenging place there,” he said. “And I will tell you: When you’re in a dark cave, and you just light one candle, it is a game changer.”

He noted the evangelizing impact that millions of college-age young people can have today, especially on the handful of people close enough to them to notice and follow their choices.

“That’s called discipleship: I’m following you as you follow Christ,” Martin said.

As SEEK25 concluded its Jan. 2-5 conference in Washington, Archbishop Nelson J. Perez of Philadelphia spoke at the closing Mass about how the feast of the Epiphany — observed Jan. 5 in the U.S. this year — shows “the source of our hope” in Christ at the start of the church’s Jubilee Year of hope.

“What does hope look like?” the archbishop asked the several thousand attendees gathered.

He recalled that during his time serving as bishop of the Cleveland Diocese he spoke to a group of Cleveland Clinic doctors. One asked him, “With everything going on in the world — and, frankly, in the church — do you have reason to hope?”

“I said to him, ‘Doctor, I gave my life to a faith that believes that a dead man came back to life,’” he said. “That would be a yes.”

He emphasized to the young people gathered that “at the heart of what it means to be a Christian disciple” is believing that Jesus died and rose from the dead. And “because he did, we also will too, and there lies our hope.”

Archbishop Perez added that despite the beautiful Christmas manger scenes so often depicted on holy cards and living nativities, Mary and Joseph in reality experienced a lot of trouble and turmoil as they carried out God’s will amid dangers like King Herod’s slaughter of the innocents.

“In the midst of that is the Emmanuel, ‘God is with us,’ reminding us to not let our hearts be troubled; to have faith in him,” he said.

The archbishop noted that in the Gospel account of the visit of the magi, it says that they “went back by another way” after their encounter with the Christ child.

“We might go back to the place we came from, but I know that grace has touched you; and you and I will also go back by another way,” he said, with “a changed heart.”

Archbishop Perez offered a parting thought to the young adults returning to their colleges following the conference.

“Never, never, never underestimate the power of the spirit of God working in you, through you and despite you,” he said.

The Mass concluded FOCUS’ first ever satellite event in Washington, which sold out and took place with some virtual connection to the main SEEK conference in Salt Lake City.

FOCUS also announced that SEEK26 will take place at three U.S. venues — Columbus, Ohio; Denver and Fort Worth, Texas — Jan. 1-5, 2026.

Bishop Earl K. Fernandez from the Diocese of Columbus said at a press conference Jan. 3 that he was excited his diocese would host SEEK next year.

“As a diocese, I don’t think we can be reactive; we have to be proactive,” he said. “And I see SEEK bringing a lot of energy, spiritual energy to our diocese, elevating our whole diocese.”

Photo: monastery.ru   

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

Celebrating the forefeast of the Nativity of Christ today, the holy Church gives us images of righteous men of the Old Testament who awaited Christ the Savior all their lives and bequeathed this expectation to their children and grandchildren, who maintained their faith and hope to the end. It compels us to join them so we might be able to greet with awe the coming great feast, which is given to us not as a memory, but as a co-presence and experience—entering the cave and worshiping with the shepherds and magi. And today, we must not only recall the Old Testament Fathers, but also take from them what is most appropriate for our times.

We have sung today: “Great are the achievements of faith, for the Three Holy Youths rejoiced in the fountain of flame, as if by restful waters, and the Prophet Daniel appeared as a shepherd of lions as of sheep. By their prayers, O Christ God, save our souls” (Troparion of the Holy Fathers). The holy Church remembers them now because they’re closer in time to the coming of Christ the Savior than those Forefathers whom we glorified a week ago, and also because they show us a vivid prefiguration of the coming of Christ the Savior. But not only them, but all of Old Testament mankind had great righteous men among them, although they were in darkness.

We no longer see through a glass darkly, but He Who was to come and suffer for the deliverance of many has already appeared—our faith is completely different. If we’re told now that we must be long-suffering, then our main example is the Lord. Thus the Apostle, calling the faithful to patience, points them to the Author and Finisher of our faith; Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds (Heb. 12:2–3). He left us an example, but the Old Testament man had but one word, one promise: “The Seed of the woman shall crush the head of the serpent” (cf. Gen. 3:15).

Old Testament man was resettled from Paradise to earth, to be “raised up honorably” here and ascend again to the world above.

Adam waited 900 years. He named his first son, “Acquired.”¹ He not only had this faith and long-suffering, but also bequeathed it to everyone around him when he was dying. We know how Noah, with great patience, fulfilled the Lord’s commandment, to general ridicule. We know that Eber also endured ridicule, as the only one who didn’t go to build the Tower of Babel, trying to stop those who wanted to commit this lawlessness. We also know of Job’s patience.

Why should we be patient? According to the Apostle Paul, we need patience in order to gain experience. We know this well from our regular work. If we learn something with patience, then we’ll do good work, whereas the work of an impatient man is fruitless. Patience breeds experience, and that is why the Church, on behalf of all these great righteous men, commands us to patiently preserve our hope.

If patience is of such great importance, then what is it? How can we acquire it?

“Patience,” says St. John Climacus, “is submitting oneself to the expectation of daily sorrow” (Ladder of Divine Ascent 27:70).

This is exactly how it was for Old Testament mankind. The Lord told them that they would earn their bread by the sweat of their brow. But wasn’t it also said to us: In the world ye shall have tribulation (Jn. 16:33)?

In our time, when we, the faithful, are despised, insulted, and humiliated, awaiting the Nativity of Christ and standing now before the great Fathers of the Old Testament, we must understand that it cannot be otherwise, that we must accustom ourselves to patience and await these sorrows.

Who among us can be called patient?

“It is not when we courageously endure the derision of our father that we are judged patient, but when we endure it from all manner of men” (Ladder of Divine Ascent 4:84).

And so it was for all of them. Moses showed such patience when those whom he delivered from Egyptian slavery by the will of God rebuked him: “Why did you lead us out of Egypt?” Such patience was also shown by David, who not only didn’t become angry at Shimei, but even forbade those who wanted to take vengeance on the offender, saying: What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah? so let him curse, because the LORD hath said unto him, Curse David. Who shall then say, Wherefore hast thou done so? (2 Kg./Sam. 16:10). It’s a great thing to be patient in the face of abuse.

“I once saw three monks,” says St. John Climacus, “receive the same injury at the same time. One felt the sting of this and was troubled, but kept silent; the second rejoiced at his injury for the reward it would bring him, but was sorry for the wrongdoer; and the third, thinking of the harm his erring neighbour was suffering, wept fervently” (Ladder of Divine Ascent 8:27).

We, who have yet to reach the state of this first brother who was offended and kept silent, can’t even imagine the work of the second and the third. But we have to do at least the first work, because when we’re silent, we’ve already done half the work, thereby expressing humility. The second brother who rejoiced for himself and grieved for the one who rebuked him couldn’t yet pray for his enemy, but the third was like the Lord Himself, Who forgave His tormentors from the Cross and prayed for them: Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do (Lk. 23:34).

In our time, when true teaching is spat upon, when it’s considered practically an obligation to offend and humiliate the servants of Christ, when every one of us believers is considered to be “darkening the national consciousness and believing in nonsense,” and when we now stand on the threshold of this greatest feast, we must greet Christ the Savior with patience, as the Church commands. Today we have before us these images of the righteous of the Old Testament, who had only one testimony, and that received not by themselves, but by the first man. After Christ, the Author and Finisher of our faith, came to earth and suffered reproach for us, are we not in need of the same labor of patience as our fathers were? They, like our ancestors, are responsible for us; they give us examples of faith and patience, and we must follow them.

And we needn’t weep about being offended this way. After all, they offended Christ the Savior Himself. We should feel sorry that there are people who could be members of the holy Church but who are in darkness; we have to pray for them and shed fervent tears. It’s much easier for us to have patience than in the Old Testament, only we don’t go that way. We have faith and even the desire to confess it, but not patience. But the Old Testament righteous give us an image of patience. If the coming feast is a joy for many of us, then remember the Old Testament Fathers, who walked the path of patience and acquired faith and spiritual experience along the way.

Awaiting the birth of the Lord, we should rejoice even when He sends us great trials. And today when we glorify the Old Testament righteous, we have to remember that our Redeemer is being born and that He will open the doors of Paradise to us.

Amen.

While humanity continues to debate its uses, merits, dangers, opportunities, and ethics, the development and use of artificial intelligence (AI) continues apace, making it difficult for anyone to guess just how it might shape the world in 2025. Some of the biggest AI systems, including those created by OpenAI, are already said to be close to achieving artificial general intelligence, or AGI — essentially, they’re almost as smart as humans, and their creators are far from done.

The Catholic Church has been no passive observer of the AI revolution; it’s actively shaping its development. By combining cutting-edge technology with the wisdom of the Church, Catholics are working to try to ensure that AI serves humanity and promotes the common good. Most notably, Pope Francis himself has spoken frequently about the importance of developing and using AI in an ethical manner.

So how might Catholics use and shape AI in the coming year, and can we predict where “Catholic AI” might go next?

CNA spoke with several leading Catholic experts on artificial intelligence to see where the technology might be headed in 2025: Father Michael Baggot, LC, a bioethics professor at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum in Rome; Father Philip Larrey, a professor of philosophy at Boston College who previously served as dean of the philosophy department at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome; and Matthew Harvey Sanders, an entrepreneur and founder of Longbeard, a company that is developing several high-profile AI tools for Catholic applications.

The end of the world as we know it?

It’s the elephant in the room, so we may as well address it first: Will AI take a sinister turn — insert nightmarish sci-fi movie plot here — and destroy us all in 2025?

The question may sound glib, but it’s not as far-fetched a scenario as you may think — at least according to computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton, often described as the “godfather” of AI, who recently prompted frantic headlines the world over when he opined that there is a “10% to 20%” chance that AI will lead to human extinction within the next 30 years.

For his part, Larrey said he has thought a lot about this possibility of AI human extinction and said he is inclined to take Hinton’s assessment seriously. And in fact, Larrey signed on to an open letter in 2023, joining various experts and pioneers in AI in calling for a six-month moratorium on the development of more powerful AI systems than those already released at the time.

How could this extinction come about? Well, Larrey said, what if an AI with malicious intent gets ahold of nuclear codes? Or decides it wants to trick unsuspecting humans into synthesizing and releasing a deadly virus? Or, even without malicious intent, what if an AI sets a doomsday scenario in motion by accident, or as a result of a hack by bad human actors?

For Larrey, who has spoken and thought a lot about how to ensure AI are imbued with ethics, he said a phrase uttered by Elon Musk years ago rings true to him: “We have to make sure AIs consider us an interesting part of the universe.”

And a hopefully effective way to do that, Larrey said, is for human beings to treat one another with greater respect and reverence so the AI can observe that behavior and learn from it.

Human behavior is one of the strongest arguments AI can come up with when considering how it should treat humans, he continued, and if humans do not treat one another with respect and dignity, AIs may not see them as deserving of special consideration.

In addition, Larrey said he believes that absent a moratorium on further AI development — which looks unlikely at this point to happen — Catholics should continue to promote dialogue between ethicists and AI developers. Larrey said he has spoken frequently with Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI and a leader in the space, to encourage him to prioritize human flourishing in his company’s further development of AI.

“Right now, we don’t have a universal code of ethics or anything about AI. I think that the Catholic Church can provide guidance until we get one. I think that’s what we’re trying to do now,” Larrey said.

“If we get this wrong, it’ll be too late to correct it. The damage will already have been done.”

Catholic knowledge and teachings for all

So what about some of the positive opportunities that AI presents for the Church?

One application for AI that has been growing in leaps and bounds — and is certain to make even more leaps in 2025 — is the ability of AI to draw on and distribute Catholic teachings and knowledge in previously unimaginable ways.

The world has already been graced with tools like CatéGPT, a chatbot designed to provide accurate and thorough answers to questions about Catholic teaching by drawing on authoritative documents. Users have also found success with secular AI tools such as Google’s NotebookLM, which has the ability to generate realistic-sounding podcasts after being fed source material by users and can be used to distill and explain lengthy Catholic documents, such as the final document of the Synod on Synodality.

But Longbeard, the company spearheaded by Sanders, is poised to make an even bigger breakthrough in this space in 2025. It already offers Magisterium AI, a generative AI product focused on making Church teaching and Catholic insight more accessible by ensuring generated responses are grounded in Catholic sources. And Vulgate AI, a powerful library platform and another Longbeard product, is already enabling the digitization and preservation of library holdings at Catholic universities, making these resources useful and accessible to a global audience.

But Sanders told CNA his company has its sights set even higher for 2025.

Sanders’ team is developing Ephrem, the world’s first Catholic language model, which will be trained on the entire corpus of “Catholic knowledge” — a task easier said than done, since a good chunk of the world’s Catholic knowledge is in book form and safely stored away in libraries or at the Vatican.

Sanders told CNA that by March, the company hopes to have a state-of-the-art robotic system up and running in Rome called the Alexandria Digitization Hub, which will set about scanning thousands of ancient Catholic books and texts, many of which have never even been translated before, let alone digitized.

Once it has digital copies of every piece of “Catholic knowledge” ever produced, it will complete Ephrem’s “training” on it and use it to power Longbeard’s AI tools.

The advantage here, Sanders said, is that the AI will have a truly Catholic foundation for its operation rather than relying on secular AI foundations such as ChatGPT, which are trained on diverse datasets with potentially conflicting values and thus have ingested lots of non-Catholic information, meaning they sometimes display dubious answers when it comes to Catholic topics.

Longbeard will make Ephrem available for Catholics to use — to create apps, products, and other tools — through its API (application programming interface), Sanders said, meaning vast quantities of Catholic teaching documents and books — 80,000 so far, with lots more to come — will be accessible to anyone with an internet connection and available for Catholics to use in creative new ways.

“Any kind of Catholic ministry or organization which is looking to leverage AI, but they want to make sure the AI is faithful, they’ll be able to actually build on top of us,” he explained.

AI agents: Assisting priests, Catholic educators, and more

A much-hyped application for AI in the secular world is the arrival of AI agents — applications that can be called upon by users to perform tasks such as ordering food, booking travel, and more.

Sanders said the company hopes that in the new year, Catholics will be able to use the platforms of Magisterium and Vulgate to create useful AI agents that can perform tasks to serve the Church.

A prayer app could create an AI agent that users could use to look up information on a saint mentioned in a prayer session, for example. Or, a teacher could use it to create a personalized lesson or tutoring plan for a student, making the agent an “active partner in the process of doing theology.”

“What we’re trying to do is provide Catholics like teachers and priests access to AI-powered tools, basically to help them accelerate the work that they’re doing, whether it be preparing a homily or preparing a lesson for students and so on,” Sanders said.

Of course, there’s only so much that a nonhuman can do when it comes to assisting Catholics, especially clergy — naturally, AIs will never be able to hear confessions, for example, or celebrate Mass or any other Catholic sacrament.

But people bullish on AI have differing ideas of just how involved AIs can or should be in the Church’s sacramental life. Notably, an AI-powered art exhibit in Switzerland caused a stir in November when numerous news reports trumpeted that a new artificially intelligent “Jesus” had begun taking people’s confessions.

Despite being placed in the confessional booth, it later became clear the AI installation was intended for conversations, not confessions (which can only be performed by a priest or bishop, and never in a virtual setting.) A theologian at the Swiss parish commented, however, that he believes AI can help with the “pastoral” side of Catholic life.

For his part, Sanders said his company’s work is about “enhancing human human capabilities” in order to help the Church, including priests, and is not intended to replace anyone.

“Those of us who understand the sacramental nature of the Church know that it’s a very much an embodied experience. You need to physically be there. And so there is no realm of possibility in which an AI is going to be able to be part of the sacramental economy. It’s just not going to happen.”

AIs are(n’t) people, too

To go along with the caveat of not letting AIs too far into the Catholic sacramental setting, another point that all three experts emphasized was the importance of not anthropomorphizing AI — in other words, treating it like the tool it is and not as a replacement for true human interaction.

Sadly, numerous reports of people latching too strongly onto humanlike AIs grabbed headlines in 2024, most infamously the story of a 14-year-old from Florida who developed an unhealthy attachment to his chatbot “girlfriend” and later killed himself.

Baggot emphasized that AIs, while being “tremendous tools that can be put at the service of human dignity and human flourishing,” there is cause for concern about the spread of “ever more humanlike AI companions” that lonely people are increasingly turning to.

“AI and other technology should also be an aid and support to our most important relationships with God and neighbor. Such technologies should never seek to replace or detract from these key relationships for human flourishing,” Baggot told CNA.

“Unfortunately, various chatbot companions that claim to be friends or even lovers often blur this important distinction. They may be made with the good intentions of relieving loneliness, but they often distract from authentic interpersonal contact. They can also exploit human vulnerabilities and manipulate humans in unhealthy ways.”

While some recognition of humanlike qualities in machines is natural, Baggot noted it is vital to remember that unlike machines, humans not only have free will but also a unique capacity for insight into meaning and abstract thought.

“We miss out on precious opportunities to encounter God’s love through an empathic human encounter when we have false expectations for our AI tools,” Baggot said.

“AI systems cannot understand and share our emotions because they are not sentient human inventions. They may sometimes appear human and mimic human emotions but lack an inner conscious life. AI systems can provide helpful information about sins and virtues, but it does not know what it is like to struggle through temptation and find liberation through grace.”

Larrey echoed Baggot by saying it is important to remember and to emphasize that AI systems, despite their impressive capabilities, do not understand meaning and are merely manipulating symbols. They can be used to accomplish certain tasks to great effect, but one must be cautious not to think of them as truly human — AIs are not capable of original thought but rather operate by recognizing patterns in their training data and applying them to new scenarios. In addition, he reiterated that while an AI can mimic emotions, it does not actually experience them.

ChatGPT, for example, “simulates understanding, and it’s getting better and better at this, but that doesn’t mean the same thing as understanding,” Larrey said.

Nuclear energy, medical breakthroughs

The training and use of AI requires significantly more computational power — and thus more electricity — than conventional computing, a problem that is already vexing those concerned about the potential environmental impacts.

The revival of nuclear power plants specifically to power AI made headlines in 2024 as companies like Microsoft and Amazon made moves to get nuclear plants online to power their latest power-hungry AI projects, with more such nuclear projects expected in 2025 and beyond.

For his part, Sanders said that because the development of AI has the possibility to solve many societal problems, he believes that the development of AI should continue, and therefore a large source of energy is required. Nuclear energy for AI is likely a good solution, he said, as it is “the safest way to achieve energy abundance at scale.”

Another interesting application for AI that is relevant to the Church is in the field of health care. Baggot said he sees significant potential for AI to improve health care, particularly in making it more predictive, preventative, and personalized — for example, AI systems can analyze medical images such as X-rays, MRIs, and ultrasounds more quickly and accurately, and AI-powered sensors could detect medical problems or worrying mental health indicators in users.

He emphasized, though, that AI should be a tool used to enhance the human element of health care, not replace it; he spoke of the importance of the doctor-patient relationship and the need for human empathy, which AI cannot provide.

“These digital interactions should always direct the user toward interpersonal encounters,” Baggot said.

    

I’d like to start this discussion about the The Nativity of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ

“>Nativity with a life-affirming phrase: “God exists.” God didn’t just exist sometime and somewhere in the distant past. He exists. The Lord didn’t stay back in the tenth century, in the time of Venerable Simeon the New TheologianSaint Simeon the New Theologian was born in the year 949 in the city of Galatea (Paphlagonia), and he was educated at Constantinople. His father prepared him for a career at court, and for a certain while the youth occupied a high position at the imperial court.”>St. Symeon the New Theologian, who heard from his fellow countrymen: “Symeon, you speak too highly. Perhaps you’re unwell…” In the fourteenth century, St. Gregory Palamas disputed with a learned theologian that God isn’t an abstract concept, but a Personal Being with Whom we can speak and build our relationship. Then this learned theologian started a whole war against the Athonite monks, but the truth still prevailed.

I want to repeat: “God exists.” He didn’t just remain in the times of Batiushka Seraphim of Sarov who said that “God’s grace and help for the faithful and those who seek the Lord with all their hearts is the same now as it was before, for, according to the word of God, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” It is we who lack determination; we’ve become very timid and we think too much.

Christ came to the Apostles at Lake Gennesaret and told them to leave all their possessions and follow Him. In those days, a boat and nets weren’t a luxury, but survival tools (if you catch something, it means your family will eat today). But the Apostles had the determination to arise and follow Christ. After that, they were given great grace. The more a man is willing to sacrifice, the more he receives from God.

    

In the Old Testament, the relationship between God and men was built as with someone right there in front of you. Abram was ninety years old and nine, and the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before Me, and be thou perfect (Gen. 17:1). This walking before God stimulates mystical fear and awe in a man and forces him to live piously, fulfilling the commandments of God. But this isn’t a perfect state.

Remember yourself from confession to confession. What causes us to come to this Sacrament time and again? Fear and conscience—fear that our entire life could go down the drain; and conscience is that little worm that sharpens the heart and gives it no rest. But we depart from the analogion and do the same thing again. We sincerely confess, we weep, and we say: “Lord, I really won’t do it anymore.” And once again we lie to ourselves, to the priest, and to God. There is sincerity in our words, but no power—that mystical power that can overcome our “I can’t.” Desire alone isn’t enough. We need a supernatural power that will inspire and become our inner core. And it’s not our own strength, not our will, our sincerity, our obstinacy—none of this is enough. To all our human efforts, we must add a great mystical power from God’s side—the grace of the Holy Spirit.

That’s why in the Old Testament, although men knew the moral law and God’s law and tried to “walk before God,” this didn’t fundamentally change anything in mankind. Then suddenly, Jesus Christ, the Son of God comes…

    

The Nativity of Christ is a great miracle that every one of us needs to comprehend and understand deeply. We’re used to taking Christmas as just a holiday, reducing it to some external attributes—a Christmas tree, a feast, gifts. But the Nativity isn’t just a sentimental event with a set of cliches about a Baby, a star, and sheep with shepherds. The Nativity is a great event.

What happened on Christmas night? God, the Creator of the universe, goes beyond His perfection into the limitation of human flesh. He—boundless, limited by nothing—descends from Heaven and becomes an Infant for each of us, for you personally, to become close to you and even more—to become part of you.

The Apostle Paul says: It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me (Gal. 2:20). This is the state when the Lord becomes our mind, heart, and will. After all, only by His supernatural power can we change something inside ourselves, can we fix that wormhole of the Fall, which mankind couldn’t fix before the coming of Christ.

This is the main principle of Christianity: Christ didn’t bring us a teaching—Christ brought Himself to every one of us. This is what happens when we commune at Liturgy: The Lord enters into the form of bread and wine and allows us to unite with Him.

    

When you experience the Nativity like this, along with the joy of the feast comes the tears of tenderness and gratitude to God—the God Who loves you very much. He loves you so much that He’s ready to follow you not only to earth, but even to hell, which He did thirty-three years after His Incarnation.

This is why the feast of the Nativity is both joyful and bright, but also a little sorrowful—you feel your unworthiness before His love, your insignificance before His majesty and holiness. And on such a day, you want to shake off this dirt at least with a word, and you come to Confession to say: “Lord, forgive and accept me, I’m going to try. You’ve given me another year of life; perhaps now at least I’ll pull myself together and begin to change.”

I wish everyone to experience spiritual joy on this day, which is immeasurably more than just a holiday with a feast and the breaking of the fast.