Tag: Christianity

Like many people, Ed Morales will be busy this holiday season merging his duties as husband, father, and partner at his law firm with the volunteering he does every year around Christmas.

Unlike many people, Morales’ volunteering will be taken up running a little hometown operation called The Tournament of Roses, the one responsible for the iconic parade viewed by more than 700,000 in person and watched by another 50 million Americans on television and broadcast to more than 170 countries.

A parishioner at St. Phillip the Apostle Church in Pasadena, Morales is president and chairman of the board for the 2025 Pasadena Tournament of Roses, which includes the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl Game, meaning his 2024 has been taken up with myriad tasks, travel, meetings, and obligations that come with the position since, as he points out, “this is not a figurehead position. You’re working side by side with all of the staff, board members, and volunteers.”

Of course, if any of this is wearing on him, it certainly doesn’t come across during an interview. Though the season is entering its stretch run, the “sprint” portion, as Morales calls it, he’s as cheery, as centered, as — dare it be said — relaxed as anyone responsible for putting on an iconic global event could possibly be.

Ask him how he can be so cool and he’ll tell you of the immense trust, respect, and admiration he has for the volunteers who are the backbone of the organization — of course, he’s been one for decades. Others will tell you that it’s just Ed being Ed.

“Ed’s busy, but never too busy,” said Eric Winschel, a friend and colleague who served on the Pasadena Jaycees with Morales. “He’ll always find time to talk. I can’t tell you how much fun and silly things we’ve done during our time volunteering. I guess that’s because, at his essence, Ed is a really good man. And he’s very good at getting things done.”

Born in East LA, his family belonged to the San Gabriel Mission Church, where he attended school. The mission, he said, formed “the center of our lives” and it was there that he learned, mostly by watching his mother, Anna, who was part of a woman’s group that made lunches for kids as well as ran the parish bingo game, that giving back was not something you do for your community but rather something that went with being part of a community.

As an adult, he applied that to organizations that provided community and family services, serving on the foundation board of the California School of the Arts and at St. Phillip the Apostle, where he also served as board president. He was a member of the Pasadena Optimist Club and the Pasadena Jaycees, an organization he eventually served as president.

“I can’t really say where this all started since I always have had a passion for volunteering,” he said. “I really do believe it is in giving that you receive. I mean, when you talk about the friendships that have been created, the goodwill, I’ve gotten so much more than I’ve given.”

It’s hard to argue the point given that Morales met his wife, Lisa, while both were volunteering with the Jaycees. Lisa also has a long list of organizations she’s worked with — something instilled in her by her family as well — and the pair function as a team in this regard.

When it came to one of the most important duties handled by each year’s president — the selection of a theme — Morales immediately turned to Lisa. She admitted the task was a bit “daunting” given that each parade’s theme determines everything from float design to the music played by the many marching bands.

Eventually, the pair came up with their choice, and at a ceremony held on Jan. 18 — fittingly, his mother’s birthday, who died in 2020 — Morales announced the theme: Best Day Ever. These were “those unexpected times that bring a smile, warm our hearts, and fill us with joy. From a once-in-a-lifetime experience to the simplest pleasures, each is indelibly etched into our memory.”

“We have so many amazing memories with our kids [Lainey and Jessie],” Lisa said. “When they were young, we’d be doing something and they’d be so in the moment they’d just yell out ‘This is the best day ever!’ And I’d think, ‘I want to be you!’ That’s the feeling we’re referring to, amazing moments like that.”

Morales has been able to participate in a year’s worth of amazing moments since one of the perks of being Rose Tournament president is that you get to travel around the world and tell marching bands that they’ve been accepted to participate in what amounts to the Super Bowl of marching band life.

“It truly is one of the honors of being president,” Morales said. “I’ve been to Japan, Mexico, Denmark, Panama, and you see the joy in their faces when you tell them. You see the love they have for the parade and it reminds you that in a world that can seem so divided, something like the Rose Parade, so universally loved by so many people, can bring us back together.”

One of the bands performing this year will be the joining of three local Catholic high schools — Don Bosco Tech, of which Ed is an alum, Salesian and John Bosco high schools — whose bands on their own were not big enough to participate.

Don Bosco President Guillermo “Memo” Gutierrez said the creation of the band has not only energized the student band members, who get together every Saturday to practice as one, but the entire school. And not just the kids.

“I have to be honest, I think the parents may be even more excited,” Gutierrez said. “It’s been amazing, I had no idea we’d be able to pull this off and not too many people would take that kind of risk. But that’s who Ed is, that’s part of his gifts. He’s just got such a calm and steady demeanor, he’s such a supportive man, such a good man of faith. It’s inspiring to be around him.”

Of course, Morales will tell you just the inverse. That it’s he who is blessed and inspired by those he volunteers with and serves. He’ll tell you about an early morning before a Rose Parade, coming upon a woman at the Tournament House and discovering it was Shirley Temple Black, that year’s grand marshal for the third time, who he then chatted with about the parade. He’ll tell you about the countless people who have approached him during or after a parade to say thank you.

“It’s those little moments, from my very first year of volunteering, that really make it worthwhile,” he said. “You want to tell them there are a lot more people involved in putting this on than you, but I think they know that. They just want to thank someone for keeping this tradition that means so much, shows all of us how much better we are when we are together than divided. It’s really wonderful. I’m just so lucky to be a part of it.”

The Liturgy is a Conversation Between God and ManThe Divine Liturgy is a conversation between man and God: The priest addresses God in his prayers, and God answers through the grace of the Holy Spirit He sends down, and this is how God and man meet.

“>Part 8A

Warrior saints. Fresco from Psača Monastery in North Macedonia. Photo: byzantine-art.com     

After the choir sings the First Antiphon, the deacon reads the litany:

Again and again in peace let us pray to the Lord.

Help us, save us, have mercy on us, and keep us, O God, by Thy grace.

Calling to remembrance our most holy, most pure, most blessed, glorious Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, with all the saints, let us commit ourselves and one another, and all our life unto Christ our God.

We discussed these petitions in previous talks.

While the deacon is proclaiming the litany, the priest is in the altar reading the Prayer of the Second Antiphon:

O Lord our God, save Thy people and bless Thine inheritance, preserve the fullness of Thy Church, sanctify them that love the beauty of Thy house; do Thou glorify Them by Thy Divine power, and forsake not us that hope in Thee.

“O Lord our God, save Thy people and bless those who inherit Thy Kingdom…”

You see, Christ is called the leader of the people. He is the God-Man, and therefore, as our Intercessor before God, He stands at the head of His people and prays for the salvation of Christians (cf. 1 Tim. 2:5). After all, it is we Christians who are now the chosen people of God—certainly not the people of Israel. Israel was the chosen people until the hour of Christ’s Crucifixion.

It’s not because this people was something special in and of itself, but because this people was to give birth to the Most Holy Virgin Mary—the most perfect of women who alone was capable of giving birth to and bringing God into the world. After the The Crucifixion of Christ, Part 1We have reached the lesson on the Crucifixion. I will be talking to you today about the history of the Crucifixion, what it entailed, as well as some of the spiritual insights the Fathers have for us on the Crucifixion.

“>Crucifixion of Christ, the New Israel is the Church of Christ. No matter what nationality we are—Greeks, Turks, Arabs, Russians, Americans—if we’re members of the Church of Christ, then we’re all the people of God and brothers by grace.

The ultimate goal of all of the Church’s prayers is the salvation of man. The Way to SalvationIf all you do is wait for favorable conditions for your salvation to come, you will never begin to lead a life pleasing to God.

“>Salvation is our real need—everything else is secondary. Christ commanded us to seek the Kingdom of God first of all, and promised that everything else would be added unto us (cf. Lk. 12:31).

Preserve the fullness of thy Church.

In other words, protect by Your grace all Christians, who are members of Your Church. By becoming members of the Church, we join the ranks of its army. We’re spiritual warriors and must fight against the opposing forces that try to crush the work of the Church. Just as soldiers fight in lines across the battlefield, so we Christians wage a spiritual battle, each in his own place: some at work, others at home, others at school—anywhere. A warrior of Christ has to repel attacks from his neighbors, from his coworkers, from his wife or from her husband, from his children, from his classmates or teachers. This war is waged in words, in deeds—in various ways. Sometimes those around us don’t have a conscious desire to be hostile towards Christians. Nevertheless, by freely engaging in sin, they show hostility against those who bear the name of Christ and desire to love God. Nowadays, sin is not only freely committed, but also advertised in every way, which is also a war against us. Young people in particular join this battle every day. We labor and make every effort to resist temptation and reject sin, while our neighbor boasts of his sins and success in evil daily. To refuse sin in such a situation is a great feat to which we’re called. Therefore, we pray to the good God to preserve the members of His Church from worshipping the idol of sin that stands before them every hour.

Sanctify them that love the beauty of Thy house…

Let’s focus on this a little bit. As you see, the Church remembers in its prayers all those who love the splendor of the house of God. Today you can find Christians who want churches to be empty inside, without any interior decoration. “What do you need all these chandeliers and candlestands in church for?” they ask.

Undoubtedly, a church remains a house of God even without interior decoration. The Church, as you remember, was born and grew up in caves and catacombs. Moreover, we could get by entirely without stone churches. The divine services could be celebrated in a simple shack or hut. If you go to Africa, you’ll see that many churches there are huts with thatched roofs. There’s nothing wrong with that. However, we ourselves need our churches to be beautiful, for God’s house to be distinguished by a special splendor, for churches to be places that can help man in and of themselves.

As you can see, the Church has its own architecture: Churches are built quite differently from other buildings. The Church has its own music: Here we sing quite differently from how they sing in the world. The Church has its own decoration, its own aroma, its own fragrance. In your homes, you use air fresheners and fragrances, but in the churches, none of these are used—here we have incense, sweet-smelling frankincense. Imagine how it would look if, during the singing of, “Let my prayer arise in Thy sight as incense,” instead of censing with frankincense, the priest used a can of air freshener. Don’t laugh, because I’ve heard that things like this happen abroad, in non-Orthodox churches. I was told that in one church, a priest (non-Orthodox) didn’t want to cense and fill the church with smoke, so he installed some kind of device with sprayers in the church. When the typikon called for censing, he would press a button, the sprayers would start, and the church would fill with the scent of jasmine, lemon, and whatever else.

The Church has, let’s say, its own taste: The faithful taste koliva, Holy BreadOf course I prayed, and asked Great Martyr Barbara, because it was the eve of her commemoration. And the prosphora turned out fine! Sunday, at the Liturgy, Father Superior sees the prosphora and they are normal service prosphora… “Fr. Cyprian, whose prosphora are these?” “Ours, Batiushka.” “What happened to you?” “Batiushka, it’s God’s mercy.”

“>prosphora, Divine Communion. The Church canons, for example, punish, up to the point of defrocking, a priest who doesn’t pour hot water (the warmth) into the holy chalice while celebrating the Liturgy and communes the faithful with cold Holy Gifts (for example, Canon 13 of St. Nicephorus of Constantinople). Why is it so important to pour in hot water? Because a Christian should feel during Communion that he’s partaking of a Living Body and Living Blood, not dead. Also, the priest must strictly monitor how much water he pours into the chalice. There shouldn’t be too much water, so the wine and bread don’t lose their taste. Prosphora is baked in a specific way—you can’t use any other kind of loaf in place of prosphora.

The Church has its own music, its own architecture, its own painting, its own decoration. The Church acquired all this not only through the many centuries of the experience of the saints, but also through God-given revelations. When Moses built the Tabernacle, God Himself showed him what and how to do it. God warned Moses: “Look, do exactly as you saw on the Holy Mountain, as I showed you. Don’t build it otherwise. You must measure so many cubits in length, so many in width. You must make these particular items (cf. Ex 25–27). This is how to prepare incense (cf. Ex. 30:34–36).” And God didn’t allow the Israelites to use incense for other, non-liturgical purposes. Incense is something dedicated exclusively to the house of God.

Why do we try to build churches of God with special splendor? So that everyone who enters the church would understand that this place belongs to God and would feel His presence, pray to God, and receive His blessing. If you sit in church for a few hours, you’ll be shocked by how many people come to find rest, to calm down, to be at peace, to pray. How important it is that people would find the appropriate atmosphere there, so that when they go inside they would understand that this is a special place, with its own beauty, its own warmth. And this is all the work of human hands, inasmuch as churches are built by men. That’s why we pray for the builders of holy churches and all those who love the beauty of the house of God.

There was one saint who, when buying a candle in church, would choose the cleanest, shiniest coin. If the coin was a little dirty, he’d clean it with a handkerchief. Why did he do this? In order to offer the best, the purest to God. Simplicity! But this simplicity shows the nobility of the human soul.

Do Thou glorify Them by Thy Divine power…

To those who glorify You, who offer You sacrifice, who serve You with the works of their hands, give them, my God, the glory of Your Divine power.

And forsake not us that hope in Thee.

Don’t abandon us who place our hope in You. We hope on You and we call upon You.

For Thine is the dominion, and Thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: now and ever, and unto ages of ages.

To be continued…

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Unified School District resolved their yearslong dispute by agreeing to a settlement on Dec. 11 over federal Title I funding.

As part of the settlement, LAUSD will grant the archdiocese several concessions, including:

• $3 million in additional services for Title I-eligible students
• The ability of the archdiocese to meet with LAUSD at least three times per year to ensure transparency and increased communication about how funding is calculated
• Allowing the archdiocese to pool its Title I resources across several schools, rather than individually

“This agreement will bring resolution to a seven-year dispute over student eligibility for Title I services, ensuring maximum participation and reimbursement of services from prior years,” said Paul Escala, senior director and superintendent of schools for the archdiocese. “I appreciate the leadership of LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho and his team whose collaboration demonstrates a commitment to a positive partnership moving forward.”

“I look forward to the ways we can work together in the future and serve the students of Los Angeles,” Carvalho said in a statement.

 The U.S. Department of Education issues Title I funds at the state and local level to support students from low-income families, regardless of whether they attend public or private school. LAUSD is responsible for calculating and administering funding and services for all schools in its territory. The archdiocese’s Department of Catholic Schools uses Title I funding to provide services such as tutoring, academic counseling, parental support, or professional development for teachers.

As part of the new settlement, how services are determined and distributed to the archdiocese’s Catholic schools will be slightly different.

Previously, eligibility was determined partly from the total number of income surveys filled out by parents of individual schools. Going forward, extrapolation will be used with the income surveys to get a more representative count of eligible students. Another modification is that rather than individual Catholic schools using their manpower to gather necessary data and submit paperwork, the archdiocese will be the middleman to send information on their behalf to LAUSD.

The archdiocese will also be able to pool its Title I-funded services to reallocate to smaller schools that may need greater resources.

The biggest difference will be getting increased services to needy students who have suffered due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the lengthy dispute, said Robert Tagorda, chief academic officer for the archdiocese’s Department of Catholic Schools.

“The concentration of the impact is in our poorest communities, precisely where our Church needs to be,” Tagorda said. “And it has been heartbreaking for us to see our immigrant students, our English learner students, our black and brown students, our poor students. They’re the ones who bore the brunt of this. So that’s been really difficult for us and why we are so convicted to advocate on their behalf endlessly, to ensure that the largest school district in this state and the second-largest school district in this country actually does right by these kids.”

The settlement comes after years of complaints, lawsuits, and court rulings, beginning in August 2019 when the archdiocese filed complaints after it said LAUSD had reduced the number of Catholic schools eligible for Title I funding to 17 after more than 100 schools had qualified in previous years.

When the matter wasn’t resolved by June 2021, the archdiocese appealed to the California Department of  Education, which issued a 58-page “investigation report” that ordered LAUSD to rectify its actions in withholding Title I funding. The archdiocese filed a lawsuit in December 2021, alleging LAUSD had not taken corrective action.

The district appealed to the U.S. Department of Education in 2022, which put the lawsuit on hold. When the USDE issued a ruling in November 2023, it confirmed the California Department of Education’s findings that LAUSD withheld federal funds from low-income LA Catholic school students.

In July 2024, a Superior Court judge ordered LAUSD to produce records related to its calculation of Title I federal funding, effectively compelling the district into working toward a settlement.

Schools were expected to notify the Department of Catholic Schools by Dec. 20 whether they were interested in applying for Title I services, Tagorda said. From there, the archdiocese will use the income surveys and services requests by February 2025 before meeting with LAUSD in April to begin the process of determining services for the 2025-26 school year.

“There should be every attempt made to maximize support to the most impoverished students,” Tagorda said. “In the past, the district was not adhering to that, to the spirit of the law. Now, as a consequence of this settlement agreement, we’re making strides toward fulfilling this law.” 

“We Must Be Careful About How We Talk With Others”We must ask God to save us from these temptations that exceed our strength.

“>Part 7A, Wrath Is a VolcanoAn egotist wants everything to go according to his plans, as he drew it up in his mind and imagination. And when something goes a different way, he loses his temper and starts getting angry.”>7B

Photo: pikabu.ru     

In the last talk, we finished parsing the text of the Litany of Peace. While the deacon recites this litany, the priest is in the altar, standing before the holy altar table, reading a prayer in a low voice. Those praying in the church don’t hear it—they only hear the final exclamation. This prayer is called the “Prayer of the First Antiphon.” Let’s read and analyze it:

O Lord our God, Whose dominion is indescribable, and Whose glory is incomprehensible, Whose mercy is infinite, and Whose love for mankind is ineffable: Do thou thyself, O Master, according to Thy tender compassion, look upon us, and upon this holy temple, and deal with us, and them that pray with us, according to Thine abundant mercies and compassions.

The Divine Liturgy is a conversation between man and God: The priest addresses God in his prayers, and God answers through the grace of the Holy Spirit He sends down, and this is how God and man meet.

The prayer begins with the words:

O Lord our God, Whose dominion is indescribable, and Whose glory is incomprehensible, Whose mercy is infinite, and Whose love for mankind is ineffable.

No matter what a man says about God, he can’t describe Him. We call God good, the lover of mankind, merciful, tender-hearted—you can give Him a thousand other names, but in the exact sense of these words, God is none of these things, since He can’t be limited by a human definition. If we can put it this way, God is both this way and not this way. For example, God is good, but He’s also not good, because He’s above the definition of goodness. Nevertheless, we feel and experience the boundless, incomprehensible, inexpressible presence of God in our hearts. And every one of us, from a newborn infant to a man on the verge of death, experiences the presence of God in his own special way, known only to him. That’s why the Church doesn’t exclude a single person from the liturgical assembly.

Sometimes we hear: “Why should I go to church if I don’t understand anything in the service?” Of course, it’s very good when we understand what’s happening in the service. But how can a baby understand? How can a deaf person understand? How can a foreigner understand? How can a child with Down syndrome understand? Don’t any of them need to come to Liturgy? Of course they do. After all, the Divine Liturgy isn’t some kind of intellectual activity. The significance of the Liturgy lies in the fact that we who are praying become partakers of the Divine grace that is poured out in church during the Liturgy. Infants, the mentally disabled, the sick, and those close to death can all become partakers of this grace, regardless of whether their brains are capable of understanding the external actions of worship and its mystical meaning.

Some understand the meaning of, for example, the expression: “Help us, save us, have mercy on us, and keep us, O God, by Thy grace,” and that’s very good. But those who don’t understand the meaning of this phrase don’t suffer any harm; misunderstanding doesn’t prevent them from becoming partakers of the grace of the mystery of Christ celebrated during the Liturgy.

Of course, that doesn’t mean we abolish rational worship, that we reject the need for understanding. Without a doubt, we should understand what’s said during the Liturgy—we receive much more benefit this way. But what can we do if our circumstances and situation are such that the services are beyond our comprehension?

We have a foreign monk here in the monastery. When he arrived, he didn’t know a single word of Greek. We communicated in French. This brother would stand in church for hours, praying, and participating in the services as if he knew everything by heart. It didn’t bother him at all that he didn’t understand the readings and hymns. We asked him:

“Do you understand anything?”

“No, nothing.”

I can say that he wasn’t harmed or damaged by his lack of understanding. He’s learned Greek now, of course, but back then he didn’t know a single word.

There’s a connection between God and man. In prayer, a man stands before God and speaks with Him face to face, revealing all his feelings to Him. We must pray with extreme attention and reverence, with the feeling that talking to God is some ordinary, commonplace thing. If you’ve read the life of St. Nektarios of Aegina, you’ll recall that in praying to the Mother of God, he addressed her formally: “Thou, Most Holy Theotokos…” He was prompted to pray this way by his feeling of reverence for the Mother of God.

In the Liturgy, the Church addresses God in a theological way, which expresses its inner disposition and speaks, for example, as in the prayer of the First Antiphon:

O Lord our God, Whose dominion is indescribable, and Whose glory is incomprehensible, Whose mercy is infinite, and Whose love for mankind is ineffable.

It might seem like we could omit all that and simply say: “You know, God, give me this and this and that,” like we’re in a grocery store: “A gallon of milk, two loaves of bread, a pound of tomatoes…” But we don’t talk that with God; we converse with Him differently. Yes, we can turn to God with boldness, as to a friend, brother, father, as to the One Who is most wonderful and dear to us, but at the same time, with extreme reverence, with the awareness that the One we’re addressing is God. This is of great importance to our soul. And what do we ask of God?

Do thou thyself, O Master, according to Thy tender compassion, look upon us…

We call on God to look upon us solely according to His tender compassion, without making any demands or claims upon Him, without asserting any rights of our own. Since You are compassionate and love mankind, since You love us, we ask You to look upon us with kindness and love, even though we don’t deserve it.

The priest ends the prayer with the exclamation: “For unto Thee is due all glory, honor, and worship: to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: now and ever, and unto the ages of ages.”

And the choir responds: “Amen.”

Everything belongs to God. And what belongs to us? What can we do? We can respond to God’s call; we can do what we can. Basically, we can say that every era, every time, every hour has its own needs. And every man either responds or doesn’t to the challenges of the times and circumstances. For example, St. John the Merciful lived at a time when there was a need for alms. What did he do? He responded to the call of his time and gave away his possessions; he became a philanthropist. St. Athanasius the Great lived at a time when true Christian teaching was threatened by various heresies. He gave himself to this need and to “rightly dividing the word of truth,” for which he endured persecutions, harassment, and suffered exile. But he stood firm in the struggle, preserved the faith of the Church, and handed it over to us in an undistorted form.

Today, in a period of economic crisis, when we’re faced with many difficulties, we’re called to help each other as best we can. Can’t God find a way to overcome the crisis? Of course He can. Can’t He feed the hungry, the miserable, the poor? Of course He can. He can turn a stone into bread to feed the hungry. God doesn’t need me to show mercy to my neighbor, because He Himself can help this man much better than me. To show mercy to my neighbor, to support him, to help him, to say a kind word to him—all of this is necessary for me.

There’s a wonderful example in the Old Testament. When the Persian king Artaxerxes issued a decree on the extermination of all Jews in his kingdom, one of the Jews, Mordecai, asked Queen Esther (to whom he was related) to beg her pagan husband not to harm the Jewish people. Esther hesitated: “How ought I to entreat the king? Death threatens anyone who dares to go into the king without being invited. The king hasn’t called for me for thirty days now.” (I have to say that in those times it wasn’t like it is now, when a wife easily turns to her husband with any request, and woe to him if he doesn’t hurry to fulfill her wish). Mordecai told Esther:

“If you go to the king and ask him and he hears you, then God will bless you and your whole house. But if you’re afraid and don’t go to the king, then God will save His people by other means, but you and your father’s house will perish” (see Esther 4:7-14).

What does this mean for us? God doesn’t need you to give alms. God can help the needy Himself, but you, who don’t give alms won’t receive a blessing from God because you have despised the need of your neighbor (whatever it was) that you were called to satisfy.

God calls us to confess our faith in one way or another every day. Sometimes we’re called to confess our faith by observing a fast, sometimes by giving alms, sometimes by guarding the dogmas of the Church, the truths of the faith. We must be faithful to God at all times, under any circumstances. I think man is capable of doing this, while everything else belongs to God. Therefore, it’s said that all glory, honor, and worship belongs to Him. And when God is glorified, we are glorified as well, for we are His children and participate in the blessing that God sends down to the entire world.

Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages.

Everything that happens in the Church reaches to the endless ages. The middle wall of partition of death is destroyed; death disappears, and our words, actions, and life—these all move into eternity. Therefore, there’s nothing secondary, useless, or irrelevant in our lives.

To be continued…

Warsaw, December 19, 2024

Photo: suprasl.org     

Join young Orthodox Christians from around the globe for the World Day of Orthodox Youth (WDOY) 2025, a three-day celebration of faith, fellowship, and cultural exchange.

From February 14-16, 2025, Warsaw will host this inspiring event, co-organized by Suprasl and the Fellowship of Orthodox Youth in Poland, in collaboration with ASCOR-Iasi, Romania, the Orthodox Youth of Belgium, and “Young Dreams” from the Diocese of Vilnius-Lithuania. The World Day of Orthodox Youth is organized with the blessing of His Beatitude Metropolitan Sawa of Warsaw and All Poland. Participation is open to Orthodox youth and young adults aged 17–30.

This year’s event combines spirituality, learning, and shared experiences in the heart of Poland’s vibrant capital. The program includes engaging talks, cultural activities, and the opportunity to celebrate the Feast of the Meeting of the Lord in the Temple with a Vigil and Divine Liturgy at Warsaw’s Cathedral of St Mary Magdalene.

We are very excited to announce this year’s speakers: Father Paisios “the Mathematician” and Mr. Athanasios Katigas from Thessaloniki.

Father Paisios was a disciple of St Paisios of Mount Athos. Saint Paisios became acquainted with Father Paisios when the latter was a young monk and teacher of mathematics, thus the name “the Mathematician”. Father Paisios served in the chapel of St Paisios hut on Sundays and Feast Days and became among the closest disciple of Saint Paisios, living by his side for 24 years.

Athanasios Katigas, a taxi cab driver in Thessaloniki, is the author of the book, “Tears of Repentance: True Experiences in a Greek Taxi Cab.” Athanasios’ book catalogues the spiritual conversations, awakenings and transformations that took place in his cab, with clients from all walks of life as he shared his love for Jesus Christ with them.

The World Day of Orthodox Youth is more than an event—it’s an opportunity to deepen your faith, forge meaningful connections, and celebrate the beauty of Orthodox youth from diverse backgrounds. Don’t miss this unforgettable experience in Warsaw!

Cost: €80, which covers accommodations, meals, and all events.

Accommodation: Stay in centrally located student dormitories in Warsaw.

For more information please visit:

You can apply to participate here:

We look forward to seeing you in Warsaw.

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Sergiev Posad, Moscow Province, Russia, December 19, 2024

Photo: gazeta.ru     

A fire broke out in the bell tower of the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra outside of Moscow last night.

The monastery was founded by St. Sergius of Radonezh and is home to his relics, as well as the relics of St. Innocent of Alaska, St. Andrei Rublev’s Holy Trinity Icon, and many other sacred treasures. Thankfully, none of the relics or holy icons were kept in the bell tower.

The fire broke out on the roof of the second tier of the bell tower at around 7:00 PM and was quickly contained, reports the Ministry of Emergency Situations.

​

The extent of the damage is yet to be assessed, a source at the monastery told RIA-Novosti last night.

There are no reports of casualties.

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Chicago, December 19, 2024

L to R: Bp. Daniel (OCA), Abp. Gabriel (ROCOR), Abp. Longin (Serbian), Bp. Seraphim (Serbian). Photo: domoca.org     

December 17, marked the 40th day of the repose of His Eminence Archbishop Peter of Chicago and Mid-America of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.

The Archbishop reposed unexpectedly on Archbishop Peter of Chicago and Mid-America (ROCOR) reposes in the LordAbp. Peter served the Church as a monastic and cleric for many years, including 21 years as a hierarch. He was the ruling hierarch of the Chicago Diocese for the past 8 years.

“>November 8. He was Archbishop Peter of Chicago and Mid-America is buried at Holy Trinity MonasteryOn Monday, November 18, 2024, the feast day of Holy Confessor Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, the burial of Archbishop Peter of Chicago and Mid-America took place at Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, NY.”>buried 10 days later at Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, New York.

And on Tuesday, hierarchs and clergy from three jurisdictions came together to prayerfully commemorate the departed hierarch.

That morning, the Divine Liturgy at the Holy Virgin Protection Cathedral in Chicago was celebrated by His Eminence Archbishop Gabriel of Montreal and Canada (ROCOR), His Eminence Archbishop Daniel of Chicago and the Midwest (Orthodox Church in America), and His Eminence Archbishop Longin of New Gračanica and Midwestern America and His Grace Bishop Seraphim of Kostajnica (Serbian Orthodox Church), and clergy from the three jurisdictions, reports the OCA Diocese of the Midwest.

Following the Liturgy, a panikhida was served for Abp. Peter. Then a memorial meal was held in the fellowship hall, during which people shared their memories of His Eminence and a video of his life and work was shown:

​

***

Abp. Peter was born on August 9, 1948, in San Francisco. There he also studied at SS Cyril and Methodius High School. On August 19, 1965, he was ordained a reader by St John (Maximovich, †1966). He was an altar boy to Saint John, helping him and accompanying him on his archpastoral journeys. In September 1966, he entered Holy Trinity Seminary in Jordanville, NY, and he remained at Holy Trinity Monastery.

From 1971 to 1976, he worked in the Chancery of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, assisting Bishop Laurus of Manhattan. After graduating from seminary, he graduated from the University of Norwich and the Theology Department of the University of Belgrade.

On March 2, 1987, he became a novice. In 1988, he was tonsured a monk and ordained a hierodeacon by Archbishop Laurus of Syracuse and Holy Trinity.

On April 25, 1989, he was ordained a hieromonk. He taught Church History, World History and Civilization at Holy Trinity Seminary, and was an inspector of the seminary. As for monastic obediences, he served as secretary of the Spiritual Council of Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, NY.

In 2000, he was appointed head of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission of the ROCOR in Jerusalem. In 2002, he was appointed administrator of the Diocese of Chicago and Detroit.

In 2003, he was consecrated Bishop of Cleveland, Vicar of the Diocese of Chicago.

By the decision of the ROCOR Synod of Bishops of June 30-July 1, 2016, he was appointed to be the Ruling Bishop the Diocese of Chicago and Mid-America. At a meeting of the Synod, he was elevated to the rank of archbishop.

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A Nigerian Christian mother of five has been fully acquitted of “blasphemy” charges after a two-and-a-half-year legal battle.

A judge in the northeast Bauchi state in Nigeria has granted Rhoda Jatau, 47, full acquittal of blasphemy charges, according to a Dec. 19 press release from her legal team at ADF International. Bauchi practices a form of Sharia law, under which blasphemy is a crime punishable by execution.

“We are thankful to God for Rhoda’s full acquittal and an end to the ordeal she has endured for far too long,” stated Sean Nelson, legal counsel for ADF International, in the release. “No person should be punished for peaceful expression, and we are grateful that Rhoda Jatau has been fully acquitted. But Rhoda should never have been arrested in the first place.”

“We will continue to seek justice for Christians and other religious minorities in Nigeria who are unjustly imprisoned and plagued by the draconian blasphemy laws,” he added.

A Nigerian ADF lawyer who represented Jatau and is remaining anonymous responded to the news, stating: “After a two-and-a-half-year ordeal, including 19 long months in prison, we are happy that Rhoda finally has been acquitted of any wrongdoing. We thank all who have been praying for Rhoda, and we ask for your continued prayers as Nigerians continue to push back against persecution.”

Jatau was arrested by Nigerian authorities on May 20, 2022, after forwarding a video to her colleagues at work of a Muslim denouncing the mob killing of Nigerian Christian college student Deborah Emmanuel Yakabu.

According to local news source Light Bearer News, when news of Jatau’s actions reached the public many immediately called for her death. One Muslim group posted her photo online and called her “the one God has cursed.”

During the riots that ensued, 15 Christians were seriously injured, and several buildings were burned down, according to Light Bearer News.

The young woman’s killing had taken place eight days before Jatau’s arrest, when a mob of Islamist students dragged Yakabu from a safe room where she had been hiding, stoned her to death, and set her body on fire. She was reportedly accused of committing blasphemy after she posted on social media that Jesus had helped her pass her exams.

Initially denied bail, Jatau spent 19 months in prison after her colleagues at the Primary Healthcare Board of the town of Warj reported her for the post she had sent them. She was “detained incommunicado” until December 2023.

During Jatau’s trial, a Bauchi state judge had denied her lawyers’ attempts to have the charges dismissed, citing a lack of evidence to back up the prosecution’s claims. News of the acquittal follows international backlash and appeals from ADF International and other religious freedom activists. United Nations experts had also sent a joint letter to the Nigerian government on Jatau’s behalf, condemning the country’s blasphemy laws.

Minsk, December 19, 2024

Photo: monasteri.cerkov.ru     

St. Elisabeth Convent in Minsk has been named one of Belarus’ top tourism sites for 2024.

The tourism competition Discover Belarus held its annual ceremony in Minsk on December 13, recognizing winners in 13 different categories. For Best Religious Tourism Site of the Year, the winner was the world-famous St. Elisabeth Convent, reports monasteri.cerkov.ru.

The convent, the only monastery in Minsk, is celebrating its 25th anniversary of St. Elisabeth Convent in Minsk (+VIDEO)From its humble beginning, the monastery quickly developed into one of the most beautiful and most influential monasteries in modern Belarus.

“>25th anniversary this year.

The monastery grew from the Sisters of Mercy in the name of the Holy Martyr Grand Duchess Elisabeth, which was established in 1996 with the blessing of His Eminence Metropolitan Philaret of Belarus. The first sisters went to serve their neighbors in places where love and care were especially needed—hospitals and homes for children and adults.

Now it is one of the largest monasteries in Belarus, home to 130 monastic sisters and providing spiritual support to more than 400 Sisters of Mercy. About 500 children study at the Orthodox high school and Sunday School established at the monastery. 200 men and 30 women in difficult life circumstances are given shelter at the monastery’s male and female dependencies, and hundreds of people work in the monastery’s workshops.

The Discover Belarus competition is conducted by the Ministry of Sports and Tourism together with the National Tourism Agency and aims to promote domestic tourism, popularize national cultural-historical and natural heritage, and promote Belarus as a draw for tourists.

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A retired New Orleans priest who walked back a public admission of sexual abuse will spend his remaining years behind bars, after pleading guilty to charges for offenses dating from 1975-1976.

Msgr. Lawrence Hecker was sentenced to life in prison Dec. 18 by Judge Nandi Campbell of the Orleans Parish Criminal District Court in News Orleans.

The 93-year-old Archdiocese of New Orleans priest had entered his guilty plea just as jury selection was about to begin in his trial Dec. 3.

He was charged with first-degree rape, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated crime against nature and theft. The rape charge, initially filed as aggravated, was later upgraded to first degree. He had been indicted in September 2023 by a grand jury.

According to New Orleans Police Department reports, Msgr. Hecker raped and kidnapped a victim, who was not named, between Jan. 1, 1975, and Dec. 31, 1976.

During a brief Aug. 24, 2023, phone call with OSV News, Msgr. Hecker denied abusing several youth, after he had admitted earlier that month to a local television station he had done so.

“Things get twisted around,” he said before hanging up. At his September 2023 arraignment, Msgr. Hecker had pleaded not guilty to the charges.

In a Dec. 18 statement, New Orleans Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond said, “Today, it is our hope and prayer that the survivors of abuse perpetrated by Lawrence Hecker have some closure and some sense of peace in his sentencing.

“On behalf of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, we offer our sincere and heartfelt apologies to the survivors for the pain Hecker has caused them to endure for decades,” said the archbishop.

According to The Times-Picayune, the unnamed survivor in Msgr. Hecker’s court case took to the witness stand. He recounted the attack, which took place as the priest purported to teach him, then a student, wrestling moves in preparation for a Catholic school team tryout.

While the event “started innocently enough,” explained the survivor, Msgr. Hecker ultimately raped the teen, choking him into unconsciousness when he tried to resist. The survivor also recounted that after he reported the attack to his mother and church authorities, he was threatened with expulsion from school unless he underwent a psychiatric evaluation for his “fantasy.”

According to prosecutors, several victims had been prepared to testify against the priest.

Judge Campbell was visibly moved at the sentencing hearing, thanking the survivors for their testimonies.

“Closure is not going to come from an apology,” she said. The Times-Picayune noted that an unkempt Msgr. Hecker — who fidgeted in his wheelchair and occasionally groaned throughout the proceedings — did not offer one. He also avoided eye contact with his accusers.

Still, said Judge Campbell, “I hope that this plea and this sentence give you some kind of closure.”

In his statement, Archbishop Aymond commended survivors for their courage.

“To those who have so recently come forward after struggling with this pain for so many years, we commend your bravery and echo Judge Campbell’s words as we hope you can again learn to trust,” he said.

The Archdiocese of New Orleans, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2020 in the wake of the clergy abuse scandal, faces the settlement of more than 600 sex abuse claims.

OSV News has confirmed with the New Orleans Archdiocese that while Msgr. Hecker was “permanently removed from priestly ministry with no faculties in 2002” he has not been dismissed from the clerical state.

The archdiocese has claimed it reported Msgr. Hecker to law enforcement authorities in 2002-2003, and that a survivor reported him to the police in 2012. The archdiocese has also stated he was included on the list of archdiocesan clergy removed from ministry for abuse of a minor in 2018. The priest was also supported by the archdiocese per what canon law required until the bankruptcy court eliminated it.

But in a 1999 statement made to the archdiocese, Msgr. Hecker himself had acknowledged having committed “overtly sexual acts” with at least three underage boys in the late 1960s and 1970s. He also confessed to having close relationships with four other boys into the 1980s.

The admission was an about-face from interviews over the years in which Msgr. Hecker had denied or avoided saying that he had inappropriately touched children.

Reports of his Msgr. Hecker’s behavior over the years ultimately led to him being sent by the archdiocese in 1999 to an out-of-state psychiatric treatment facility, where he was diagnosed as a pedophile, according to a personnel file obtained by The Guardian, a newspaper based in the United Kingdom.

The newspaper published an extensive investigation of sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of New Orleans, and teamed up with New Orleans television channel WWL-TV for a surprise joint interview with Msgr. Hecker at his apartment.

Both in the 1999 statement and in the WWL-Guardian interview, the priest — who appeared slightly disheveled as he spoke at the gate of his residence — chalked his abuse up to widespread sexually permissive behavior of the time. The journalists noted that Louisiana’s age of consent in the 1960s and 1970s was 17, as it remains today.

Despite his 1999 statement to the archdiocese and clinical diagnosis, Msgr. Hecker still undertook some two additional years of ministry, having been assigned in 2000 to a parish with an elementary school. He quietly retired in 2002 and was added to the Archdiocese of New Orleans’ list of credibly accused priests in 2018.

From 2010 to about 2020, the archdiocese paid at least $332,500 out-of-court settlements for five complaints of sexual abuse by Msgr. Hecker, according to The Guardian.