Tag: Christianity

Atlanta, November 11, 2024

Photo: thenationalherald.com     

After 25 years as the ruling hierarch of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America’s Metropolis of Atlanta has submitted a request for retirement.

Metropolitan Alexios sent his letter on November 8 to Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, with copies to Archbishop Elpidophoros, the head of GOARCH, and the members of the Holy Eparchial Synod of the Archdiocese of America, reports the National Herald.

In his letter, the Metropolitan notes that since he was ordained to the diaconate, 59 years have passed, “during which Divine Grace has allowed me, despite my unworthiness and sinfulness, to stand before the holy Altar and to offer prayers ‘for our sins and the ignorance of the people,’ always caring for the ministry of the flock, always faithful and obedient to the Archbishop of America, the Eparchial Synod, and especially to the Sacred Center of Orthodoxy in Constantinople.”

Further, his “sense of duty” as metropolitan “dictates the writing of this letter, as over time, I feel my physical and spiritual strength weakening.”

Met. Alexios thus requests to be retired in order to “dedicate [him]self to the ministry of prayer.”

He proposes his long-time assistant Bishop Sebastian of Zela as his successor.

***

Short biography of Met. Alexios:

Metropolitan Alexios of Atlanta, born Anthimos Panayiotopoulos, was born in Ano Soudenika, Patras, on December 25, 1943. He graduated from the Theological School of Athens in 1973. He became a monk at the Holy Monastery of Vatopedi on Mount Athos in 1963, was ordained a deacon on November 1, 1965, and a priest on August 27, 1972. He served as Archdeacon in the Metropolis of Patras and as a parish priest in the United States, particularly at the Saint Demetrios Cathedral in Astoria. He was consecrated as titular Bishop of Troas on May 17, 1987, serving as Auxiliary Bishop to the Archdiocese of America. He served as administrator of the Diocese of Atlanta from 1997 to 1999 and was elected Bishop of Atlanta on March 13, 1999. On December 20, 2002, following the elevation of the Diocese of Atlanta to a Metropolis, he was promoted to Metropolitan of Atlanta. He developed extensive ecclesiastical, administrative, and philanthropic work, while the Metropolis’ Diakonia Center is unique in its kind. He was loved, respected, and appreciated by the clergy and faithful of the Metropolis of Atlanta communities.

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Pope Francis appointed a new preacher of the papal household: a 53-year-old Italian Capuchin priest who studied computer science and mathematics and discovered his vocation while reading a free copy of St. Matthew’s Gospel on the subway.

Capuchin Father Roberto Pasolini succeeds Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, also an Italian Capuchin priest, who turned 90 in July and had been the papal preacher since 1980 when St. John Paul II appointed him. Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis respectively confirmed his position, and Pope Francis elevated him to the College of Cardinals in 2020.

The Vatican made the announcement Nov. 9.

The papal preacher is tasked with preparing the traditional series of Lenten and Advent reflections each year for the pope and top Vatican officials and is charged with preaching at the pope’s public celebration of the Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion on Good Friday.

Born Nov. 5, 1971, Father Pasolini received his degree in computer science with a transdisciplinary exploration of artificial intelligence, mathematics, philosophy and psychology, he said in an interview in 2020 with TV2000, the television network owned by the Italian bishops’ conference.

He became active in parish life, especially in its outreach to the poor, after using his commuting time to read a copy of the Gospel according to St. Matthew he got free with a copy of L’Unità, an Italian newspaper founded by the Italian Communist Party and later supported by the Democratic Party of the Left.

He said in the TV interview he had been politically active, wanting to change the world, but that he then changed his approach when he was struck by a line in J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye”: “The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.”

He said he also admired St. Francis of Assisi who believed, “You change the world by repairing it not by overturning it.”

Father Pasolini made his perpetual vows in the Orders of Friars Minor Capuchin in 2002 and was ordained a priest in 2006.

He studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, earning a doctorate in biblical theology, and he served as a professor of biblical languages and sacred Scripture at the Laurentianum Interprovincial Theological Institute of the Capuchins in Milan and Venice.

He is a professor of biblical exegesis at the theological faculty of northern Italy in Milan, preaches at spiritual retreats and is an author of several books on biblical spirituality.

He “embraces new technology to spread the Gospel, including podcasts and artificial intelligence,” according to Vatican News Nov. 9.

The Capuchin priest is also “heavily involved in working with the poor, people living on the streets, people with disabilities, and ministry in prisons,” Vatican News said.

Cardinal Cantalamessa will continue his life of “study, reading and prayer” at the Hermitage of Merciful Love in Cittaducale, Italy, alongside a community of Poor Clare nuns, while occasionally serving as their chaplain, Vatican News reported.

Alaska, November 11, 2024

Photo: OCA Diocese of Alaska     

November 8 marked the 45th anniversary of the repose of the recently canonized St. Olga of Alaska.

The Orthodox Church in America’s Diocese of Alaska reports that panikhidas were celebrated throughout the diocese for both St. Olga and her daughter Agnes, who Daughter of St. Olga of Alaska reposes in the LordA panikhida for the repose of her soul was served at All Saints Chapel at St. Herman Theological Seminary in Kodiak, Alaska, yesterday.

“>reposed in the Lord just days earlier.

Matushka Olga was canonized by decision of the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in America OCA Synod glorifies Matushka Olga of Alaska among the saintsMatushka Olga (†1979) has long been venerated in Alaska, throughout America, and abroad. She is remembered as a humble mother, midwife, and priest’s wife who was filled with love for everybody, and especially abused women.

“>in November 2023. The liturgical proclamation of her glorification is planned for Alaska Diocese updates on St. Olga: Glorification in June 2025, first draft of service already composedIn preparation for her upcoming glorification, the Canonization Commission of the OCA has issued an appeal for stories of the miraculous intercession of St. Olga.”>June 2025. According to Church practice, the final panikhida for the repose of her soul will be served on the eve of her liturgical glorification, after which prayers will no longer be offered for her, but only to her.

The diocese also celebrated a miracle that occurred in the wake of St. Olga’s repose:

On this day we also celebrate the miracle of the thawing of the Kuskokwim River. Following Matushka Olga’s repose, a three-day winter storm covered the area. This was the condition of the village until by the grace and mercy of God, the river thawed enough for people across the Kuskokwim and Yukon to attend her burial. On this day let us remember the saintly Matushka Olga and ask for her prayers before God as we continue to labor towards her glorification.

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A small group of priests serve one of the largest archdioceses in the United States. But their parish could be as far away as a military base in Japan, or be confined to serving on a warship.

They are U.S. military chaplains.

Wherever U.S. soldiers are deployed, Catholic chaplains faithfully serve the spiritual needs of the men giving their lives in service to the United States.

Father Marcel Taillon, as the vocations director for the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, knows firsthand the huge task that serving 1.8 million Catholics spread across the world requires.

“We are the archdiocese that covers the whole world; we serve anyone in the United States military,” Father Taillon told OSV News. “There’s 1.8 million Catholics in the military, and we have to supply sacramental and chaplain, you know, chaplains, priests for them.”

Every day, Father Taillon works with members of the military, seminarians and even priests who are discerning a potential call to serve as chaplains. Prior to serving as the vocations director for the military archdiocese, Father Taillon served as the vocations director for the Archdiocese of Baltimore. He says that it is all the same discerning process.

“It is the same discernment process for every human person; some of them are just attracted to chaplaincy, right? So they’re attracted to serving as chaplains, but first they also have to discern celibacy, priestly life,” Father Taillon said. “It’s the same priesthood that’s outside the military. It’s the same priesthood of Christ. So it’s the same sort of discernment process. It’s just different because there is this attraction, calling from Jesus, to serve military families.”

While the Archdiocese for the Military Services has its own archbishop, auxiliary bishops, diocesean staff and structures, it does not have any of its own priests. All of the priests who serve as military chaplains have been ordained to the priesthood for their home dioceses and are, in effect, on loan to the military archdiocese for a brief time.

“Once a man is ordained, they have to serve three years in a regular parish in their home diocese. Then, after three years, the expectation is a five-year minimum service as a military chaplain, in whatever branch they’ve been preparing for,” Father Taillon said.

“We don’t have our own seminaries. They’re all co-sponsored. Every Catholic chaplain in the United States military belongs to another diocese or religious community. Basically, these dioceses allow us to borrow or share, in a sense, their locally incarnated priests with us, or religious priests,” Father Taillon continued.

The process to become a U.S. military chaplain often begins well before a man is ordained a priest. Sometimes, they begin discerning the call to chaplaincy before even entering seminary; other men feel the call to minister to military members while in the seminary.

“My primary work as vocation director is to support men discerning who are currently (on) active duty in all the branches,” Father Taillion said. “I also work with men already in seminary formation at different levels who feel called by Jesus to consider chaplaincy. They’ll often check with their local bishop, check with their local vocation director, and with permission, they’ll start to discern with us.”

Father Taillon recently directed the military archdiocese’s annual fall discernment retreat held at St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore. Hosted by Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, who heads the military archdiocese, the Oct. 31-Nov. 3 retreat was attended by a record 30 prospective chaplains from more than two dozen dioceses and military installations throughout the United States, according to the archdiocese. Of the 30 discerners, it said, 22 are already serving in the military but considering taking on the new role.

When a man has been approved to pursue serving as a chaplain, he will be co-sponsored by both the Archdiocese for the Military Services and their home diocese. During seminary formation, he will receive formation from his home diocese and special formation provided by the military archdiocese.

“Right now the Archdiocese of Military Services has 37 co-sponsored seminarians,” Father Taillon told OSV News. “In order to be a chaplain (in the) military, you have to have a sponsoring home diocese or religious community. Every one of our seminarians belongs half to us and half to their local diocese. So we kind of split the costs of the education. It’s kind of like an ROTC program. We do fraternity building with them and provide formation, but they study where their home diocese sends them.”

Father Jeffrey Paveglio has served as an Army chaplain for 10 years, six as reserve in the National Guard and four as an active-duty chaplain. His greatest joy is being with those he ministers to day in and day out and seeing the conversions that happen.

“The greatest joy is just bringing the sacraments to soldiers, bringing them hope in difficult circumstances. There’s a lot of challenges that the soldiers face. I was in a battalion that had a lot of suicide and suicidal ideation and things like that, and just seeing soldiers go from that to really, kind of getting a handle on their lives, it was beautiful,” Father Paveglio said. “A lot of conversions happen. It’s a missionary field.”

Now, Father Paveglio is tasked with finding the next generation of Army chaplains as an Army chaplain recruiter. He travels to seminaries and dioceses across the country, talking to seminarians and priests about what it takes to serve.

“We are looking for men who are holy, who are faithful, who love the church and love Jesus and want to serve and have a heart for service,” Father Paveglio said. “They need to be healthy enough and fit enough to meet army standards. We need priests who can keep up with their soldiers. It’s really crucial that our priests are able to keep up with the soldiers because if they don’t, they lose access and credibility.”

Like all military chaplains, Father Paveglio served in a parish prior to his military service. He has noticed one key difference in these ministries: In the military he lives with his parishioners.

“The biggest difference is that I see my soldiers, my parishioners, every day, I see almost all of them every day, unlike at a parish,” Father Paveglio said. “I have access to non-Catholics in a way that most priests do not have. And so that’s where the kind of opportunity for evangelization comes in because a lot of these soldiers are open to faith.”

By being embedded in battalions or on ships, these priests are granted unique access to the lives of these men. Through this access, they are able to have tough conversations and support the men and women serving in the U.S. military.

“It’s a worthy mission. It’s a call within a call, and it’s very legitimate,” Father Taillon said. “Certainly in the world we live in today, with the problems, especially wars and violence and religious freedom crises and all these things, we need a good military, and a good military is helped by having good chaplains, who are able to boost the morale and set a good example, thereby boosting the integrity of the troops who serve us.”

Johnstown, Pennsylvania, November 11, 2024

Photo: American Carpatho-Russian Diocese of North America     

In his archpastoral letter for the upcoming Nativity Fast, Metropolitan Gregory of Nyssa of the Patriarchate of Constantinople’s American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese of North America “pleads” with his flock to intensify its spiritual life on the path towards the great feast of the Nativity, including a daily prayer for peace.

Violence and war and other serious problems are increasing around the world, thus “we must intensify our prayers.”

“Let us increase our efforts in church attendance, in prayer, in fasting, in scriptural reading, in almsgiving, in repentance and confession, in receiving the Eucharist. This is who we should be as active Orthodox Christians,” Met. Gregory writes.

Read his archpastoral letter and the diocese’s prayer for peace:

Today we see our world spinning out of control. Violence, poverty, hatred, drug overdoses, homelessness, theft and senseless killings are all increasing. We are at the brink of a World War with conflicts in Ukraine, the Holy Lands in the Middle East and other places around the planet raging. From the very beginning as God fearing people we have been praying for the Lord’s help. In all of our Divine Liturgies additional petitions and prayers have been offered. And yet the struggle continues around the world. I believe we must intensify our prayers. If we are feeling like we are sinking because we are overwhelmed in our home life, work life, school life or even our social life (including social media and technology) we must be like Peter. He was walking on the water towards Jesus and when he became distracted by the winds and waves, he began to sink. Peter cried out, “Lord, save me!” (Matthew 14:30) and Jesus Christ reached down and pulled him out of the stormy sea. We too are sinking and need to cry out “Lord, save me!”

As we once again enter the Season of the Nativity Fast, I ask you, actually I plead with you, the good faithful people of our Diocese, to join me on a journey to meet the new born King. During these 40 days leading to the Nativity of our Lord let us increase our efforts in church attendance, in prayer, in fasting, in scriptural reading, in almsgiving, in repentance and confession, in receiving the Eucharist. This is who we should be as active Orthodox Christians.

In the last eight years, I have challenged everyone, Clergy and Laity, to offer a special prayer for peace during evening prayers. The text of this prayer will be provided by the Clergy for distribution. Each household should have sufficient copies so that each young person that can read has one by their bed to use nightly and those who are too young to read may say the prayer with their parents before they go to bed. Of course, all the adults should also participate…

With all of us united in prayer this Nativity Fasting Season, I am convinced that we will help to improve our lives and those of others throughout the world.

Prayer for Peace:

Most-merciful Master, Lord Jesus Christ our God, at Your Holy Birth, the choirs of angels proclaimed peace on earth. At Your Glorious Resurrection, You came to Your disciples saying “Peace be with you!” As we prepare to celebrate Your coming in the flesh, send Your peace upon the whole world, especially upon the Holy Land and all other places of warfare and unrest. Cleanse us of all impurity, O Lord, so that our hearts may be filled with Your peace which surpasses all understanding. In this way, may we live peacefully according to Your commandments in our families, communities, and churches. For You are the King of Peace and the Savior of our Souls, and to You we give glory forever. Amen!

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Nizhny Olshanets, Belgorod Province, Russia, November 11, 2024

Photo: belpressa.ru     

A new church has been built in the village of Nizhny Olshanets near Belgorod, on the site of a church destroyed by the godless Soviets in the 1930s.

The new three-story Byzantine-style Church of the Great Martyr Demetrios of Thessaloniki was built in just 355 days and consecrated on its patronal feast day on November 8, reports TASS.

It features the first marble iconostasis in the Belgorod Province.

Photo: belpressa.ru     

The church is constructed of red brick lined with white, the floors are made entirely of pure granite, the patterns are made of colored granite, and the decorative elements are executed in Byzantine style. The main chandelier is equipped with a height regulator.

The original St. Demetrios Church was built between 1908 and 1917 and had about 500 parishioners and an attached school. It was destroyed in the 1930s.

There had been attempts to rebuilt the church since 2009, but they failed for one reason or another. Finally, in 2023, enough money was raised to start the work, and the foundation stone was consecrated in November 2023.

And on November 8 of this year, the church was consecrated by His Eminence Metropolitan John of Belgorod.

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West Jordan, Utah, November 11, 2024

Photo: kutv.com     

Security cameras at St. George Orthodox Church (Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia) in West Jordan, Utah, captured footage of a suspect illegally dumping construction debris in their parking lot, marking the second such incident at the church this year.

The pile of trash was found on Tuesday, November 5, when parishioners began arriving for the All-Night Vigil for the feast of the Joy of All Who Sorrow Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos.

“After the service, we sat down and looked at the security cameras and were really surprised to find out it had just happened a half an hour earlier,” said Archpriest Michael van Opstall, who helped establish the church in 2014.

Clear footage shows a driver operating what appears to be a white F-350 truck with a dumpster trailer, using the equipment to unload substantial amounts of construction waste. The West Jordan Police Department has launched a criminal investigation into the incident.

The church, now facing unexpected cleanup costs, has had to divert its funds from intended purposes.

Rather than viewing it as a targeted attack against the church, Fr. Michael believes it was simply someone trying to avoid dumping fees.

When asked what he would say to the perpetrator, the priest responded simply: “Oh, I don’t know that I have any message other than please don’t do it again, and take responsibility.”

The West Jordan Police Department is requesting public assistance in identifying the suspect. They encourage anyone with relevant information about the incident to contact their department.

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Joanna Hinojosa-Martínez entered Holy Angels Catholic Church of the Deaf in Vernon for the first time nearly 30 years ago. Her mother, a devoted Catholic, was looking for an accessible Mass for her 8-year-old deaf child, who longed for a community.

Before discovering Holy Angels in 1996, her family had attended various parishes, but the barrier was always the same: language. Her mother bought her a crucifix to instill some sense of devotion, but young Joanna played with it instead. Her mother feared Joanna was disconnected from God and her faith.

But that Sunday morning, she recalled walking to Holy Angels with her family and leaving feeling very different from how she came: The first thing she noticed was that the priest himself, Holy Angels pastor Father Tom Schweitzer, was deaf. “You’re deaf just like me,” Joanna said.

She saw how parishioners accompanied a deaf family member. She could understand the lectors who signed throughout the Mass. There were visuals on the wide screen above the altar, where American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters passionately conveyed hymns and readings. Most families signed and shared the gospel through ASL, and their smiles radiated a warmth that moved Martínez.

“It felt like home,” she remembered. “The Deaf became my role models, and they became my leaders.”

Before Holy Angels was officially established in 1987 by then-Archbishop Roger Mahony in the industrial heart of Vernon, and opened a year later, local deaf Catholics struggled to find a permanent place to practice their faith in ASL. They borrowed spaces in “hearing parishes,” but priests would sometimes forget about the scheduled deaf Masses.

Now, they have a church that provides accessibility, community, and a spiritual home for the Deaf community.

After 28 years of attending Holy Angels, Martínez was asked by Schweitzer to become its music and liturgy director in 2022. The role was a natural fit, given Holy Angels felt like a second home for so long.   

“I got married at this church, my daughter got baptized at this church,” she said. 

Despite recently leaving the job, Martínez still volunteers and speaks to Deacon Tomas Garcia, who has stepped into her role. There are five to six volunteers who assist during the Sunday Mass to ensure that the service runs smoothly. That means creating PowerPoint presentations with captions and graphics to help parishioners engage with the service and volunteers monitoring the video screens from the second floor and signaling to the priest and the team.

“We have a person responsible for managing the lights because it’s visually important for Deaf people to know where to focus,” Martínez said. “It’s all about visual cues and visual information; for the Deaf, the eyes are the windows to our soul.”

“Boom.”

“Boom.”

One volunteer strikes the drum while the music plays. The sound of drums vibrates through the church, allowing the Deaf and hard-of-hearing Catholics to feel the music. 

When hearing parishioners attend this Mass, two volunteer interpreters communicate the service in both Spanish and English. The volunteer team also makes sure those unable to attend Mass in person can follow via Zoom.  

Carlos Cobián grew up attending Spanish Mass with his family but couldn’t hear or fully understand. Everything changed in the mid-1990s, when, as a young adult, he also attended his first deaf Mass with a deaf priest — Father Tom. 

“It felt beautiful,” he said. “I was finally able to understand the Eucharist, I was finally able to understand the Mass.” 

Cobián said the experience at Holy Angels helped him reconnect with his faith and understand the importance of the sacraments — and he’s been a parishioner ever since. 

Cobián has also discovered another way to deepen his faith: the holy rosary. On Sundays, he implemented rosary time before Mass. Since the rosary requires two hands, he is working on making the rosary prayer more accessible for his deaf friends and bringing them closer to God.

Including everyone in prayer practices and helping every member of the HAC community connect with their faith is part of the parish’s mission, said Schweitzer, who has served more than 40 years as a priest at Holy Angels.

“I try to develop a better deaf liturgy,” Schweitzer said. “In strict sign language,” the person should only look at the person they are talking to. He emphasized the importance of connecting with the congregation while he celebrates Mass. Instead of looking at the lectionary, he looks at the projector across from him to read the Gospel and looks heavenward. If he were to read and sign, he said, deaf people would think he’s talking to the Bible, not God.

“Some will understand, but it’s not their language, it’s not their culture, it’s not their way,” he said. “It’s always the Deaf world coming into the hearing world, which is why there’s a deaf church, so everything can be translated to the Deaf world.”

“What am I doing here? Why am I here?” Garcia recalled asking himself the first time he went to confession at a parish without interpreter assistance. 

His grandmother and uncle tried to inform the priest about their deaf child to no avail. Although he was allowed to receive his first Communion, the experience left him questioning his place within the church.

In 1987, he discovered Holy Angels, a place he said has given him a sense of community and purpose. 

“This is where I belong. This is where I am supposed to be,” he said.

Closer to home, Garcia said he experienced stigma and neglect due to his deafness. 

“It’s mostly the parents who are grieving and becoming emotionally distant from their child,” he said. 

Garcia went on to be ordained a permanent deacon for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. He’s also a psychologist and provides direct support to children who feel neglected by their parents at Holy Angels. He emphasized that there’s a breaking point where deaf children may say, “This isn’t my family, I want to leave,” though some families respond positively by making changes and learning ASL.

The parish also looks to support families who grieve over the idea that their deaf and hard-of-hearing children are “broken,” a term often used in the medical field, Garcia said.

As a hearing person, Hilda Jimenez said it took many years to fully accept her family — which includes six deaf grandchildren and two deaf daughters — and rekindle her faith. 

She sometimes recalled wondering, “What would they say?” and would hide from her friends and neighbors in Mexico. After immigrating to the U.S., she found something different at Holy Angels. Today, Jimenez said she sees her deaf family members as a blessing. 

“I love this church, and I don’t think of ever leaving,” she said. “I surrendered to God, and he opened my heart.”

Jimenez has worked in the parish for 38 years. As a floor manager, Jimenez strives to stay connected with families and oversees day-to-day activities.

She sometimes encounters families who struggle with communication and lack empathy for their deaf children. Drawing from her own experiences, Jimenez works to build bridges between Hispanic families and their deaf children. 

“Some parents say their children don’t understand them,” she said. In response, Jimenez encourages parents to learn their children’s language and embrace Deaf culture. 

Building on Jimenez’s advice, Garcia explained the importance of family talleres (workshops) that the parish hosts to address these challenges. “We bring to light their wounds,’ he said.

“In Father’s homily about the Gospel of Jesus healing the deaf man,” Garcia said, reflecting on the priest’s message about fostering family connections and a call for unity. “What can we do as a family to have better communication and connection so we can be one?”

  

Meeting with Archimandrite Kirill (Pavlov)—Milestone of His BiographyOne day, in the ruins of a house, I picked up a book in the trash. I began to read it and felt something so dear and sweet to my heart. It was the Gospel.

“>Fr. Kirill was a special experience in one’s life. To know that there are saints is one thing, and to come into contact with them in real life is quite another. Be it prayer during a church service, a common meal, or just a conversation, not even on sublime theological subjects (which, as a rule, Fr. Kirill avoided). In all cases, such a meeting is providential and reveals the mysterious facets of existence, touches the depths of your soul, and helps reveal that important things that were buried in your heart but which you probably did not even know existed.

For me, as for many guests and parishioners of the Church of the Protecting Veil of the Most Holy Theotokos at the Nizhnyaya Oreanda sanatorium in the city of Yalta (the Crimea), the presence of Fr. Kirill at the services for several months in late summer and autumn, which lasted eight years, became a special era and extraordinary experience of contact with living Patristic tradition. Before my very eyes, these meetings changed many people’s the lives, making them look at old and familiar things as obstacles on their path to Christ.

Holiness and SanctificationThis is fundamental to the Christian life.

“>Holiness is a value and end in itself, and when you meet a holy man full of stillness and peace and come into contact with him, many of the chimeras and prejudices that ruled your consciousness and your imagination lose their power.

The first time, Fr. Kirill came with Archimandrite Agafodor (Markevich), the then abbot of Donskoy Monastery in Moscow, and stood quietly in the back of the church. There were no more than five or seven people at the service. While censing during “Lord, I have cried to Thee…”, I invited batiushka into the altar. I knew that he was staying in a nearby sanatorium and it was possible to see him there, but now he himself had come, and ome could approach him with one’s many questions on various topics, which I did at the first opportunity. He took my hand kindly and said softly, “You pray, pray. Then, after the service, we’ll talk.” But the longer the service went on the fewer questions I had. Fr. Kirill stood in the altar and looked out the window. We have a cruciform window in the altar apse, through which you can see the sky. He was looking with a very special gaze, seeing something there. And he radiated amazing stillness and calm, which, imperceptibly for me, began to make my questions, which had recently seemed so important, irrelevant. By the end of the service, they had lost their power and I thought that to ask them would be an unnecessary and idle thing. Interestingly, the elder himself remembered my desire to ask something: “Are your questions still tormenting you?” I didn’t want to delay the elder out my desire to linger with him longer. I said, “No, it seems like everything has fallen into place.” And it was true. Everything important now seemed obvious. “Well, thank God! Pray, pray. We’ll come back tomorrow.” And, strangely enough, at that moment I realized that there is something that concerns the salvation of your soul, and this is the most important thing, while there are an infinite number of intellectual, rational questions that, regardless of how reasonable and relevant they may look, have nothing to do with your salvation. Fr. Kirill had taught me an absolutely wonderful lesson at our first meeting. Not by word, but by his living example—everything that concerns salvation, our relationship with God, our immortal soul, is truly vital. For this he was ready to stay longer and talk. But if you just want to communicate on abstract topics—this is idleness.

With each year of Fr. Kirill’s stays in Nizhnyaya Oreanda, more and more new people would appear, wanting to meet him and talk to him. As a rule, they came up to the sanctuary after “Our Father” and asked him about something. He would take you by the hand and gaze intently into the distance, apparently praying for you. At that time, I marveled at his remarkable memory—he could easily and organically reconstruct a situation he had been told about many years before, as if he was seeing it all before his eyes right now. I was even more surprised that, asking additional questions about some circumstances, he would always wonder: “What do you think? How do you see the resolution?” When it came to health, he always asked what doctors said, and only then, with maternal love and meekness, did he give advice that organically grew out of your understanding and vision and directed your thoughts and feelings as you sought spiritual advice in a Christian direction. It was then that I first noticed that in the Gospel, when people turned to our Lord, He first asked about their faith and what they wanted from Him, and only then did He heal or help them according to their faith, thus never violating their free will.

In the spirit of the Holy Fathers and guided by “Fr. Kirill Showed by His Life That the Gospel Can Be Lived”If the Gospel sounds inside you, you will hear the will of God, you will understand it, and you will walk your entire life path.

“>Gospel love, Fr. Kirill did not go beyond the limits of one’s real experience and did not insist on his point of view even in obviously good things. At that time. I was very keen on arguing if I encountered an erroneous opinion, which gave rise to excitement and excessive emotions. One day, batiushka said to me quietly: “Don’t argue. If for some reason a person doesn’t understand, it is better to pray for him, and the Lord will sort it out.” And, much to my surprise, I soon got convinced that such an approach to solving contradictions and confusing situations is much more effective than any conflict.

Thanks to Fr. Kirill, I realized that I should speak with another person in his own language, without going beyond his views and ideas about life. And one should always do it with love, humbling oneself before him as much as possible. Only then is there hope of being heard. Fr. Kirill was a man with a strong character and will, and at the same time he possessed truly divine tact and was able to hold the person he was talking to, whoever he was, in his loving heart. There was something very Russian, boundless, majestic and at the same time profoundly humble in his character, like the Russian sky, under which everyone feels good, cozy and peaceful. Thanks to my meeting with Fr. Kirill I realized that the Lord is not only above you, but is also below you, and does not allow you to slide into greater depths of sin. And the Lord always sees the best in you and looks for a chance to justify you, raise you a step higher, show you the path of repentance and the surest path to salvation. In this sense, Fr. Kirill was a real teacher—that is, he guided your soul, like a small child, to the Heavenly Kingdom, where the Lord Himself receives it. For all Fr. Kirill’s apparent simplicity and his amazing humility, there was some inner nobility in him, a kind of spiritual nobility that helped every person to realize their place in this life and feel the spiritual hierarchy, like heavenly bodies that move each in their own orbit, not humiliating or exalting themselves, but obeying the Divine plan. Nobility is always about a boundary and a hierarchy, and in the case of Fr. Kirill the hierarchy and the boundaries were built and outlined by his pastoral love. It is only with such an attitude and such a Gospel perspective that humanity is born in you. And all the best and authentic qualities were brought to life in everybody who came into contact with batiushka. Even old, convinced atheists, such as some doctors at the sanatorium where he went for rest, began to turn in the right direction and think about something serious.

This is an absolutely wonderful school of edification, with the understanding that no will, no talent by itself can build and change another person. Only spiritual tact and Christ’s love for you can help you become a human being, and grow to your full stature.

Fr. Kirill had a special gift of discernment. He saw in you all your best qualities, all your shortcomings, and all the contradictions that torment your soul, and was able to put everything in its place. Confused thoughts, like twisted bowels, lead to suffering and depression. Thoughts can be correct, just as bowels may be healthy, but if everything is messed up, it’s a disaster—everything must be put in order. And batiushka did this with amazing skill, so that the sufferer would leave him feeling great relief, without always understanding how it all happened…

For a long time I did not understand that it is important not so much to read as to reread, especially the New Testament. I used to think that I had already read it, remembered everything well, and could answer people’s questions and “pass an exam”, as it were. But Fr. Kirill kept repeating that we must read the Gospel every day and “swim” in it. And thanks to his convincing words I realized that reading the New Testament should be a permanent factor in your life, like air or water, like warmth or food. And only then can there be relative clarity in your worldview or outlook; only then will Christ be at the center of your life. And you will be able to see all the circumstances of your life, all that surrounds you in the light of the Gospel truth. The landscape of your soul will appear as it really is, and you will be able to see and understand the world you live in soberly and reasonably, as befits any Christian. By the way, Fr. Kirill knew the Scriptures practically by heart. One day he said during lunch, “Help yourself, while I read to you from the Gospel.” And from memory he read chapters from the Apostle Paul’s Epistles, and then a chapter from the Gospel of Matthew naturally and simply, as if an open book was in front of his eyes.

Archimandrite Kirill (Pavlov) is a very special figure in our national history, a great elder of a great era, a fragrant, God-given fruit of the Russian Orthodox Church, and a spiritual landmark of our time.

    

An excerpt from the book, Love Is Born in Freedom.

The Great Elder Paisie (Olaru), Part 1He received anyone who knocked on the door of his cell—always, at any time. He would hear confessions without stopping, for several days in a row, day and night. No one knew when he slept or ate.

“>Part 1

By decision of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church on July 11–12, 2024, Romanian Synod canonizes 16 martyrs, confessors, and ascetics of the 20th-centuryThe Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church formally approved the canonization of more than a dozen martyrs, confessors, and ascetics of the 20th century at its session on July 11–12.

“>sixteen God-pleasers who shone forth in the twentieth century were glorified among the saints. Among them is Hieroschemamonk Paisie (Olaru; 1897–1990), the spiritual father of Sihăstria Monastery, who from now on will be known as St. Paisie of Sihăstria, whose feast will be celebrated on December 2 (new style).

Twilight

The Holy Transfiguration Church at Sihla Skete, 1763. Photo: sihla.mmb.ro     

Night has fallen in Sihla—the kind of night that monks transform into day through their prayers and vigils. Fr. Paisie is quite elderly now, but it seems he’s been this way since the beginning of time, as if he was born with gray temples and a white beard—exactly how every good spiritual father should be.

He was already over eighty, sixty years of which he spent in a monastery—the angelic life. At midnight, all the monks go to church, without exception. The Elder’s feet tread in the darkness on the stone steps leading to the church. There’s a steep, bad ravine below, but two disciples have learned to support his body, light as a feather, withered in prayer and fasting. Father stumbles on the rocks every now and then and jokes:

“Well, these boulders have grown! They weren’t this big last night!”

Eighty years weigh heavily on his shoulders. But he fights against his infirmities and hears confessions, just as he did in the beginning. However, now it’s time for the service, the Midnight Office—and the pilgrims will wait for him until dawn.

Father enters the church, lit by a dim candle. They don’t have any light in the skete, but it’s even better that way, because the mind is more concentrated in the flickering semi-darkness. At the appropriate moment, Fr. Paisie reads the prayer, “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy great mercy.” He always reads it. They’re the words of a psalm written by King David thousands of years ago. You can always hear them in church; they’re always in all the services and in the prayer rule, and yet in Father’s mouth, they awaken feelings that you didn’t know before. Father’s disciple said that he didn’t pray like the rest of us:

“When he pronounced the words, it was as though he was describing the world beyond.”

Miracle

It was a harsh winter in the forests of Sihla, and a college girl and a young girl were struggling to make it to the skete. They left Sihăstria at noon. And although it was snowing heavily, they thought they’d get there quickly. But they were wrong. They became exhausted on the steep path and darkness quietly surrounded them. Soon they were completely lost. No one knew about them, and they were already on the verge of despair. They wandered through the thickets among rocky boulders, rejoicing every time they saw a bright spot and thought it was Sihla Skete. They moved more and more slowly, and when they stopped to catch their breath, the snow falling from above covered them.

Late in the evening, around nine o’clock, when they had already lost all hope, they suddenly saw a light. It was the headlight of a car stuck in a snowbank on the way to the skete. A husband, wife, and two shivering children were sitting in it. They joined up with them, walked together, and before midnight arrived, they found themselves in the vestibule where, as always, pilgrims waited to confess to Fr. Paisie. They were completely exhausted. Suddenly the door opened and the elderly confessor came out, saying:

“Haven’t the two girls gotten here yet?”

“Yes, they arrived safe and sound!” the faithful answered.

“O Most Gracious Mother of God!”

Fr. Paisie hugged them, took off his sheepskin coat, and wrapped it around them. Then he kissed them, as one kisses children. Immersed in prayer, Fr. Paisie saw them and preserved them with his fervent prayer.

Departure

St. Paisie of Sihăstria Fr. Paisie spent the last five years of his life at Sihăstria, bedridden most of the time. His leg was injured, and the monk who cared for him tried to send the faithful away, concerned for his health.

“Eh, Neonil,” the Elder called to him from his cell, “let them in, the poor things. Let them enter so I can hear their confessions—it’s my legs that hurt, not my tongue.”

Over the years, his eyesight gradually went blurry. But he had one desire left: to leave behind stories about the monks he had met in his life.

“And so I had surgery on one eye, and now with glasses, I can write these trifles.”

The “trifles” were saints’ lives, but the Elder reproved himself to avoid falling into pride. After each story, Father would add two or three verses, for better remembrance:

Death is not to blame,
Only people are to blame.
You must prepare well,
And when it visits, invite it in.

He always awaited it, death. But God granted him many years so that he could lead people to the light.

He reposed on October 18, 1990, in his cell at Sihăstria. He was over ninety-three. It was a holy death, peaceful and bright in the hope of Paradise.

When he departed, streams of people who used to visit his cell came to accompany him on his final journey: the elderly and young, rich and poor, sophisticated intellectuals and simple peasants from all corners of the country. And in a stream of prayer, they carried him to the very gates of Paradise, from where, according to his word, he could call upon the Mother of God to open them for him.

Fr. Paisie’s prayer of blessing for pilgrims:

May God forgive you. May God hear you. May God see you. May God love you. May God accompany you. May God protect you. May God guide you. May God comfort you. May God help you. May God protect you from enemies. May God tame them. May God soften your heart. May God grant you to forget evil. May God help you not to do evil. May God direct you to do good. May God make you merciful. May God give you the strength to forgive. May God grant you to see the good in others.

​St. Paisie of Sihăstria