Catacomb confessor Saint Nicetas Lekhan (1893-1985)

His life:

Fr. Nicetas Lekhan - was born in 1893 in the Poltava district. In 1923 he was ordained
to the priesthood in the Dnepropetrovsk diocese and served in the village of Ovsyuki, Cherkassky province.

In this village there lived some True Orthodox nuns, who had come there from various closed monasteries. They told him about sergianism - the way in which the official Russian Church under Metropolitan Sergius had surrendered to the communists. But he was young then and did not listen to them particularly.

But then, as he himself related, the Lord sent him a penance for his service in the "sergianist church" - he was arrested. Throughout his years in prison he considered it a punishment, and not an exploit. He thought the same with regard to those convinced sergianist bishops and priests who were arrested in spite of their agreement with the atheists. When Fr. Nicetas had worked out the real church situation, he even wrote a book about it.

After the end of the Second World War he was offered the chance to remain a priest and serve officially in a church, but for this he would have to join the communist party. He refused, was arrested on the denunciation of a komsomol member, and was given a 25-year sentence.

After being released in 1955, he led a life of wandering before settling in Kharkov.

Later in life, he was able to make contact with Metropolitan Philaret of the ROCOR. They both
had deep respect for each other.

In 1985, Fr. Nicetas passed onto eternity afterbeholding a vision of Sts. Basil the Great, John
Chrysostom and Dimitry of Rostov.

This faithful confessor of the Russian Orthodox Catacomb Church has been known to work miracles
for those who approach him with faith in prayer!

KGB Christianity and the Woke Right (Contrarian Coffeehouse)

Part 1:

After the Bolsheviks took power in Russia in 1917, an open campaign of terror was launched against all religions, and particularly against the Russian Orthodox Church.

One of the targeted groups was the clergy, especially those of the Russian Orthodox Church. Priests, monks and nuns were crucified, thrown into cauldrons of boiling tar, scalped, strangled, drowned in holes in the ice, given Communion with melted lead. In the summer of 1918 in one diocese, 47 clergymen were shot, drowned, or axed to death. An estimated 3,000 were put to death in that year alone.

Seven decades later, the situation was different. Soviet communism, unable to compete with the West economically and ideologically bankrupt, was in crisis. In 1991, under the leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet Union was officially dissolved. The Soviet Union disbanded, but did it disappear, or did it take on a new form?

As described by Charles Glover in his book, Black Wind White Snow, in 1987 the Moscow Communist Party leader, and later Soviet Politburo member, Yuri Prokofiev led a team seeking to rebrand secular communism “by imbuing it with a theological meaning” in order to create a “fusion of communism, nationalism and Orthodox Christianity.” Prokofiev later co-founded the Strategic Culture Foundation and led it until 2015. Still active today, it has been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department for being a front for the Russian SVR intelligence service.

In 1987 Moscow Communist Party leader Yuri Prokofiev led a team seeking to rebrand secular communism “by imbuing it with a theological meaning” in order to create a “fusion of communism, nationalism and Orthodox Christianity.”

Lives of Apostles Bartholomew and Barnabas

Live of Apostle Bartholomew:

Saint Bartholomew the Apostle is one and the same person as Nathanael , mentioned in the Gospel of Saint John the Theologian ( John 1:45ff ; John 21:2 ). Nathanael was from the Galilean city of Cana. The Lord called him among the first to follow Him. Here is how it happened. When the Lord called Philip, he was filled with great joy, and his heart longed to share this joy with others. Then he went to his friend Nathanael. “We have found Him,” he hastened to convey the greatest news to Nathanael with a joyful face, “we have found Him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets wrote: this is Jesus, the son of Joseph, of Nazareth.” But Nathanael doubted: Philip’s words seemed strange to him. Nazareth was a city in Galilee, and Galilee was home to many pagans, with whom the native Jews who inhabited Galilee maintained close relationships. For this reason, they were held in contempt by the other Jews , and Nathanael shared this general prejudice against the Galileans. He was also familiar with the Jewish wisdom of the books and knew that the Leader who would shepherd Israel would come from the land of Judea (see Micah 5:2 ). "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" he objected to Philip. "Go and see for yourself," Philip replied. He was confident that Nathanael, as soon as he saw the Lord and heard His divine words, would immediately believe that He was the Messiah promised in the Old Testament. Nathanael went. "Behold, a true Israelite, one without passions," said Christ, seeing Nathanael approaching Him. "How do you know me?" Nathanael asked in surprise. "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." Something special must have happened under the fig tree for Nathanael: the mere hint of this circumstance astonished him. "Teacher! You are the Son of God, You are the King of Israel!" he exclaimed in tenderness. "You believe what I said to you, 'I saw you under the fig tree,' you will see more than that," Christ continued, and solemnly said: "Truly, truly, I say to you, from now on you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God alternately ascending and descending upon the Son of Man" ( John 1:45-51 ). From that time on, Nathanael firmly believed in Christ and became His disciple. When the 12 apostles were chosen, he, under the name of Bartholomew, was also numbered among them by the Lord ( Luke 6:14 ; Mark 3:18 ).

The Revelation of the Hymn "Axion Estin" by the Archangel Gabriel

 

The Axion Estin ("It is Truly Meet") Icon of the Mother of God is in the high place of the altar (synthronon) of the cathedral church of the Karyes monastery on Mount Athos.

During the reign of the emperors Basil and Constantine Porphyrogenitos, and the patriarchate of St Nicholas Chrysoberges (984-995), a certain Elder and his disciple lived near Karyes, the administrative center of the Holy Mountain.

One Saturday night the Elder went to Karyes for the all-night vigil. He left, instructing his disciple to remain behind and read the service in their cell. As it grew dark, the disciple heard a knock on the door. When he opened the door, he saw an unknown monk who called himself Gabriel, and he invited him to come in. They stood before the icon of the Mother of God and read the service together with reverence and compunction.

During the Ninth Ode of the Canon, the disciple began to sing "My soul magnifies the Lord…" with the Irmos of St Cosmas the Hymnographer (October 14), "More honorable than the Cherubim…."

The stranger sang the next verse, "For He has regarded the low estate of His handmaiden…." Then he chanted something the disciple had never heard before, "It is truly meet to bless Thee, O Theotokos, ever-blessed and most pure, and the Mother of our God…" Then he continued with, "More honorable than the Cherubim.…"

While the hymn was being sung, the icon of the Theotokos shone with a heavenly light. The disciple was moved by the new version of the familiar hymn, and asked his guest to write the words down for him. When the stranger asked for paper and ink, the disciple said that they did not have any.

The stranger took a roof tile and wrote the words of the hymn on its surface with his finger. The disciple knew then that this was no ordinary monk, but the Archangel Gabriel. The angel said, "Sing in this manner, and all the Orthodox as well." Then he disappeared, and the icon of the Mother of God continued to radiate light for some time afterward.

The Eleousa Icon of the Mother of God, before which the hymn "It Is Truly Meet" was first sung, was transferred to the katholikon at Karyes. The tile, with the hymn written on it by the Archangel Gabriel, was taken to Constantinople when St Nicholas Chrysoberges (December 16) was Patriarch.

Numerous copies of the "It Is Truly Meet" Icon are revered in Russian churches. At the Galerna Harbor of Peterburg a church with five cupolas was built in honor of the Merciful Mother of God, and into it they put a grace-bearing copy of the "It Is Truly Meet" icon sent from Athos.

Source:
 https://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2010/06/revelation-of-hymn-axion-estin-by.html

Chinese New Martyrs of the Boxer Rebellion (XX Century)

 

Chinese Martyrs

According to tradition, the first to bring the good news of the Son of God to China were the so-called Thomists, Christians from India, where the Apostle Thomas preached. But the Thomists' preaching was not successful. Somewhat more successful, though not by much, were the Nestorians—heretics who, as exiles from the Byzantine Empire, traveled far to the East and reached the Chinese Kingdom.

The Roman Catholic Church later sent some of its missionaries to China, including the Jesuits. Their most famous missionary was Xavier. But the Jesuits' internecine strife provoked the Chinese, who killed some and expelled others. After the Roman missionaries, Protestant missionaries from England and America came to China. Finally, an Orthodox mission appeared – a Russian one. The Chinese Orthodox Brotherhood in Shanghai consists of many members, both Chinese and Russian.

At the end of the 19th century, Europe held all nations on Earth under its sway, with a few exceptions. Among these free non-European nations was the Chinese. China was subjected to terrible oppression, enslavement, and plunder.

In 1900, a group of Chinese rebelled against Europeans, whom they called "white devils." These rebels were called "Boxers," hence their rebellion, known as the "Boxer Rebellion." The Boxers began killing Europeans as evildoers, robbers, and tyrants. They hated everything European, including the faith brought to them by the European apostles. Their hatred of white people was also hatred of Christians. Hence, the Boxers' wrath turned against their own Christians—that is, the baptized Chinese. Several hundred Orthodox Chinese, considered Christian martyrs for their faith, or "for the Holy Cross," perished in that bloody Boxer Rebellion. We have chosen to describe the suffering and death of these Chinese martyrs here.

On the world and how an Orthodox Christian should relate to it

Our goal is to die to this world and live for God, I will quote the New Testament and Saints:

Guide for Confession (Compiled by Saint Valeriu Gafencu)

Valeriu Gafencu (1921–1952), known as “the Saint of the Prisons,” was born on January 24, 1921, in Sângera, near Bălți, in Bessarabia. He was the son of Vasile and Elena Gafencu, wealthy and pious peasants. His father, a man of integrity and national spirit, had participated in the 1918 union of Bessarabia with Romania and later returned to farm and teach in the village. Valeriu grew up in a harmonious Christian family marked by love, purity, and faithfulness.

A gifted and sensitive student, Valeriu excelled in school, loved literature, and showed strong moral character. After graduating high school in Bălți in 1940, he enrolled in the Faculty of Law in Iași. Following the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia, the family took refuge in Romania. As a young man of idealistic and enthusiastic nature, Valeriu joined the Brotherhood of the Cross (Frăția de Cruce) during high school and later became a leader of high school students in Iași within the Legionnaire movement.

In autumn 1941, at the age of 20, he was arrested during a Brotherhood meeting and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He was sent to Aiud prison in January 1942. In the harsh conditions of communist prisons (Aiud, Pitești, Târgu-Ocna), Valeriu underwent profound spiritual transformation. Through asceticism, unceasing prayer (including the Jesus Prayer), and total dedication to Christ, he reached great heights of holiness. He endured severe illness (tuberculosis), torture, and the Pitești re-education experiments with meekness, sacrificial love, and inner peace. Fellow prisoners, including Ioan Ianolide, Father Gheorghe Calciu-Dumitreasa, and others, witnessed his Christ-like life, gifts of prayer, foresight, and even a vision of the Mother of God.

Valeriu became a spiritual father and light to many in the “lavra of Aiud” and other prisons. On the night of his last Christmas, he received encouragement from the Theotokos. Knowing in advance the day of his death, he prepared for it with peace and joy. He confessed, received Holy Communion, asked forgiveness of everyone, and passed into eternity on February 18, 1952, at Târgu-Ocna prison, at the age of 31.

Through his life of martyrdom and unwavering faith amid communist persecution, Valeriu Gafencu is venerated by many as a new martyr and confessor of Christ — a shining example of holiness forged in the prisons of 20th-century Romania.

The book about him can be read here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pzm6ok9Q2rgf57qDJ0cnPF1-y2zepXXQ/view?usp=drive_link

On the Divine Providence (Saint John Maximovich of Tobolsk the relative of Saint John Maximovich of Shanghai and San Francisco)

Excerpt from the work of St.John Maximovich , Archbishop of Chernigov (1697–1712) and Metropolitan of Tobolsk and All Siberia (1712–1715), who died on June 10, 1715, and was canonized in 1916. The work itself, first written by the saint in Latin for students of the Kiev-Mohyla Academy and later translated by him into Slavonic-Russian, bears the following title: “ Heliotropion , that is, a sunflower representing the conformity of human will with the Divine will.”

The full book can be read here in PDF: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NVIwJFx1JPtIfIPO58jgJgfDEqRijhRw/view?usp=drive_link

Or online: https://azbyka-org.translate.goog/otechnik/Ioann_Tobolskij/iliotropion/?_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp

Life of Saint Alexy Mechev (+1923)

Saint Righteous Alexy Mechev was born on March 17, 1859, into the pious family of the choirmaster of the Chudov Cathedral Choir.

His father, Alexei Ivanovich Mechev, the son of an archpriest from the Kolomna district, was saved from death by freezing temperatures as a child on a cold winter's night by Saint Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna. Among the boys from the clergy families of the Moscow diocese, selected for their musicality, he was brought late that evening to the metropolitan's metochion on Troitsky Lane. While the children were eating dinner, the Metropolitan suddenly became alarmed, quickly dressed, and went out to inspect the arriving convoy. In one of the sleds, he discovered a sleeping boy, left there through oversight. Seeing this as Divine Providence, Metropolitan Philaret showed special attention and care to the child he had saved, constantly caring for him and, later, for his family.

Life of Saint Cyril of Alexandria (+444)

A great teacher of the Church, Saint Cyril of Alexandria was born in Alexandria itself. He was descended from noble Christian parents and, on his mother's side, was the nephew of the renowned Theophilus, Patriarch of Alexandria. Cyril received a very brilliant education for his time: he thoroughly mastered all the secular wisdom of the Hellenic faith, as well as the Divine Scriptures and Christian doctrine. Cyril's uncle, Patriarch Theophilus, seeing his nephew's brilliant abilities and chaste lifestyle, enrolled him in his clergy, ordaining the young Cyril as an archdeacon. And so Saint Cyril became like a fragrant flower planted in the church's vineyard, blossoming with sublime purity and fragrant with the divinely wise teachings of Christ's Church.

Life of the holy great martyr Theodore Stratelates (+319)

 

The impious Emperor Licinius , having assumed the scepter after the impious Maximian and imitating him in everything, immediately launched a great persecution against those distinguished for their piety. He sent a decree concerning this impious decree to all cities and countries. During this time, many brave soldiers of Christ were killed: Licinius slew the forty martyrs of Sebaste , as well as renowned warriors and princes of his own court, and finally, he killed three hundred men from Macedonia.

The Life and works of St Paul of Taganrog (+1879)

Righteous Paul of Taganrog was born on November 8, 1792, to Pavel Stozhkov, a nobleman in the Krolevetsky district of Chernigov province. At baptism, he was named in honor of St. Paul the Confessor. His parents wanted to provide their son with an education and a good social position, but the young man strove for salvation and a God-pleasing life through prayer and pilgrimage to holy places. At age 25, following the Lord's words: "...sell all that thou hast and distribute to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven" ( Luke 18:22 ), blessed Paul distributed his inherited estate, freed the peasants, and, with his father's blessing, set out on his cherished pilgrimage to the holy monasteries, hoping to find rest for his soul under their protection.

The Path to Life's Renewal (New Martyr Theodore Pozdeevsky)

The sacred memories of the Lord's suffering, to which the Holy Forty Days of Lent lead us, must inevitably renew, both in our consciousness and in our inner state of heart, those great Christian principles of love and humility that should permeate our entire lives. For if we are Christians not only in name but truly desire to be so, then, of course, we cannot help but feel, we cannot help but experience a special uplift of spirit, a special spiritual joy, when we again see the love of Christ triumphant even on the cross, the love of Christ conquering the malice of enemies, the treachery of the traitor, and the horror of mortal suffering. We cannot help but feel spiritual joy when we again hear that love and humility—these great covenants of Christ—conquer or have already conquered the world (John 16:33). So, if anyone recognizes himself as a Christian, and if anyone recognizes the task of his Christian life, in the complete internal spiritual rebirth and renewal of his entire life, then by the memory of these very recollections of the cross of Christ, as if by a new breath of the spirit of Christ, he must revive within himself these Christ-like moods of love and humility.

And if now, precisely in our days, everyone feels some kind of decay in life and a kind of spiritual impoverishment, then in these memories of the passion of Christ such a fullness of spiritual riches is revealed that anyone who has not yet become completely hardened against the truth of Christ can draw from here everything necessary to satisfy the demands of his conscience and moral duty.

Our only problem is that we have lost our childish trust in Christ's truth. We approach Christ, look at Him, and listen to Him not as He speaks to us or as He reveals Himself, but as we ourselves desire. And because we are fainthearted and weak, because the spirit of the world by which we live and which we seek to reconcile with the spirit of Christ is hostile to it (John 15:19), it actually happens that Christ's holy truth is distorted, trivialized, and sometimes completely denied. This very error and this perverse attitude toward Christianity, when people raise a sacrilegious hand against it and seek to remake it to their own tastes, to adapt it to the life of this world, undoubtedly has its root cause in those very inner moods of egotism and pride by which every sinful person lives. After all, if we were to interrogate our own consciences, if we were to dispassionately examine and evaluate our lives, we would likely notice that each of us, in our own way, distorts Christianity, trying to adapt it to our sinful lives. After all, it takes much sorrow and struggle to completely renounce what we are accustomed to living. Meanwhile, Christianity offers and demands of us precisely a complete renewal of life, a complete renunciation of the former content of sinful life and the assimilation of new things in both our inner moods and their outward manifestations. And so, on the basis of this unconditional demand of Christianity—to radically change our entire life, both inner and outer—and on the basis of this sinful, natural human desire to reconcile the spirit of Christ with the spirit of this world—a constant distortion of Christianity actually occurs.

On Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition (Saint Vincent of Lerins)

Discourse of St. Vincent of Lerins, priest and monk of the monastery of Lerins, written in 434.

In view of the Scriptures which teach, "Ask your father, and he will tell you; your elders, and they will tell you" ( Deut. 32:7 ), and also, "Incline your ear, and hear the words of the wise" ( Proverbs 22:17 ), and again, "My son, do not forget my teaching, and let your heart keep my commandments" ( Proverbs 3:1 ), it seems to me, the least of all God's servants, that with God's help it will not be at all useless if I set down in writing what I have reverently received from the Holy Fathers. I will begin this in the name of God, and will write down the tradition bequeathed to me by my ancestors, not with the arrogance of some author, but rather with the accuracy of a faithful copyist.

Two sources of Orthodox dogma

Often, with all diligence and the greatest attention, I addressed the question to many men adorned with holiness and the gift of teaching: in what way it would be more convenient for me, walking the faithful, as if royal, and direct path, to distinguish the truth of the universal faith from the falsity of heretical deviations, and always everyone gave me almost word for word this kind of answer: if anyone, whether I or anyone else, wants to avoid heretical lies and remain in sound faith healthy and unharmed, then he must, with the help of God, protect his faith in two ways: first, by the authority of Holy Scripture, and secondly, by the tradition of the Universal Church.

History of papal primacy and infallibilty and how Orthodoxy understands the authority of the bishops

Beginning in the 13th century, the doctrine of God’s Church was progressively obscured in the West. Instead of being the mystical unity of the faithful in the Body of Christ, the Church was defined in purely external terms: to be in the Church one needed to be subject to the authority of the Bishop of Rome. The first official dogmatic statement to this effect came at the Fourth Lateran Council (1213-15) which claimed that the Roman church “through the Lord’s disposition has a primacy of ordinary power over all other churches inasmuch as it is the mother and mistress of all Christ’s faithful.”

In 1302, Pope Boniface VIII issued his famous bull Unam Sanctam which stated: “We declare, we proclaim, we define that it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff.” In 1327, Pope John XXII declared that anyone who rejected the divine primacy of the Pope was a heretic: “That blessed Peter the Apostle had no more authority than the other Apostles had nor was he the head of the other Apostles. Likewise that God did not send forth any head of the Church, nor did He make anyone His vicar...We declare by sentence the above mentioned articles...to be contrary to Sacred Scripture and enemies of the Catholic faith, heretics, or heretical and erroneous.”

During the same period, certain canonists and writers began advancing the idea that the Pope was infallible. This was only a natural development of the idea of papal primacy: after all, if the Church rests on the Pope and the Church is without error, then the Pope—by virtue of his office—must be without error also. Thus, it was no longer Apostolic Tradition, the Ecumenical Councils, or the Church Fathers who were the touchstone of truth, but the person of the Pope. According to Augustinus Triumphus of Ancona (d. 1328), a disciple of Thomas Aquinas, “the judgement of the Pope and the judgement of God is one and the same,” while according to the canonist Alvarus Pelagius (d. 1352), “the Pope is not simply a man but is like a god on Earth.”

Not surprisingly, the Roman innovations were not met without resistance. The influential canonists Huguccio (d. 1210) and Joannes Teutonicus (d. 1245) adhered to the traditional view that the Pope was subject to error and could be a heretic.

The 14th and 15th centuries also saw the emergence of the conciliarist movement. Conciliarist writers and theologians like John Quidort of Paris (d. 1306), William Durandus the Younger (d. 1328), Jean Gerson (d. 1429), Pierre D’Ailly (d. 1420), Francesco Zabarella (d. 1417), and Nicolas of Cusa (d. 1464) taught that only the Church was infallible; while they conceded that the papal office was of divine origin and needed to be respected, they believed that it was an office of oversight and stewardship and that a Pope could be deposed by a council of bishops if he erred. Other writers like Marsilius of Padua (d. 1342) and William of Ockham (d. 1347) went even further and denied that the papal office was divinely instituted or that the Pope was the head of the Church. Both of these writers proposed conciliarist systems of their own. From an Orthodox perspective, all of these approaches are flawed as they failed to restore the ancient criterion of truth: faithfulness to the apostolic tradition and the Ecumenical Councils. Subordinating the power of the Pope to a council of bishops simply relocates the problem: instead of one infallible bishop, it creates an infallible college of bishops. But according to Orthodoxy, truth is not a matter of numbers or consent. In fact, there have been many false councils in history that have taught heresy, just as there have been individual saints who preserved Orthodoxy when many churches had fallen into error, as in the case of Saint Maximus the Confessor.

Faithfulness to the apostolic deposit is what defines the Church. Conciliarism is subordinate to apostolicity, not the other way around. If such an approach had been followed by the Western church, the question of the papacy could have easily been resolved: Canon 6 of the First Ecumenical Council states that each church retains jurisdiction over its respective provinces (i.e. Rome’s jurisdiction is limited). Canon 8 of the Third Ecumenical Council states that it is forbidden for a bishop to assume control of a province that has not been under his authority or the authority of his predecessors from the very beginning (i.e. Rome’s universal pretensions are unlawful). Canon 28 of the Fourth Ecumenical Council states that the Pope was granted prerogatives by the Church because he presides over the capital of the Roman Empire (i.e. the papacy is not divinely ordained). Canon 28 of the Council of Carthage, which was ratified by the Fathers of the Quinisext Council, states that it is forbidden for clergy or bishops to bring canonical appeals to jurisdictions other than their own (i.e. it is unlawful for the Pope to interfere in other jurisdictions). Apostolic Canon 34 states that a metropolitan cannot act without the consent of the other bishops in his province (i.e. all bishops including the Pope are equal).

How many conflicts and scandals could have been avoided had these canons been respected!

GOD'S PERMISSION/ALLOWANCE (Why does God allow evil?) - Archimandrite Tikhon (Nevidimov)

What is God's permission? What mysterious and painful aspect of human existence does it touch? God's permission is those very moments when it seems He turns away from us, leaving us alone with our suffering, misfortune, and sin. More than one generation has asked: why does God, the Almighty and Merciful, allow evil, sorrow, torment, tragedy, and suffering in the world? Why doesn't He intervene when man falls into the abyss of lawlessness?

This question is perhaps one of the most tormenting in human spiritual life. And if we consider the meaning of permission, it reveals, first and foremost, the tragedy of freedom. God, having created man in His own image and likeness, gave him the greatest gift—freedom. But this freedom also carries with it a terrible burden: responsibility for one's choices. And so, man, endowed with this gift, often becomes hostage to his passions, desires, and mistakes. And God allows this to happen. Why? Is He indifferent to our suffering?

No, it's not indifference, but great wisdom, beyond human comprehension. God allows us to endure evil because He respects our freedom. He does not interfere with our choices, even if we choose the path that leads to destruction. Why? Because true love cannot be forced. Love for God is an act of free choice, an act of personal awareness and striving for good. If God intervened every time, correcting our mistakes, would that be true freedom?
The essence of permissiveness is a path of trials and overcoming. A person abandoned to the face of sin and evil is called to recognize their weaknesses, their mistakes. God's permissiveness is not a punishment; it is a school in which the soul learns to distinguish between good and evil, to choose the right path, even when the whole world seems to be against it. After all, in every trial, God leaves a path to salvation, a chance for correction.

But how difficult it is to comprehend this in moments of pain! How often does suffering seem meaningless, and evil all-conquering! And then despair rises within us: where is God? Why is He silent? But God's silence is not emptiness; it is a call. A call to self-knowledge, to the image and likeness of God within ourselves, to the strengthening of faith. God's permission is the abyss into which man gazes, and only by a free act of will can he choose whether to fall into this abyss or soar toward the light.

And here we see the great mystery of God's permission. It is not a rejection of man, but, on the contrary, a great trust. God believes that the soul is capable of overcoming evil, that in every soul there is a spark that will sooner or later ignite. He does not deprive us of freedom of choice, even when this choice leads to a fall, because in every fall there is an opportunity for rebirth. The pinnacle of the human response to God's permission is the triumph of the spirit of faith. It is the understanding that even in the darkest moments of our lives, when evil seems to triumph, God is with us. And He gives us the opportunity to find our own path to Him, to choose goodness ourselves. And this is the greatest wisdom and love, revealed through trials.

BE WISE AS SERPENTS AND SIMPLE AS DOVES (Matthew 10:16–10:22)

Archimandrite Tikhon (Nevidimov)

As the Lord continues to instruct the disciples before their dispatch into the world, His words become especially serious and almost alarming. He does not conceal the difficulties ahead or portray the path of faith as an easy one. On the contrary, He speaks directly: "Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves."
This image reveals the real situation of a person living according to the Gospel. A sheep among wolves is a defenseless creature, lacking the strength to fight. Christ does not arm His disciples with swords or promise them external dominion. He sends them with other weapons—truth, love, and inner freedom.

But precisely for this reason He adds: "Be wise as serpents and simple as doves." These words connect two qualities that at first glance seem contradictory. The serpent's wisdom signifies sobriety and prudence. A disciple of Christ must not be naive and thoughtless. He must recognize danger, understand human weaknesses, and discern deception.
However, this wisdom must not degenerate into cunning or cruelty. Therefore, Christ adds a second quality—the purity of a dove. This is an image of a heart that remains free from malice and vengefulness. Spiritually, an important balance is revealed here: sobriety of mind and purity of heart.

Then Christ speaks of persecution: "Beware of men, for they will deliver you up to courts and beat you in the synagogues." These words seem harsh, but the Holy Fathers explain that the Lord warns the disciples in advance, so that trials do not destroy their faith. When a person knows that difficulties may arise, they perceive them not as an accident, but as part of the journey.

Interestingly, Christ speaks not only of religious courts but also of rulers and kings. The disciples will face the authorities, and this will become a testimony "to them and to the Gentiles." Even persecution becomes a means of preaching. Where people try to silence the truth, it begins to resonate even more powerfully.
But here the Lord makes a remarkable promise: "When they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you will speak." These words do not call for irresponsibility. They point to the source of the true word. "It is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you." This is a reference to the action of grace. When a person finds himself in a situation where human wisdom no longer helps, then the power of God can be revealed. Sometimes, precisely in moments of extreme weakness, words are born that a person could not have conceived on their own.

But trials can be even deeper. Christ says that even family ties can be destroyed: "Brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his son." This is not a prophecy that love will disappear, but a reference to the power of spiritual division. Truth sometimes penetrates the closest relationships, and a person can find themselves alone even among family. "And you will be hated by all for My name's sake." These words show that following Christ inevitably comes into conflict with a world that lives by different values. Where pride, lust for power, or self-interest reign, the truth of the Gospel becomes a rebuke.

But the Lord concludes this speech with a word of hope: "He who endures to the end will be saved." Here, the most important requirement of spiritual life is revealed: perseverance. Faith is not measured only by momentary impulses or powerful experiences. It is tested by time, trials, and faithfulness in difficult moments.
This means the ability to persevere when faith becomes difficult. A person may experience doubts, fatigue, and fear—but if they continue on, if they do not abandon the path, their faith is gradually purified.

Thus, this Gospel passage reveals a realistic view of spiritual life. Christ does not promise his disciples an easy path. He speaks of wolves, of judgment, of hatred. But at the same time, He speaks of wisdom, of purity of heart, of the Spirit's help, and of salvation.

And therefore, the path of the disciple is not a path of external strength, but a path of inner faithfulness. A person may be weak before the world, but if the Spirit of God dwells within them, their word and their life become a testimony to the truth.
And then, even among wolves, the sheep does not perish. Because its strength lies not in its own defense, but in the Shepherd Who leads it through all dangers to life.

Life of Saint Justin Popovich (1894-1979)

 

The divine apostle commands: Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you, and considering the outcome of their life, imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever ( Heb. 13:7–8 ).

And truly the Lord Jesus Christ , the eternal Word of God—the Logos of God, and the eternal Wisdom of God—is the same yesterday and today and forever, the same from eternity to eternity, the unchanging Only-begotten Son of God and God our Savior. As the eternal Love of God and the eternal Lover of Mankind, He created the human race in the beginning, called it from nothingness into being, and in the last times He, the same and unchanging, abounding in love and love for mankind, became incarnate of the Holy Theotokos "for us men and for our salvation." He, as the wise Solomon says, created both small and great, and cares equally for all ( Wisdom of Solomon 6:7 ), and therefore He gave prophets and righteous men in the Old Testament to teach and instruct the people of God; He chose His holy apostles and sent them into the world to preach the word of the Gospel for the salvation of every man and every creature. He continues to this day to provide and ordain teachers, mentors, fathers, and pastors in His holy Church, and through them He guides us and teaches us His divine word. They, through the Holy Spirit, bear witness to us from generation to generation about the Living and True God, about the eternal Truth and Righteousness of God, about eternal salvation and eternal life in Him—the One God and our Savior—both here on earth and in the eternal Kingdom of Heaven.

Russia is a demonic, antichristian and totalitarian state! Anathema to Putin and Kirill and to all those who support them!

 1.The Kyiv Pechersk Lavra caught fire in Kyiv after a Russian attack.

On the night of June 15, Russia launched a massive air strike on Ukraine. According to rescuers, four people were killed and 25 injured in Kyiv.

Following the attack, a fire broke out on the roof of the Dormition Cathedral of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra. The fire covered approximately 800 square meters.

The Art Arsenal museum complex also caught fire, engulfing approximately 1,000 square meters. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha stated (https://t.me/Ukraine_MFA/9309) that Kyiv will initiate procedures within UNESCO and other international mechanisms due to the attack on the heritage site.

In case readers will start to blame NATO and CIA for this, here is what the Russian Department of Defense itself states:

The Russian Ministry of Defense commented (https://t.me/mod_russia/64548) on the massive airstrikes in Ukraine on the night of June 15, which included damage to the Dormition Cathedral (https://t.me/shaltnotkill/13219) of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and St. Nicholas Cathedral in Dnipro (https://t.me/shaltnotkill/13221).

The Russian ministry stated that "a massive strike was launched using long-range precision-guided air, land, and sea-based weapons and attack drones against defense industry facilities in the cities of Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Dnipropetrovsk, as well as military airfields and territorial procurement centers."

The Russian Ministry of Defense emphasized that "the strike's objectives were achieved, all designated targets were hit."

On Theosis (Saint Sophrony Sakharov and other Saints)

 

For the mind, this immaterial nature and light, akin, one might say, to that first supreme light, from which everything is and which is above everything, is wholly directed towards that existential light, in an immaterial persistent and sincere prayer recklessly rushing towards God, transformed in this impulse even to angelic dignity and, like an angel, illuminated by the First Light

[St. Gregory the Theologian. Conversation 40, 5: PG 36, 364 B. ]

(Quoted from: St. Gregory Palamas. Triads in Defense of Those Who Practice Sacred Hesychia.

Part 3 of the Triad I. Answer 3, 39)

HEAVENLY REALM (A COLLECTION OF LAY-SERMONS BY FR. SERAPHIM ROSE WHEN HE WAS THE ORTHODOX LAYMAN, EUGENE)

In 1984, two years after Fr. Seraphim's repose, Platina published a collection of lay sermons that Eugene Rose had written for the San Francisco Cathedral bulletin back in the 1960's. The book, titled Heavenly Realm, is out of print, however the lay sermons have been re-collected from various places. Several years after Fr. Seraphim had submitted his lay sermons for publication, he looked back as a priest on the value of his earlier new-convert writings – he assessed the value of those sermons both for the reader and for himself as the writer.

What Fr, Seraphim told to Fr. Alexey Young from Letters, page 22

August 16/29, 1971

“... Nonetheless, even without a newspaper, it doesn't hurt for converts to share ideas with each other.

Some years ago I wrote brief articles somewhat in the same vein, at the insistence of Archbishop John, who wanted at least a page or two of English material in the San Francisco diocesan bulletin (now defunct). I don't know who if anyone read them, and looking back on them now I find them, despite the "feeling" I put into them, somewhat "abstract," the product of thinking that hadn't had too much experience as yet, either of Orthodox literature or Orthodox life. Still, for me they served as important function in my understanding and expression of various Orthodox questions, and even in my Orthodox "development," and Vladyka John "pushed" that.”

 CONTENTS:

-God is Dead

-Archimandrite Sebastian Dabovich

-Ascension of Our Lord

-Prayer of the Good Thief

-The Radiant Feast

-The Great Fast, Our Exile

-Many Are Called, But Few Are Chosen

-The Meaning of Affliction

-Christian Love

-God is Fire

-The Other-Worldliness of Holy Orthodoxy

-The Fear of God

-The Feast of Mid-Pentecost

-St. John, A Prophet

-St. John of Kronstadt

-The Veneration of Icons

-On the Transfiguration of Our Lord 

 -Weeping Icons of the Mother of God 

Substituting the "Russian Orthodox Church": The Church of Christ or the Church of Stalin? A Historian's Response

Is the "Russian Orthodox Church" a religious institution or a Kremlin hybrid technology for socio-political control and governance? This is the subject of a conversation with renowned Ukrainian historian Sergei Shumilo.

The video itself is in Russian, it is 50 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GElpbnFtRIc

However I made a summary of the video with AI which can be read here:

What is holiness and why should an Orthodox Christian read the Lives of the Saints? (Saint Justin Popovich)

Before the coming of the Lord Christ into our earthly world, we humans knew that we were, in essence, only for death and death for us. All that was human was permeated, captured, and conquered by death. Death was closer to us than we were, more real than we were, and more powerful, incomparably more powerful than each individual and all people combined. The earth was a terrible prison of death, and we humans were death's helpless slaves (cf. Heb. 2:14-15 ). Only with the God-Man Christ did life appear, did eternal life appear to us, hopeless mortals, to us, death's wretched slaves. And we humans have seen this eternal life with our own eyes and touched it with our own hands, and we Christians proclaim eternal life to all. Because by living in communion with the Lord Christ, we live eternal life even here on earth (cf. 1 John 1:1-3 ). We know from personal experience: Jesus Christ “is the true God and eternal life” ( 1 John 5:20 ). He came into the world for this very purpose: to show us the true God and eternal life in Him (cf. 1 John 5:11 ). This, and this alone, is true and genuine love for mankind: “that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live in Him” ( 1 John 4:9 ), and through Him – eternal life. Therefore, “he who has the Son of God has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life” ( 1 John 5:12 ); he is entirely in death. Life in the one true God and Lord Jesus Christ is our only true life, for it is eternal and stronger than death. Can a life infected with death and ending in death be called life? Just as honey is not honey if it is mixed with poison, which gradually turns all honey into poison, so a life that ends in death is not life.

Saint Nicholas the Pilgrim of Trani (Italy) the Hesychast (1075-1094)

The blessed martyr and fool-for-Christ Nicholas was a very peculiar "wanderer." He was born (circa 1075) in Stiri, a village located near the Monastery of Hosios Lukas, between Itea and Livadia. [1]

His parents were poor farmers, and his mother sent him to pasture the sheep. This work did not last long because one day, all of a sudden, he began to cry out in a loud voice: *"Kyrie, eleison!"* Taking the initiative to pray unceasingly both in his heart and aloud—as Christ had taught him when He visibly appeared to him—he merited to reach great spiritual heights.

St. Gabriel Confessor and Fool for Christ (1929 – 1995)

Taken from: https://monkgabriel.ge/eng/life.htm

Archimandrite Gabriel, born Goderdzi Urgebadze, is one of the most renowned Orthodox monks in Georgia. He was born to Vasili and Barbara Urgebadze on 26 August 1929 in Tbilisi, Georgia. He was baptized as an infant in St. Martyr Barbara’s Church in the Navtlughi district by the former "Sister of Mercy," Tamar Begiashvili. The communist regime was fiercely violent during that time; religion was persecuted, churches were destroyed and closed, and innocent people were murdered and deported. Goderdzi was about two years old when his father, Vasil Urgebadze, was murdered under uncertain circumstances. After that, his family members called him Vasiko in honor of his father.