Vespers & Divine Liturgy: Service Book for the Faithful St Tikhon's Monastery Press I can not seem to find one any where, you have an extra I can purchase?!
Please read the reviews for the app a lot of people are experiencing issues! The New app is fine aesthetically but there are quite a few bugs especially for the saint of the day portion. 1. It does not automatically update so you have to scroll all the way from jesus's circumcision to the day that you are at, I don't know if this issue has been fixed but it is reoccurring. 2. When you click play all it in fact does not play all the saints of the day but you instead have to manually go in and select each individual saint after the previous one stops, which is quite annoying for those of us who are just trying to listen to them all at one time while at work or driving. 3. Occasionally there is a blank space where typically there would be a saint, I know they have saints for all 365 days of the year but sometimes they are not shown. These are just a few errors that I have discovered. Otherwise the new app looks great I wish it just functioned a little better.
I'm the stepfather to four children. My wife divorced her husband as he was violent towards her in some ways I don't think I need to go into. While I was a Christian before, and the only one in this household, I'm experiencing a strong pull towards Orthodoxy and try to be as positive a force in their lives as I can be. Is there any hope in this situation, or is it lost to sin?
My son was born in 2011 and he enjoys going to russian liturgy. Didn't have to fight with him, no attitude, he just finds it fascinating. I got lucky. May God bless you all as long as He loves Mankind.
@stormshadowctf that is the only thing I've had to help him with, he knows more czech because of my wife but his godfather who is one of the fr. Deacons has helped him with me. But thank you for saying that!
27 here brother, I’m in the same boat. Converted to Orthodoxy last year, I was raised Catholic. I thank God for being merciful with me and showing me the truth! 🙏🏻☦️
They're the least religious as a whole, but the ones who are religious tend to be some of the strongest believers in my experience. Much stronger than the "Christians" in my Millennial generation. I feel we're in for hard times but that there's a light at the end of the tunnel if Christians can pull through for a generation or two.
I completely agree. Gen z will be forged in the best possible way in Christianity, if we continue like this. Sure some will fail, but there will also be greater religious leaders than we've had in the whole past century, I'm sure of this.
Yes, as a gen Z i share the observation. I have never heard of anyone who is gen Z who converted to a protestant denomination, it is always Catholic or Orthodox, this is my case as well.
@@CaesarAugustusBasileusI dont think it's a paradox at all. In fact, I think it makes perfect sense. If you don't have friends that share your faith, the more you'll need courage to deny yourself and follow the way of the cross in a generation where you're mocked for doing that.
Senior Gen Z here (26, born in 97) I can confirm my parents divorced when I was young, and neither are very religious, but nominally are Christian. I bounced from parent to parent over the years, but largely lived with my mom who married a Muslim, who was a good man and father to me, but he himself was largely a lukewarm Muslim. I was atheist/agnostic for most of my life, but a year ago I came back to Christ, and 6 months ago began my journey in the Orthodox Church, and hope to be a catechumen soon! Thank you father for your helpful and insightful videos 🙏🏻 Edit: it’s a month later and I am now an official Catechumen:) God is good
25 Here, 99' Baby. I share a similar experience, parents divorced when I was pretty little, my mother married an Atheist, he was not a great father, was a brute and was pretty absent. Never got to see my Father much, he was a pretty devout Baptist. I unsurprisingly, got into drugs, lustful behavior, PA, and I was a fighter. Just all around not a great person, I got married to a pretty much non-religious woman once I got sober around 22, our marriage went to hell very quickly and she ended up getting hooked on fentanyl and cheating on me. I did not know the light of god, but in that broken place I knew that the only thing that truly mattered was to find god. It was a long process to really change, but i got closer and closer to god, and I then found the Orthodox church. I also hope to be a catechumen soon.
@@johntatum-rn1pt God bless you brother, I’m sorry to hear the world has not been kind to you. I’m so glad to hear you’ve found Christ and the church. You will be in my prayers, and I know the Lord will guide you and continue transform your life. While not as severe as your experiences, I’ve had my fair share of mistakes and regrets, most of which came from my outlook on life and God. We all come to God with our unique burdens, but through his Grace and his Church, I am being healed, and I know you will too ☦️
98’. Parents divorced before i could remember. I had a ton of issues connecting to other people growing up, and in my early 20s I started having mental breakdown after mental breakdown, flunked out of college and would probably be homeless if my grandparents didnt give me a place to stay. Ive been attending my local orthodox church since earlier this year. It’s been the only thing that’s helped. Drugs created new problems for every one they solved, and therapy only made things worse. I still havent brought myself to tell anyone in my family. They’re all either liberal atheists or jesuits, and ive become terrified that my psyche might still be fragile enough that rejection will break it again. All I can do is pray for courage and ask for forgiveness, and hope that I can find the strength soon.
@@maxvarjagen9810 I can relate on struggling to tell your loved ones. Half of my family is Muslim, including my now ex-girlfriend of 8 years. She converted a few years ago while I was still atheistic, and once I came to Christ it was really a matter of time before we just separated. I guess in my experience, it’s been 1000x better and lighter on my soul to show, live, and speak about my faith proudly. Keeping it to yourself will only make you suffer, and you never know what new relationships you can create by being upfront about yourself. Don’t hide your light brother ☦️
I am 19 years old. And I go to Church almost every Sunday to serve the Lord. My family disapproves and makes fun of me for it. But still I go! Greetings from the Netherlands.
It is hard when you are your family members are not on the same page spiritually, but God will reward you for your faithfulness in spite of their mockery. Remember what the Lord said, “ blessed are you when men shall be filed you and persecute you and Chelsea or #MIN, if you go against you falsely for my sake.” Are you in the Orthodox Church? You will here that and all the beatitudes to remind you every Liturgy.
The amount of blessing god puts on believers who are committed while the family is not is impossible to put in words Fight the battle you can’t save your whole family and many around you just be a good example ❤️
@@sennareijer4000 bless you my friend just imagine when angels meet you in front of gates congratulating you and being proud of you for bringing many with you it gives me goosebumps ❤️ and the world become flash and Jesus saved us all with words so focus on that Just talk with them about it passionately and loving way whenever you get chance And tell them every time someone makes fun of you for ur believe will get you blessings from most high so let them laugh and be happy about it thank them for helping you on ur journey and tell them that day will come and they will help u another way with joining you in prayer 🤲🏻 ☦️ you can do this it’s ur responsibility now 💪🏻 19 of age already such a big spiritual battle ☦️
what I noticed is at my church, we have had an explosion of young men joining us as catechumen, like 12 guys in the past two months all in their 20s. What I find a little strange is there are ZERO women in their 20s here, zero. Ive yet to even see a young women visit the church. I think I have an idea of why. oh and generally, Christ is risen is used as a greeting until ascension, otherwise known as paschal season, the more you know.
Gen Z here (18) and I’ve recently found great interest in orthodoxy , I’ve suffered the pain of sexual abuse , separation of parents , moving place to place , lost my faith in God but earlier this year I regained it again. I’m still fighting everyday with evil thoughts Satan puts in my head but I am strong and I look forward to attending the Orthodox Church soon. I have found happiness in orthodoxy and it feels like home. God bless you all!
Remember that God is always with the broken-hearted and meek in spirit. Read the poem footprints in the sand. Hope you continue to grow in faith and love within the orthodox church. Blessings to you!
They have no idea who the Ottomans were, what they did to us, they don't know the first thing about the Barbary, Black Sea and Trans-saharan s|ave trade.
I’m gen z (25 years old Vietnamese), baptized January 2024 . I’ve been listening to Orthodoxy liturgy every day. Both me and my bf desire to convert to Orthodoxy. I thank God everyday for his redemption, grace, love and wisdom and deep personal relationship that I have with Christ.
@@Felipe-kv8qdthe Kingdom of Heaven does not have any condition on race, ethnicity, color...It welcomes everyone that wants to know Christ 🙂 Welcome to the Orthodox Church! ❤☦️🕊
It's easy to blame the children, but it may not be wise. This is the result of Western societies that focus on wealth and personal satisfaction, and we have done this for generations.
@@Zippos_And_Doom_Is_All_I_Need As a gen Z I don't blame millennials for the state of society, I blame it on the boomers with their godless rebellion that destroyed virtue and faith in western societies. I don't hate the boomers for monopolizing the wealth of society, but I am very disappointed that they completely destroyed all notions of virtue, tradition, and faith in their era of sex, drugs, and rocknroll. They are the origin point of the explosion of degeneracy in the west.
I'm an older Millennial who damaged my children tremendously by divorce. Christ working through His Holy Orthodox Church has brought them from suicidality and atheism into Christianity and a dynamic parish life. Glory to God for His miracles.
Thank you for admitting divorce wrecked your kids. Too many people pretend it’s ok. I respect you for admitting your ball drop, Go fourth and sin no more 😇🇰🇵
Thank you for saying how divorce damaged your children. You're only human, and you were lost in that time, but admitting it honestly is very kind of you. My parents divorced, and neither of them admit that the wounds go deep for the children involved. Praying for you and your family's continued healing.
@@arcadiusvincentius3296 well you see stalker, she said atheism *and* suicidality. If the said atheism *and thus* or *and therefore* suicidality maybe you'd have a point.
I'm 66, and I was born into evangelical Protestantism. Late in life I had enough, walked away, was received into the Orthodox Church, and I never looked back! My little Antiochian parish in the midwest is growing, with young families, but especially with men, particularly young men. The Holy Spirit is working.
I'm 58 and was just baptized last Saturday. Glory to God! Your Midwest parish sounds very similar to my Arizona parish. I forgot how many babies have been churched this year...with more to come!
I’m 24. Raised Baptist, fell away from the church, got into the new age movement after psychedelic experiences, came back to Christ as a Protestant. Now I’ve left Protestantism and have been attending liturgy.
If I ever became Christian it would either be to Catholocism or Orthodoxy. Protestanism and Baptism (especially with what has been portrayed in the USA) is radical, scary and dangerous with very few links back to Christ and the original foundations of the Church anyways. Most are brainwashed, radical and potential terrorists in the making. I'm waiting for the Christian pushbacks in the years to come and I will not be surprised when there are shootings and deaths in the name of Jesus Christ and for the right way of living. Islam is similar, but at least they're more honest.
I was an active psychedelic user from the 90's to the early 2010's. I tried everything I could and even things that never made it to the mass market. I regret that period, as well as years of addiction to opiates and many other things in my life. I will say one thing, I have always regarded people who, after a psychedelic experience, fall into the New Age movement, or, for example, talk about the "spiritual essence of the mushroom", as not only religiously misguided, but also spiritually infantile. For their beliefs are modernist eclecticism. A false doctrine from the point of view of any religion. The same is true of followers of theosophy. It is difficult to debate with such people precisely because they are not only deluded, but also believe not in the original source, but in a strange mixture of beliefs. And it doesn't cause them any dissonance. I realise that my arrogance towards these people is a manifestation of pride. But, putting it aside, there are still some questions. I realise that such teachings are the temptation of Evil. But now, thanks to you, for the first time I have drawn some parallels between new age vs Buddhism(or Hinduism, or whatever) and modern Protestantism vs Orthodoxy. After all, many people prefer the former precisely because of the accessibility and simplicity of both the way and the preaching. Answer a couple of questions please, if it's not too much trouble. What's your personal experience? Am I wrong? God Bless You! -Russian Orthodox from Kiev, UA
16 years old. I came back to Christ a few months ago, and I am happy that more people are, as well. Don't lose hope on our generation, we are very stubborn but also very curious. Much love, and God bless.
I'm 24 and socially isolated since childhood. I am in constant psychological pain because of this. Pray for me blessed Father. My first name is Boris. The glory of God strengthen you as usual!
Im 23 and recently accepted Jesus as my Lord within the year. I was an atheist with no religious upbringing, and despite that I was blessed by the Holy Spirit and knew very quickly that that is what had happened to me. Boris and Ace, may God bless you both, and I pray that the Lord Jesus has mercy on you, that the Holy Spirit guides you and edifies you, and that The Father protects you for all time. Amen
My fiancé and I are being baptized in our Orthodox Church soon! You have helped us so much on our journey! We are coming to see you in North Royalton in September☺️ Lord have mercy on our generation!!🙏🏻❤️
Gen Z and Alpha are either totally disinterested in Religion or fully on board. I do think that those generations are going to produce amazing Saints in the hard times that are coming. God bless Gen Z and Alpha ❤☦️
The divide is becoming more and more pronounced. People are being forced to choose between good and evil unwittingly or wittingly when they look at the world around them.
@@TheBanjoShowOfficial Very true; I chose Christ just under 2 years ago. I'm 23 and thanfully am far from the only Gen Z convert. Christ is King. ☦️☦️☦️
Also a Catholic here, I know things have been rough in our Church the last several years, but I want to say keep to the ship my brother in Christ. Jesus’s words were true when he said that the gates of Hell would not prevail. I greatly appreciate all of the Orthodox around the world and their deep spirituality, and I pray we all may come back into one fold as Christ desired.
26 years old here. Gen Z (1998). Devout Catholic out of a not so religious family. Prayed for 2 of my friends that were atheist to come closer to Christ. Happy to say both are now Christians (one Catholic one Eastern Orthodox).
Young gen Z here (2007, Poland), my family is almost entirely Roman Catholic however not religious at all. My parents are millenials, unmarried and seperated a long time ago, so I was pretty much raised by my mom (who is actually mostly unbelieving) and grandparents. I could say I was also raised by the internet (no authority in my life, so I really just did whatever I wanted all the time) and I fell into pornography very early on because I had such easy access at a young age. Then when I was 11 years old I claimed to be an atheist, a very stubborn and insufferable one at that (openly telling people about how every religion is false whenever I could because I felt better than them, I had no limits honestly and I didn't have almost any friends at school because I became proud, egocentric and just straight up mean) and I fell into a lot of sin and mental issues on the way. Last year, quite unexpectedly, I started believing again after some research which really just started with seeing a Christian video pop up on my recommended page, and I gained interest in studying Christianity. I started praying every day, reading the Bible, my demeanor changed dramatically, but I couldn't really bring myself to accept any denomination just yet. Months later, however, I started looking into Orthodoxy and something simply clicked for me at one point. Now, I've been attending the nearest Orthodox church for Divine Liturgy for almost 5 months, whenever I can. I talked to the priest about conversion and I'm learning about the spirituality and theology of the Orthodox faith. I constantly fight my old self and I finally found tranquility in my chaotic life, I've gone a long way and I'm committed. I'm truly grateful that our Lord has brought me here. I hope my story can be helpful and reassuring for someone out there, Glory to God!
be strong and courageous as you pursue Christ in the Holy Orthodox Church. The enemy will do everything possible to try to dissuade you. Don’t be discouraged and don’t give up! If a man falls seven times, he should get up eight times!
My sons are 26 and 24. Raised between Protestant and RC until I finally found EO when they were 14 and 16. They fell off during my desperate search for THE True Faith! Now that I am actually HEALING through Christ, they seem open but not really seeking themselves yet… I pray the Akathist to the Theotokos Nurturer of Children. I pray she will be the Mother I was NOT when they were young and I really screwed up my first marriage by being such a horrible CONTROL freak… I was totally TWO faced without the Eucharist and a lifestyle of continual Repentance which only Orthodoxy gives! Lord help my sons come to you in SPITE of the damage I caused…🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
I was borught back to the faith by the prayers of my father. I am 27 now. I was born into an orthodox family but never took it seriously and left it all behind in my teens. Hold on to prayer! The prayers of a parent are very powerful. I lived that. I felt the prayers of my father like a waterfall on my back.
Praying for you. I understand your situation. Brought tears to my eyes. We all walk in the truth we have at the moment. I have 4. 2 go to Protestant church. The others say the right words but don’t attend church unless our grandkids talk us into going. Even though I’m orthodox, I will not discourage church going to a Protestant church. I want the kids to learn about Christ and let the Holy Spirit call them not me. Don’t be hard on yourself. But I do appreciate your humbleness
Keep praying for them and reflecting the Light of Christ into their lives as He continues to transform yours. When I began my journey into Holy Orthodoxy I expected to travel this path completely alone. However thanks to the immeasurable Grace of Our Lord not only did my father who has been a "none" for nearly 70 years of his life join the Church but my mother who was Roman Catholic her entire life also came aboard Christ's Ark of Salvation! 🙏🏻☦️
Me being an older Gen Z (24) i was blessed to be born when I was. My grades were the last classes taught on old tech and non-internet based classes. Even the younger Gen Z who are merely two years younger than I got hit hard. It isnt so much that the younger ones of us despise religion, its that they are extrmely psychologically damaged by being exposed to mental poision in their developmental years on the internet. This paired with, in my experience, most of our parents letting us "choose" our religion and not going to church or being only culturally christian, it absolutly gutted my generation's belief. That said, we search for the truth, and thanks be to God ive been able to convert myself as well as pretty much all my friends to Orthodoxy. In my experience all it takes alot of times is to introduce them to the church, proclaim its one truth, explain its history, and, this is the main factor, get them into a real life church. In my parish in the deep South, we have at least one new Gen Z guy come to church for the first time every Sunday. My parish was not even 2 years ago a mission parish that only had a priest once a month, and now in short order weve grown so big weve started to consider getting a bigger church because we have outgrown the current chapel. God heals all. Great video Father.
How did you convert your friends ? I have some accepting of my faith and it helps grow theirs slightly, but all my friends are non believers. Last boardgame night I had two 'friends' blaspheme his holy name thinking faith is ridiculous. Tips would be appreciated
@JamFlexx the name of the game is perseverance. Most of my friends were christian already but more of the cultural christian. I just lived the faith and discussed it with them when they asked question and eventually they came around. Although I will say, the single most important part of that process is to get then into an actual church. You can talk about it all you want with them, but until they experience it themselves it's like explaining colors to a blind man. The second most important factor is getting them to talk to their local Parish priest. Once they establish contact with the priest they are exceptionally more qualified than most lay people to answer your friends questions. With one of my friends getting him to talk to the priest was the hard part because he came from a denomination that was rabidly anti-authority and hated hierarchy, but once he talked to the priest it was smooth sailing from there. But especially for non-believers, the best thing we can do is to pray for their salvation and for their hearts to be softened to the word of Truth, and when they ask questions, think about your answer and tailor the response to them.
Gen Z here (97) I’m 27 and was raised charismatic southern Baptist. I always had a thirst for the truth and it eventually brought me home to holy orthodoxy me my wife and 3 kids were baptized on April 20th of this year. I think a lot of it growing up was that it seemed that you’d hear the holy scriptures and the stories of the apostles and then see people who just didn’t seem to care it was simply something they were expected to do, my perspective anyways. May the Lord help me to be a visual representation of Christ and His church so my kids never suffer as i did.
@@ShaneJarvis-sb9zf I was stuck with the SBC and it left me with a permanent distaste. I saw it as preaching hellfire an brimstone to get more butts in pews. If kids get paranoid schizophrenia or cptsd, that is considered a price that's worth it.
Hello father! Excellent video, I am 23, an older gen z, and I was faithless for far too long. As I have grown older I have found immense peace in tradition, but my heart did not find rest until I found the Orthodox Church. There is still hope, I just know it ☦️
04 Zoomer(Gen Z) here, it is true that my generation takes religion less serious, A lot of it is the normalization of universalism, subjective truth and the state of Protestantism in the West among also the things Fr said. These things have been a big factor playing into the religious downfall in my generation, however God is at work, I am a convert , God called to me when I was 18,I eventually found the Orthodox Church became a catechumen a few months before my 19th birthday and glory to God I am 20 and was baptized on Lazarus Saturday. Truth has been distorted in my generation, the enemy has used this tactic to pull many from God. However he did not expect it to have the opposite effect, the lack of clear truth in America is one of the biggest things that lead me to find truth, which is our Lord Jesus Christ. Glory be to him, God is working to call us to him, May my generation answer the call. All Saints pray to God for us🙏🏿☦️
Father, I believe that though I am a sinner, I am covered in the precious blood of the Lamb of God, and am a new creation in Christ’s image, its is by God’s grace, and our faith, that we receive this, Gen Z is not entirely lost Father.
I am a Christian of Gen Z, we are a secular generation because we were born in a secular world but we are seeing first hand the need for humanisim particularly Jesus Christ. We have many sociological issues to resolve but I am hopefull and believe we will witness many miracles in our time. I'm willing to bet Christianity will be reaching a new apex the time my generation reaches it's end. Praise god, thy will be done.
I was born in 2008 and I'm going to orthodoxy, Its been very sad to see the direction our generation is heading but, after finding orthodoxy I know we aren't hopless
When he said, its my fault, I felt that. This generation is my kids...and I admit they have had it rough! Lord have mercy! I'm really praying for my three adult children Miriam, Judah, and Julia for their salvation as they are going out in the world! And for my two at home, Solomon and Pearl, and that I can be a better mother everyday.
Hello, I am gen Z, 22 years old. I went to church with my grandpa when I was younger but after he died my parents did not continue in christianity. I have recently accepted Jesus as my savior and found great joy in faith, my perception of life has drastically changed in the last weeks. 2 days ago I went to church again the first time since 10 years ago. I am happy to see in the comments that my case is not unique!
Personally I'm a Presbyterian, however, unlike many of my brethren in the Protestant church I do value the Church Fathers and wish we could add a bit more of the rites and tradition that Orthodox and Catholic Christians enjoy to the Protestant church. I just downloaded the app and I'm excited to finally be able to easily listen to the similar works. God Bless!
World is going towards the time of antichrist and every coming generation is less religious. This is fact and always has been. Always the earlier generations are more religious that latter.
Because of the Internet, we are constantly exposed to alternative ideas. This gives us a great deal of inherent skepticism, making it harder for us to just accept unproven spiritual beliefs.
@@concretesandals4501 It makes me think about how many kids in pre internet days had strong doubts, but did not get to express them. Then I think about how many find reddit.
Not Americans, but me and my fiancee, both Gen Z, have come to Christ this year. I was born and raised Christian, from a very Christian country and from a strong Christian family and community, but have left it all during my teenage years. On the other hand, my fiancee is from a very secular society and from a broken family, never knew a single thing about Christ. It's quite a journey, we are still somewhat at the beginning of it, and the contrast of our backgrounds and being on the same path now is very exciting, yet somewhat scary.
I’m 30 and came back to Catholicism . My best friend who’s a year younger conveyed to orthodox a couple years ago, and eventually that became a spark for me to examine myself and how lost I became without the lord . I personally enjoy the Catholic path of faith but what’s important as I’m sure you can all agree is that I’ve converted to Christ . I can never leave the Catholic faith as the rosary is what has saved me . But I admire so much of the east
I am 21 and the Lord blessed me with a wonderful friend in my uni class who is Orthodox who took me to Church as an inquirer and transformed my life, blessed be the Lord our God!
The Patristic Nectar app has been doing wonders for my spiritual life, diving into the catechism lectures is very helpful considering God willing I will become a catachumen in the church in the next couple of weeks. God bless and thank you
Father, it wasnt until my late 20s that I started to piece together that my mom and dad divorcing was actually a devastating tragedy. I was 6 when it happened, but it was so normalized to me that I had no concept that it was damaging at all to me emotionally, let alone spiritually. It was only 4 years ago I started to realize this, and truly I think I still have much to piece together about it. Please, if you have any more to share about divorce and its effects on children and families, it would be greatly appreciated 🙏🏻
Maybe during the honeymoon phase. I had a good four month honeymoon phase, got baptized, and life became a million times worse. Im quite lost bur will continue to attend liturgy, pray, and fast.
@@TboneWTFwilling to bet you've never seriously cracked open a bible to try and understand. Never attended church willingly as an adult to see the community healing. Apologists and other scholars have dedicated their entire lives trying to disprove God and cannot, do you think you know more than society and its history off your presumption ?
@@TboneWTFSure. Though there are many reasons, too many for a youtube comment. And in general religion is far too deep a topic for this format. But the way it helps is pretty simple actually. With god you are able to come to more answers about why certain things happen in your life. Why did I lose x job? It felt devastating and life ruining at the time, but it's because God was trying to put me in a position where I could accept y job instead and it ends up being better for me. These revelations usually only happen for me in hindsight. I wonder why god allowed me to suffer in x or y way, only to come to an understanding of why later on as I look back and see the maturity and growth I had to go through because of the suffering. Growth I would never experience otherwise. Usually you suffer to become stronger and a better person, and god wants to facilitate you becoming a better person. It helps make sense of life in that it helps you become more accepting and resistant to life's challenges and temptations. There are other ways, but I feel that is a decently easy one to understand from an atheist viewpoint. By the way, I'm not trying any type of conversion here, that would be foolish. I just wanted to answer because I was an atheist for years and would have asked the same question you did. So while I'm not great at explaining these things and others could do a much better job, I hope the answer I gave at least makes sense to you and helps you understand people of the faith a bit better.
Father you should visit my Orthodox church here in Upstate New York. A solid 1/3 of my parish is made up of Gen-z young people including my son. There is hope. ☦️
I was born in 1997 in a Christian household. In fact my dad even had his own little church group that he ran. Unfortunately I had little interest in the faith when all I was told growing up was that I was gonna “burn in the eternal lake of fire” if I wasn’t a good person and all I liked as a kid was “demonic.” The absolute loveless marriage my parents were in was also a hypocritical sight to see and what broke the camels back was my fathers descent into pornography and alcohol addiction (after losing his job) that eventually led to him having a stroke, developing dementia and dying a slow death over the course of the next 10 years. Somehow through all of this, I never rejected the fact that I was a Christian deep down, but I had no interest in understanding it myself, until last Christmas when my father finally passed away (yes, he died on Christmas Day). Since then I’ve picked up the bible and I’ve somehow found my way into the life of faith as a once completely uninterested child. There is hope yet for Gen Z, but they are certainly not to blame for their lack of faith. The world around us is more corrupt and focused on the self than ever and they are just trying to survive in a society that makes absolutely no sense and has little time for Jesus Christ and the people that follow him
@@DavidMauerMusic I think about how many people can genuinely believe certain things, and how many are just barely hanging on and trying not to lose Pascal's Wager. Having that in my youth left me with a permanent distaste. The only reason I ever bother looking at conversion is because the mainstream hates it, and I hate the mainstream. My personality trait has always been "screw the establishment." Screw the establishment is not a valid reason to convert. I suppose if genuine spiritual experience happens or some religion becomes believable to me, I would join. I tend to argue that I am agnostic because the truth is not genuinely knowable to me at this time.
I have a daughter born in 2010 and a son born in 2013. Both of them absolutely love and believe the Orthodox church so much. My daughter was one of the first in our family, after my husband, to be interested and attend services. My son loves serving as an altar boy and wants to be a priest.
Praise be to God, i'm 16 and actively always engaging and correcting my family members to help them along the path of Christ. Christ have mercy on us all, Father not all of Gen Z is lost to delusion, have faith in our generation ❤
The problem with the hypothesis that abandoning religion leads to community decline is that community engagement in the US fell before participation in traditional religious communities. Lions Clubs, Masonic Lodges, even trade unions and PTA have been declining since the 70's, not just traditional organized religions.
1997 here the phones are horrible for this generation we have a great distraction introduced for some of us in middle school and high school now with some very young, and I see a lot of people isolating from community I know because I’m part of that, there are positive’s when it comes to access of information but also it’s causing addiction issues to social media and pornography. Me coming back to my faith in Jesus Christ is what is causing the greatest change away from those mistakes. I grew up Christian was homeschooled went to church, slowly as I got older and went to public school I didn’t focus on my faith and began seeking through other things such as phsycadelics and lost my way to other drugs and drinking thinking I was just having fun and finding myself. I didn’t find anything special until I started seeking the lord again recently and I feel like I did nearly as a kid again and I can’t be thankful enough to be following Jesus Christ
I’m Antiochian Orthodox. A few years back, I sat next to an Episcopal Bishop on a plane going across country. In a very condescending tone, he told me that the Orthodox Church will be extinct in a generation because we won’t reinvent ourselves to appeal to gays and minorities and all the other identity groups. My mom happens to be Episcopalian. My late dad was Orthodox. My mother never converted throughout my parents’ 54 year marriage. Anyway, I know a bit about the Episcopal Church. I told the Bishop, with all due respect, that I disagree. My church will survive. It’ll be the mainstream Protestant churches that will die. The reason I believe that? I’ve been to Episcopal Church services with my relatives on my mom’s side. The congregations are small, getting smaller and mostly old people. There’s almost always no children. On the other hand, our churches are filled with families, including small children and young people. We haven’t sacrificed our beliefs like Protestants. We offer something of value that western Christianity doesn’t. That’s attracting members, not driving them away.
@@TheSpeakenglish I didn’t dismiss the works of the Reformation. The Reformation wasn’t about abandoning the word of God to appeal to the latest fads, including perversion.
As a Gen Z Baptist confused by the amount of Eastern Orthodoxy in my feed lately... I needed this. Thank you. I can always spot a true Christian regardless of denomination by where their focus is-- you've got it, brother.
15:38 About the aggressively anti-Christian culture, I agree that's what I perceive as well. Anecdotally, I noticed this sentiment picked up dramatically after September 11, 2001. I overheard many young adults at that time conflate radical Islam with all religion, and quite unfairly, Christianity as well. They would say religion inevitably leads to holy wars, which is the exact wrong conclusion. Let us pray that America remembers the centrality of peace and forgiveness to Jesus' message. I like to point this out to people --think of the billions of lives that have been saved of the centuries due to Christianity, the wars and destruction avoided due to Christianity!
I find it interesting that in Europe, people can freely trash Jesus's people, but can't dare say anything bad about Mohammed's people. Many people argue that all religions suck equally.
26 years old Catholic here, we’ve literally grown up in a environment that is either completely indifferent or moderately hostile towards the faith, as a result, those of us who hold it are actually somewhat dedicated, viva Cristo Ray!
24 yr old here born and raised in the Church of Christ, they didn’t bring the gospel to me in a way that made sense, baptized at 9 but didn’t understand what it meant to have a relationship with the Lord until 19. I didn’t look any deeper in faith at the age of 9 and a lot of pain happened in those 10 years but made me a stronger believer today. I think of myself as a walking testimony to the verse “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it” Prov. 22:6 There are plenty of young people hungry for truth today, I sadly must say I think a lot of church’s in previous decades made a bad example of how a religious life ought to be conducted leading to a generation that sees the church as backbiting hypocrites, rather than looking at all people believer or not as sinners in need of saving grace
Excellent points. I’m going to begin fasting Thursday and Fridays and join an Orthodox Church near me. Christ is Lord. If my generation is going to be less Christian than the least I can do is ensure my future children (Lord willing) and their generation are more Christian
Very interesting discussion. In my experience as a millennial the reason so many have left religion was because it was so empty. The questions they had couldn’t ever be answered, too many times when I was growing up I was told not to ask questions, just do what I was told. It causes great frustration especially for those who are born and raised in high demand religions/denominations. That was my experience. When I started doing research and finding answers I found peace outside of the legalism I’d been raised in. Too many who are in authority in Christianity do not understand what they are even preaching or teaching. They have separated scripture from the culture that was around when it was written, therefore losing the reason why such statements were made.
I was like that. Whenever I read some holy man asking why there are too few butts in seats, I just say "Did you ever bother to read from redditors?" Many holy men just see athiesm as edgy teens being edgy teens. Some see reddit as a bunch of immature people who refuse to grow up. I say that no matter how distasteful someone sees athiests and redditors, if they are dismissive of the points then they get nowhere.
Born into the Celtic Christianity I have become interested in the orthodox path. I would like to have a good teacher. I have prayed to God for guidance on this. I am interested in becoming orthodox.
Because many of my generation weren’t raised in spiritually Christian homes. They never had that reinforcement at home and they certainly weren’t getting it at school. If anything public school and university taught my generation to despise Christianity, and maybe their parents were “Christian,” but there are many who make claims but don’t practice at all. That’s the problem I’m ever grateful I grew up in a family that took their Christian faith seriously, even if it was the Anglican Church. And I’m grateful for growing up in a High Church Protestant tradition, much closer to Roman Catholicism than any other Protestant church, because it put me on the path to the True Orthodox Church.
@@Nathan-zw7nq I think about how many parents who aren't hardcore ship their kids to some Christian or Catholic school for some academic edge. George Carlin once made a clean joke about it. He was asked "Why aren't you Catholic? You were in Catholic school for 12 years." His answer "Because I was in Catholic school for 12 years!"
Very reasonable and honest assessment of the Christian milleaus. Very inspiring, selfless and seemingly unbiased words. Christ forgive us. It inspires me to make orthodoxy more accessible to the people of my country, I always try to give the new people I see at my parish a chance to join the “non Russian” community of converts, or at least let them know of our existence.
I am a Catholic. For me I left the church for years and just explored other avenues of spiritual activity, but my wife and I have been attending church, and as a child I was raised Catholic so that’s why we attend the same church I grew up going to. I love the beauty of Catholicism, the history of it, the elegence and mythology. And I respect all forms of Christianity now and I think there’s wisdom to learn from everyone. I definitely appreciate your words and Orthodox but I am staying with what I grew up on.
I’m 23 and Ive been reborn multiple times, once at 18, again at 22. I love Jesus Christ with all my heart, mind and soul. When you study scripture you begin to realize the inherently supernatural nature of the Bible arc, and you realize it’s impossible for it to be made up. It’s simply not possible. There is nothing more true than Christ. I try to lead my contemporaries and friends in that direction. God always finds ways to humble me and redirect me. Atheists have a funny belief and that’s that being Christian is easy. Nothing can be further from the truth, there is NOTHING harder than being a Christian in the course of your life. If it isn’t hard, you’re not doing it right. You must reject yourself. And im certainly a failure in the eyes of God if it were not for Christ.
I'm a 16-year-old (about to turn 17), and I find that the reasons for unbelief are feeble. It seems that instead of looking into God, they presume that it's all a myth or just made up by men to gain power. I pray from them and the Catholic Church. God bless to my fellow Catholics and Orthodox brothers and sisters.
It’s a separation of people like oil from water, those who never believed or come from families who never believed have left, while those who truly believe have grown closer to God. I’ve met some of the most passionate Christian’s I’ve ever seen in my generation as well as some of the most virulent bile spitting atheists.
Im 19 hated church my whole life. I thought i was so smart when i was 15 and became an atheist saying if Grace is just to become a better person, then God could have just let the philosophers teach the world. When i realised that atheism had nothing to do with there being no god but being your own god I started searching for truth... orthodoxy was the only thing that made sense im planning on getting baptised and spending all my days off at the greek orthodox church near the college i just started at since my home town had no orthodox church. However my Catholic and Presbyterian parents think im joining a cult and are not supporting me at all. I do not care ive found truth and finally in my life ive been happy and excited to go to church for the first time in my life communion with the lord isint a burden. Im forever in debt to the jesus and the orthodox church for coming into my life. Thank you for preserving the teachings of our Lord.
In spite of Orthodoxy's terrible track record of reaching out to our neighbors, God being faithful to His own great commission is bringing many new converts to our doors here in Kansas City.
Another fellow Gen Z here in America 🇺🇸, (2005), I just want to say I have converted to Christ in 2019 when I was fourteen around my birthday, I have been struggling with sin, but as I grew in the Christian Faith, I started not to mature physically but spiritually having knowledge and understanding, even getting more virtuous and seeing life a different way on how I see things then my teen years being new in the faith. I have grown more patient, and started to know my gifts, I’m still new in the faith because I’m still learning, but Jesus did call me. I have been now identifying myself a mixture of nondenominational Protestant beliefs and having Orthodoxy Scriptures (specifically Ethiopian Bible by the Tewahdo Orthodoxy and King James Bible ‘with Apocrypha’ Mix). Edit: I have a Rare King James Bible that holds onto Orthodox Canonical Scriptures by Thomas Nelson.
I am gen z and after being non denominational for a few years I want to convert to orthodox 😊 thank you for helping us you have answered many of my questions
Gen z 2005 atheist here, I respect you for preaching this. While I myself am an athiest, I still believe there’s hope for me. Whether I find him on time is up to me, I just hope one day someone can give me that reason why god exists. I believe in proof, and I guess that’s why it’s hard to believe. I hope I can find him before it’s too late.
Hi brother, I know absolutely nothing and am an idiot, but if you truly seek God and want to know why he exists, I would do this in your situation. I would buy an ikon of Jesus Christ the Good Sheperd and prostrate before him 30 times, asking him to answer your question each night before you sleep. Without humbling ourselves before God, we cannot even grasp at the miniscule grain of understanding that is offered to us. In a cruder sense, its like asking a blind man to color a rainbow.
It doesn't make sense that we were randomly created in a freak accident, yet we have the inner drive to survive and breed. That in itself makes zero sense. Atheists simply can't comprehend things that don't exist in the material world (not you dude, people who are older and should know better). Scientists can mechanically explain the release of brain chemicals that makes people fall in love. They can't tell you why people fall in love or why love even exists. They'll tell you that it boils down to a pseudo-Darwinist will to survive, but they can't tell you who imbued mankind with that will to survive. You can't create *something* from *nothing*. Even a scientist will tell you that. You can question the validity of the specific Christian interpretation of God, but to say that we came from nothing is frankly childish and low-tier. These people don't engage seriously with the world. Simply put, atheism is cringe-inducing intellectual brainrot.
You don't need proof, you need faith. Reject the BS education system that was instilled in you beginning at age 3 or 4 that you need proof for everything. You absolutely do not. With what I've seen in my life, there's been DOZENS of things that cannot be explained.
i think the easiest and most true explanation to why GenZ is less religious. Is due to people seeing through the facades of protestantism and also the technological revolution that has enabled a lot of hedonism and entertainment.
I figured it was because Gen Z doubts something, reads reddit, and falls down a rabbit hole. I think about how many people in history could truly believe to their core, and how many were fire insurance clients. Perhaps now there are fewer fire insurance clients.
Im old to mid gen z and i seek to learn what makes life good and it has lead me to find a faith and a faith that is not a corpse eatwn by maggots of modernaty, the muscular faith firm in it self and sure in line with its actions and words
I'm Gen Z and went to my first Vespers yesterday. I was always turned away from church because when I went to service growing up, it was always a person speaking to entertain and inform the audience. At the Orthadox Chruch, I felt like everyone and the priest were worshipping instead, and it was incredible, I feel like it is what I've been looking for for years.
GEN Z HERE Yes there’s a rise of atheism but there’s also a huge rise of and teens (male and female) that are not from Christian families that are going to church
Father I am 24 and glory be to god I fall and struggle but don't lose hope in the mercy and love of our lord Christ and her Orthodox Church. This generation i feel has had a very poor form and structure and perception of faith especially in American secular society and frankly many Protestant churches have lost so much of its little structure that it had that embodied Christian life and from my own experience it took me gods grace to come upon the church but I listened and didn't look back and actively try to share my faith for the sake that I have so many people my age around me that do not know Christ but not from a lack of wanting to believe but of simply not knowing who Christ is or have a secular and down right sick perception of him.
Father, I've lived in a Catholic seminary for all my life and in 2016 I was even close to become a deacon, but after I've fallen in love with a girl and I've left the seminary, I agree with traditional values to live, the purity and the cardinal values, but I can't deny that for me Christianity was just a long bored, boring way, to nothingness, and for I've found in the communities the opposite of love, that's why I've left the Church and becomed agnostic. Sometimes I still pray, but I've Transmutated my life through simple practices of meditation,where finally I've started to taste something inside of me, a little bit of compassion for other beings. If one day I will have a family, we'll, I will give to my son's my values offcourse, but I will left to them, their personal choice to become and to choose what kind of religion believe, if they want.
Please pray for me Father, I am 21 and struggling to live a life of holiness and accordance to God's will. Pray that the light and fire of the Holy Spirit woukd shine in my heart, so that I may be a light unto the world, as God has commanded of us. Pray that I keep my salt. Yours in prayer, Elijah
Wow. You're final point of "being inexplicable" is right on point. I've been "baptized" into doubts and skepticism, and that has been one sticking point preventing me from full engagement. Just how "explicable" so much, if not virtually all, of modern Christianity is.
I'm a millennial raising gen alpha kids. My parents both came from strict religious families, which drove them away. They raised us without any type of religious view outside of occasional family events / weddings/ funeral etc. i now find myself on a spiritual journey as a non denominational Christian. Nobody convinced or pressured me to get here but the Holy Spirit. My family started attending church services in person last year. (edit to add: our church is not non denominational. It is Baptist. I'm just not sure of my "label" because I'm still figuring things out). My children love the kids' ministry. I hope to raise them with love and appreciation for His sacrifice, so they won't feel pressured or be scared away. i don't want to raise them to make decisions from a place of fear. I'm trying to teach them the power of prayer and discernment that was absent in my upbringing - well, it was still there. I was just trained to ignore it. When we were blessed with children, the presence became too strong to deny.
@@doesnotFempute sounds interesting. When I heard people call Pascal's Wager a Protestant heresy, I finally felt like I found something. Pascal's Wager is basically that hellfire and brimstone stuff the Southern Baptist Convention loves using. If it makes kids paranoid, so be it according to the actions of SBC holy men.
Thank you dear Father for your concern, love, and wisdom....PS. we downloaded the stunning app, love it and hope God gives you your heart's desire for more patrons to this OUR Patristic Nectar Project and guidance for OUR Youth!!! Love, Thanksgiving and Prayers!!!
Download the *Patristic Nectar App* on any platform! Link in Description
Vespers & Divine Liturgy: Service Book for the Faithful
St Tikhon's Monastery Press I can not seem to find one any where, you have an extra I can purchase?!
Where can we go to see & support the Gen Z host that interviewed with?
Please read the reviews for the app a lot of people are experiencing issues!
The New app is fine aesthetically but there are quite a few bugs especially for the saint of the day portion.
1. It does not automatically update so you have to scroll all the way from jesus's circumcision to the day that you are at, I don't know if this issue has been fixed but it is reoccurring.
2. When you click play all it in fact does not play all the saints of the day but you instead have to manually go in and select each individual saint after the previous one stops, which is quite annoying for those of us who are just trying to listen to them all at one time while at work or driving.
3. Occasionally there is a blank space where typically there would be a saint, I know they have saints for all 365 days of the year but sometimes they are not shown.
These are just a few errors that I have discovered. Otherwise the new app looks great I wish it just functioned a little better.
Father bless! my friend found an issue with the app, that without internet he can't start it and listen to downloaded content.
I'm the stepfather to four children. My wife divorced her husband as he was violent towards her in some ways I don't think I need to go into. While I was a Christian before, and the only one in this household, I'm experiencing a strong pull towards Orthodoxy and try to be as positive a force in their lives as I can be. Is there any hope in this situation, or is it lost to sin?
My son was born in 2011 and he enjoys going to russian liturgy. Didn't have to fight with him, no attitude, he just finds it fascinating. I got lucky. May God bless you all as long as He loves Mankind.
Make sure he knows what is actually being said in the vernacular please.
@stormshadowctf that is the only thing I've had to help him with, he knows more czech because of my wife but his godfather who is one of the fr. Deacons has helped him with me. But thank you for saying that!
Luck is of the devil. Please don’t say this. Always give glory to the Lord
🇨🇾☦️❤️
@@cozycastleImagine taking that one word and focusing on it rather than what the comment is actually saying
I'm a 26 year old (old for gen z) and a recent convert to orthodoxy and I love my church and my faith. We're out there! Don't lose hope Father.
27 here brother, I’m in the same boat. Converted to Orthodoxy last year, I was raised Catholic. I thank God for being merciful with me and showing me the truth! 🙏🏻☦️
Glory to God! Evangelizing your generation is essential. May God grant you many years young brothers!
22 years old just started the beginning of my conversion to orthodoxy. We’re here just not many of us
Me tooo bro just about to be 24 and a bit above 1 year saved and been baptized in my Orthodox Church for 2 months
Nice. 😊
They're the least religious as a whole, but the ones who are religious tend to be some of the strongest believers in my experience. Much stronger than the "Christians" in my Millennial generation. I feel we're in for hard times but that there's a light at the end of the tunnel if Christians can pull through for a generation or two.
I completely agree. Gen z will be forged in the best possible way in Christianity, if we continue like this. Sure some will fail, but there will also be greater religious leaders than we've had in the whole past century, I'm sure of this.
As a gen z I confirm this paradox 🤔
Yes, as a gen Z i share the observation. I have never heard of anyone who is gen Z who converted to a protestant denomination, it is always Catholic or Orthodox, this is my case as well.
@@CaesarAugustusBasileusI dont think it's a paradox at all. In fact, I think it makes perfect sense. If you don't have friends that share your faith, the more you'll need courage to deny yourself and follow the way of the cross in a generation where you're mocked for doing that.
Amen! Agreed!
My Gen Z child is the one who brought me to the Church. We were baptised only a few months ago. There is hope.
Many years! I was just baptized last Saturday. Glory to God!
Glory to God!
Senior Gen Z here (26, born in 97) I can confirm my parents divorced when I was young, and neither are very religious, but nominally are Christian. I bounced from parent to parent over the years, but largely lived with my mom who married a Muslim, who was a good man and father to me, but he himself was largely a lukewarm Muslim. I was atheist/agnostic for most of my life, but a year ago I came back to Christ, and 6 months ago began my journey in the Orthodox Church, and hope to be a catechumen soon! Thank you father for your helpful and insightful videos 🙏🏻
Edit: it’s a month later and I am now an official Catechumen:) God is good
25 Here, 99' Baby. I share a similar experience, parents divorced when I was pretty little, my mother married an Atheist, he was not a great father, was a brute and was pretty absent. Never got to see my Father much, he was a pretty devout Baptist. I unsurprisingly, got into drugs, lustful behavior, PA, and I was a fighter. Just all around not a great person, I got married to a pretty much non-religious woman once I got sober around 22, our marriage went to hell very quickly and she ended up getting hooked on fentanyl and cheating on me. I did not know the light of god, but in that broken place I knew that the only thing that truly mattered was to find god. It was a long process to really change, but i got closer and closer to god, and I then found the Orthodox church. I also hope to be a catechumen soon.
@@johntatum-rn1pt God bless you brother, I’m sorry to hear the world has not been kind to you. I’m so glad to hear you’ve found Christ and the church. You will be in my prayers, and I know the Lord will guide you and continue transform your life. While not as severe as your experiences, I’ve had my fair share of mistakes and regrets, most of which came from my outlook on life and God. We all come to God with our unique burdens, but through his Grace and his Church, I am being healed, and I know you will too ☦️
98’. Parents divorced before i could remember. I had a ton of issues connecting to other people growing up, and in my early 20s I started having mental breakdown after mental breakdown, flunked out of college and would probably be homeless if my grandparents didnt give me a place to stay. Ive been attending my local orthodox church since earlier this year. It’s been the only thing that’s helped. Drugs created new problems for every one they solved, and therapy only made things worse.
I still havent brought myself to tell anyone in my family. They’re all either liberal atheists or jesuits, and ive become terrified that my psyche might still be fragile enough that rejection will break it again. All I can do is pray for courage and ask for forgiveness, and hope that I can find the strength soon.
@@maxvarjagen9810 I can relate on struggling to tell your loved ones. Half of my family is Muslim, including my now ex-girlfriend of 8 years. She converted a few years ago while I was still atheistic, and once I came to Christ it was really a matter of time before we just separated. I guess in my experience, it’s been 1000x better and lighter on my soul to show, live, and speak about my faith proudly. Keeping it to yourself will only make you suffer, and you never know what new relationships you can create by being upfront about yourself. Don’t hide your light brother ☦️
Sorry to hear your mother married a Muslim.
I am 19 years old. And I go to Church almost every Sunday to serve the Lord. My family disapproves and makes fun of me for it. But still I go! Greetings from the Netherlands.
It is hard when you are your family members are not on the same page spiritually, but God will reward you for your faithfulness in spite of their mockery. Remember what the Lord said, “ blessed are you when men shall be filed you and persecute you and Chelsea or #MIN, if you go against you falsely for my sake.” Are you in the Orthodox Church? You will here that and all the beatitudes to remind you every Liturgy.
The amount of blessing god puts on believers who are committed while the family is not is impossible to put in words
Fight the battle you can’t save your whole family and many around you just be a good example ❤️
@@ToTheosis thank you very much!
@@GuitarJesse7 thank you so much!
@@sennareijer4000 bless you my friend just imagine when angels meet you in front of gates congratulating you and being proud of you for bringing many with you it gives me goosebumps ❤️ and the world become flash and Jesus saved us all with words so focus on that
Just talk with them about it passionately and loving way whenever you get chance
And tell them every time someone makes fun of you for ur believe will get you blessings from most high so let them laugh and be happy about it thank them for helping you on ur journey and tell them that day will come and they will help u another way with joining you in prayer 🤲🏻 ☦️ you can do this it’s ur responsibility now 💪🏻 19 of age already such a big spiritual battle ☦️
Gen Z here, I’ve been an Orthodox catechumen since the beginning of this year. It’s the best decision I’ve made. Christ is risen ☦️
Where are you from?
Indeed, the best decision you could make. Glory to God!
what I noticed is at my church, we have had an explosion of young men joining us as catechumen, like 12 guys in the past two months all in their 20s. What I find a little strange is there are ZERO women in their 20s here, zero. Ive yet to even see a young women visit the church. I think I have an idea of why.
oh and generally, Christ is risen is used as a greeting until ascension, otherwise known as paschal season, the more you know.
@@sunshine69962 Good to know thanks. Why do you think there are no women
Gen Z here (18) and I’ve recently found great interest in orthodoxy , I’ve suffered the pain of sexual abuse , separation of parents , moving place to place , lost my faith in God but earlier this year I regained it again. I’m still fighting everyday with evil thoughts Satan puts in my head but I am strong and I look forward to attending the Orthodox Church soon. I have found happiness in orthodoxy and it feels like home. God bless you all!
May Christ continue to be with you on your spiritual journey! May God continue to bless you.
@@AnaHernandez-of2sf Thank you 🥺 i have fallen to sin lately and looking back to this message I wrote truly hit me
Remember that God is always with the broken-hearted and meek in spirit. Read the poem footprints in the sand. Hope you continue to grow in faith and love within the orthodox church. Blessings to you!
As a catholic I will pray for you, I hope you find true rest in Our Lord. God Bless!
God bless you! 🙏❤️ Everything will be okay!
Lord have mercy, on my generation.
CHRIST IS RISEN!!☦️☦️
Mine, too
Teaching accurate history is important. Those children have been indoctrinated into the devils lies.
They have no idea who the Ottomans were, what they did to us, they don't know the first thing about the Barbary, Black Sea and Trans-saharan s|ave trade.
He is Risen indeed! ☦
Truly Christ is Risen ❤A hug from Italy🤗
I’m gen z (25 years old Vietnamese), baptized January 2024 . I’ve been listening to Orthodoxy liturgy every day. Both me and my bf desire to convert to Orthodoxy. I thank God everyday for his redemption, grace, love and wisdom and deep personal relationship that I have with Christ.
Huge respect 🤝
Filipino gen z, just been made Catechumen yesterday. Good to know that the Kingdom of Heaven is recruiting every race and kind of person!
@@Felipe-kv8qdthe Kingdom of Heaven does not have any condition on race, ethnicity, color...It welcomes everyone that wants to know Christ 🙂
Welcome to the Orthodox Church! ❤☦️🕊
@@Felipe-kv8qdyes, and that’s what true equality is all about. God love us ALL and wants every single of us to find salvation. ❤️
It's easy to blame the children, but it may not be wise. This is the result of Western societies that focus on wealth and personal satisfaction, and we have done this for generations.
I often argued that it was from megachurch men acting like corporate motivational coaches. Many people had enough of them.
West was built on your religion. It’s just what it leads to
I blame my generation, the millennials.
@@Zippos_And_Doom_Is_All_I_Need As a gen Z I don't blame millennials for the state of society, I blame it on the boomers with their godless rebellion that destroyed virtue and faith in western societies. I don't hate the boomers for monopolizing the wealth of society, but I am very disappointed that they completely destroyed all notions of virtue, tradition, and faith in their era of sex, drugs, and rocknroll. They are the origin point of the explosion of degeneracy in the west.
I'm an older Millennial who damaged my children tremendously by divorce. Christ working through His Holy Orthodox Church has brought them from suicidality and atheism into Christianity and a dynamic parish life. Glory to God for His miracles.
Thank you for admitting divorce wrecked your kids. Too many people pretend it’s ok. I respect you for admitting your ball drop, Go fourth and sin no more 😇🇰🇵
Glory to God!
Thank you for saying how divorce damaged your children. You're only human, and you were lost in that time, but admitting it honestly is very kind of you. My parents divorced, and neither of them admit that the wounds go deep for the children involved. Praying for you and your family's continued healing.
Don’t see the connection between suicide and atheism. A little bit of bad faith there.
@@arcadiusvincentius3296 well you see stalker, she said atheism *and* suicidality. If the said atheism *and thus* or *and therefore* suicidality maybe you'd have a point.
I'm 66, and I was born into evangelical Protestantism. Late in life I had enough, walked away, was received into the Orthodox Church, and I never looked back!
My little Antiochian parish in the midwest is growing, with young families, but especially with men, particularly young men. The Holy Spirit is working.
Amen
I'm 58 and was just baptized last Saturday. Glory to God! Your Midwest parish sounds very similar to my Arizona parish. I forgot how many babies have been churched this year...with more to come!
I’m 24. Raised Baptist, fell away from the church, got into the new age movement after psychedelic experiences, came back to Christ as a Protestant. Now I’ve left Protestantism and have been attending liturgy.
As long as you've returned to Christ, no worries brother. Stay Strong 💪💪
Glory to god. May you be brought to Orthodoxy by the grace of god.
I wonder why psychedelic use always seems to lead to forms of Satanism
If I ever became Christian it would either be to Catholocism or Orthodoxy. Protestanism and Baptism (especially with what has been portrayed in the USA) is radical, scary and dangerous with very few links back to Christ and the original foundations of the Church anyways. Most are brainwashed, radical and potential terrorists in the making. I'm waiting for the Christian pushbacks in the years to come and I will not be surprised when there are shootings and deaths in the name of Jesus Christ and for the right way of living. Islam is similar, but at least they're more honest.
I was an active psychedelic user from the 90's to the early 2010's. I tried everything I could and even things that never made it to the mass market. I regret that period, as well as years of addiction to opiates and many other things in my life. I will say one thing, I have always regarded people who, after a psychedelic experience, fall into the New Age movement, or, for example, talk about the "spiritual essence of the mushroom", as not only religiously misguided, but also spiritually infantile. For their beliefs are modernist eclecticism. A false doctrine from the point of view of any religion. The same is true of followers of theosophy. It is difficult to debate with such people precisely because they are not only deluded, but also believe not in the original source, but in a strange mixture of beliefs. And it doesn't cause them any dissonance. I realise that my arrogance towards these people is a manifestation of pride. But, putting it aside, there are still some questions. I realise that such teachings are the temptation of Evil. But now, thanks to you, for the first time I have drawn some parallels between new age vs Buddhism(or Hinduism, or whatever) and modern Protestantism vs Orthodoxy. After all, many people prefer the former precisely because of the accessibility and simplicity of both the way and the preaching. Answer a couple of questions please, if it's not too much trouble. What's your personal experience? Am I wrong?
God Bless You!
-Russian Orthodox from Kiev, UA
16 years old. I came back to Christ a few months ago, and I am happy that more people are, as well. Don't lose hope on our generation, we are very stubborn but also very curious. Much love, and God bless.
Same here,only I came to Christ last year. Pray for me,and my family,for they follow a false religion
Take care little bro, God bless you.
I'm 24 and socially isolated since childhood. I am in constant psychological pain because of this. Pray for me blessed Father. My first name is Boris. The glory of God strengthen you as usual!
Boris, take care brother. I'm 20. You have my prayers. my first name is Ace. Bless you and may God lift up your spirit.
Im 23 and recently accepted Jesus as my Lord within the year. I was an atheist with no religious upbringing, and despite that I was blessed by the Holy Spirit and knew very quickly that that is what had happened to me.
Boris and Ace, may God bless you both, and I pray that the Lord Jesus has mercy on you, that the Holy Spirit guides you and edifies you, and that The Father protects you for all time. Amen
My 9 year old son loves Church and reminds us all to pray. He even prostrates without us ever even suggesting it to him. All praise to God!
A monk in the making. God bless him and may the never-ending prayers of our Most Holy Theotokos be with him.
What a chad.
@@James-px6hp that's amazing.
I think about how many kids are just dragged to church and told to endure it for their own good.
My little 6yo is the same!
My fiancé and I are being baptized in our Orthodox Church soon! You have helped us so much on our journey! We are coming to see you in North Royalton in September☺️
Lord have mercy on our generation!!🙏🏻❤️
Many Blessings!!US too ! Me back to Orthodoxy and my Fiance of 10 years, he's converting!❤
Prepare to be a mother of 8.
Joking 🤣
Gen Z and Alpha are either totally disinterested in Religion or fully on board. I do think that those generations are going to produce amazing Saints in the hard times that are coming.
God bless Gen Z and Alpha ❤☦️
The divide is becoming more and more pronounced. People are being forced to choose between good and evil unwittingly or wittingly when they look at the world around them.
@@TheBanjoShowOfficial Very true; I chose Christ just under 2 years ago. I'm 23 and thanfully am far from the only Gen Z convert. Christ is King. ☦️☦️☦️
Gen Z is becoming more interested in religion and I am seeing it as a late Gen Zer.
@@Basedorthodoxchadwe are? I don’t see it. Though maybe it’s location
@@user-Kova15 Yeah that is a factor
Gen Z cradle Catholic here inquiring into Orthodoxy. Have always been Christian. God bless you Fr. Trenham. 🙏🙏🙏🙏
Also a Catholic here, I know things have been rough in our Church the last several years, but I want to say keep to the ship my brother in Christ. Jesus’s words were true when he said that the gates of Hell would not prevail. I greatly appreciate all of the Orthodox around the world and their deep spirituality, and I pray we all may come back into one fold as Christ desired.
26 years old here. Gen Z (1998). Devout Catholic out of a not so religious family. Prayed for 2 of my friends that were atheist to come closer to Christ. Happy to say both are now Christians (one Catholic one Eastern Orthodox).
How did you do it?
Young gen Z here (2007, Poland), my family is almost entirely Roman Catholic however not religious at all. My parents are millenials, unmarried and seperated a long time ago, so I was pretty much raised by my mom (who is actually mostly unbelieving) and grandparents. I could say I was also raised by the internet (no authority in my life, so I really just did whatever I wanted all the time) and I fell into pornography very early on because I had such easy access at a young age. Then when I was 11 years old I claimed to be an atheist, a very stubborn and insufferable one at that (openly telling people about how every religion is false whenever I could because I felt better than them, I had no limits honestly and I didn't have almost any friends at school because I became proud, egocentric and just straight up mean) and I fell into a lot of sin and mental issues on the way.
Last year, quite unexpectedly, I started believing again after some research which really just started with seeing a Christian video pop up on my recommended page, and I gained interest in studying Christianity. I started praying every day, reading the Bible, my demeanor changed dramatically, but I couldn't really bring myself to accept any denomination just yet. Months later, however, I started looking into Orthodoxy and something simply clicked for me at one point.
Now, I've been attending the nearest Orthodox church for Divine Liturgy for almost 5 months, whenever I can. I talked to the priest about conversion and I'm learning about the spirituality and theology of the Orthodox faith. I constantly fight my old self and I finally found tranquility in my chaotic life, I've gone a long way and I'm committed. I'm truly grateful that our Lord has brought me here. I hope my story can be helpful and reassuring for someone out there, Glory to God!
This goes to show the importance of parents being parents and being involved in many aspects of the child's life
Amazing story!
Good for you little one! Now dive down the Raymond Ibrahim rabbithole 😂
Christ bless you and your family ☦️
☦️☦️
be strong and courageous as you pursue Christ in the Holy Orthodox Church. The enemy will do everything possible to try to dissuade you. Don’t be discouraged and don’t give up! If a man falls seven times, he should get up eight times!
My sons are 26 and 24. Raised between Protestant and RC until I finally found EO when they were 14 and 16. They fell off during my desperate search for THE True Faith! Now that I am actually HEALING through Christ, they seem open but not really seeking themselves yet… I pray the Akathist to the Theotokos Nurturer of Children. I pray she will be the Mother I was NOT when they were young and I really screwed up my first marriage by being such a horrible CONTROL freak… I was totally TWO faced without the Eucharist and a lifestyle of continual Repentance which only Orthodoxy gives! Lord help my sons come to you in SPITE of the damage I caused…🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
I was borught back to the faith by the prayers of my father. I am 27 now. I was born into an orthodox family but never took it seriously and left it all behind in my teens. Hold on to prayer! The prayers of a parent are very powerful. I lived that. I felt the prayers of my father like a waterfall on my back.
Praying for you.
I understand your situation. Brought tears to my eyes. We all walk in the truth we have at the moment. I have 4. 2 go to Protestant church. The others say the right words but don’t attend church unless our grandkids talk us into going. Even though I’m orthodox, I will not discourage church going to a Protestant church. I want the kids to learn about Christ and let the Holy Spirit call them not me. Don’t be hard on yourself. But I do appreciate your humbleness
Keep praying for them and reflecting the Light of Christ into their lives as He continues to transform yours.
When I began my journey into Holy Orthodoxy I expected to travel this path completely alone. However thanks to the immeasurable Grace of Our Lord not only did my father who has been a "none" for nearly 70 years of his life join the Church but my mother who was Roman Catholic her entire life also came aboard Christ's Ark of Salvation! 🙏🏻☦️
Catholicism is the only way I love my faith.
@@neyneynanamo2071 amen! Thank you!
Me being an older Gen Z (24) i was blessed to be born when I was. My grades were the last classes taught on old tech and non-internet based classes. Even the younger Gen Z who are merely two years younger than I got hit hard. It isnt so much that the younger ones of us despise religion, its that they are extrmely psychologically damaged by being exposed to mental poision in their developmental years on the internet. This paired with, in my experience, most of our parents letting us "choose" our religion and not going to church or being only culturally christian, it absolutly gutted my generation's belief. That said, we search for the truth, and thanks be to God ive been able to convert myself as well as pretty much all my friends to Orthodoxy. In my experience all it takes alot of times is to introduce them to the church, proclaim its one truth, explain its history, and, this is the main factor, get them into a real life church. In my parish in the deep South, we have at least one new Gen Z guy come to church for the first time every Sunday. My parish was not even 2 years ago a mission parish that only had a priest once a month, and now in short order weve grown so big weve started to consider getting a bigger church because we have outgrown the current chapel. God heals all. Great video Father.
@@OlweCalmcacil the typical reddit fedora tipper was not allowed to choose, that's why he is so miserable and hateful.
As a younger Gen Z I have seen the opposite.
How did you convert your friends ? I have some accepting of my faith and it helps grow theirs slightly, but all my friends are non believers. Last boardgame night I had two 'friends' blaspheme his holy name thinking faith is ridiculous. Tips would be appreciated
@JamFlexx the name of the game is perseverance. Most of my friends were christian already but more of the cultural christian. I just lived the faith and discussed it with them when they asked question and eventually they came around. Although I will say, the single most important part of that process is to get then into an actual church. You can talk about it all you want with them, but until they experience it themselves it's like explaining colors to a blind man. The second most important factor is getting them to talk to their local Parish priest. Once they establish contact with the priest they are exceptionally more qualified than most lay people to answer your friends questions. With one of my friends getting him to talk to the priest was the hard part because he came from a denomination that was rabidly anti-authority and hated hierarchy, but once he talked to the priest it was smooth sailing from there. But especially for non-believers, the best thing we can do is to pray for their salvation and for their hearts to be softened to the word of Truth, and when they ask questions, think about your answer and tailor the response to them.
Gen Z here (97) I’m 27 and was raised charismatic southern Baptist. I always had a thirst for the truth and it eventually brought me home to holy orthodoxy me my wife and 3 kids were baptized on April 20th of this year. I think a lot of it growing up was that it seemed that you’d hear the holy scriptures and the stories of the apostles and then see people who just didn’t seem to care it was simply something they were expected to do, my perspective anyways. May the Lord help me to be a visual representation of Christ and His church so my kids never suffer as i did.
@@ShaneJarvis-sb9zf I was stuck with the SBC and it left me with a permanent distaste.
I saw it as preaching hellfire an brimstone to get more butts in pews. If kids get paranoid schizophrenia or cptsd, that is considered a price that's worth it.
Hello father! Excellent video, I am 23, an older gen z, and I was faithless for far too long. As I have grown older I have found immense peace in tradition, but my heart did not find rest until I found the Orthodox Church. There is still hope, I just know it ☦️
04 Zoomer(Gen Z) here, it is true that my generation takes religion less serious, A lot of it is the normalization of universalism, subjective truth and the state of Protestantism in the West among also the things Fr said. These things have been a big factor playing into the religious downfall in my generation, however God is at work, I am a convert , God called to me when I was 18,I eventually found the Orthodox Church became a catechumen a few months before my 19th birthday and glory to God I am 20 and was baptized on Lazarus Saturday. Truth has been distorted in my generation, the enemy has used this tactic to pull many from God. However he did not expect it to have the opposite effect, the lack of clear truth in America is one of the biggest things that lead me to find truth, which is our Lord Jesus Christ. Glory be to him, God is working to call us to him, May my generation answer the call. All Saints pray to God for us🙏🏿☦️
Father, I believe that though I am a sinner, I am covered in the precious blood of the Lamb of God, and am a new creation in Christ’s image, its is by God’s grace, and our faith, that we receive this, Gen Z is not entirely lost Father.
I am a Christian of Gen Z, we are a secular generation because we were born in a secular world but we are seeing first hand the need for humanisim particularly Jesus Christ. We have many sociological issues to resolve but I am hopefull and believe we will witness many miracles in our time. I'm willing to bet Christianity will be reaching a new apex the time my generation reaches it's end.
Praise god, thy will be done.
@@joshlang6442 I often joked that due to the number of weebs in Gen Z, some would go Shinto.
I was born in 2008 and I'm going to orthodoxy, Its been very sad to see the direction our generation is heading but, after finding orthodoxy I know we aren't hopless
When he said, its my fault, I felt that. This generation is my kids...and I admit they have had it rough! Lord have mercy! I'm really praying for my three adult children Miriam, Judah, and Julia for their salvation as they are going out in the world! And for my two at home, Solomon and Pearl, and that I can be a better mother everyday.
Hello, I am gen Z, 22 years old. I went to church with my grandpa when I was younger but after he died my parents did not continue in christianity. I have recently accepted Jesus as my savior and found great joy in faith, my perception of life has drastically changed in the last weeks. 2 days ago I went to church again the first time since 10 years ago. I am happy to see in the comments that my case is not unique!
@@TboneWTF Hi, yes I graduated from university.
all glory to God! i am also gen z and recently accepted Jesus
@@TboneWTF ive already seen your replies in nearly every comment on this thread. I dont bother responding to trolls
Good on you man
Subscribe and Help us get to *100,000* Subscribers!
Personally I'm a Presbyterian, however, unlike many of my brethren in the Protestant church I do value the Church Fathers and wish we could add a bit more of the rites and tradition that Orthodox and Catholic Christians enjoy to the Protestant church. I just downloaded the app and I'm excited to finally be able to easily listen to the similar works. God Bless!
Gen Z has the least amount of "religious people" but in my experience it has the most amount of converts and religious people that are dedicated.
World is going towards the time of antichrist and every coming generation is less religious. This is fact and always has been. Always the earlier generations are more religious that latter.
Because of the Internet, we are constantly exposed to alternative ideas. This gives us a great deal of inherent skepticism, making it harder for us to just accept unproven spiritual beliefs.
@@concretesandals4501 It makes me think about how many kids in pre internet days had strong doubts, but did not get to express them.
Then I think about how many find reddit.
It has led me to Eastern orthodoxy.
That is psychologically proven ! Internet makes you confused, so the solution is, to the surprise of no one, turn of the screens
@@newme1589 Heavily depends on the person. You either come out on top or drown.
Not Americans, but me and my fiancee, both Gen Z, have come to Christ this year. I was born and raised Christian, from a very Christian country and from a strong Christian family and community, but have left it all during my teenage years. On the other hand, my fiancee is from a very secular society and from a broken family, never knew a single thing about Christ. It's quite a journey, we are still somewhat at the beginning of it, and the contrast of our backgrounds and being on the same path now is very exciting, yet somewhat scary.
I’m 30 and came back to Catholicism . My best friend who’s a year younger conveyed to orthodox a couple years ago, and eventually that became a spark for me to examine myself and how lost I became without the lord . I personally enjoy the Catholic path of faith but what’s important as I’m sure you can all agree is that I’ve converted to Christ .
I can never leave the Catholic faith as the rosary is what has saved me . But I admire so much of the east
I’m gen z and I’m a catechumen in the Holy Orthodox Church. More converts and catechumens my age than you could imagine at my parish, Glory to God! ☦️
I am 21 and the Lord blessed me with a wonderful friend in my uni class who is Orthodox who took me to Church as an inquirer and transformed my life, blessed be the Lord our God!
The Patristic Nectar app has been doing wonders for my spiritual life, diving into the catechism lectures is very helpful considering God willing I will become a catachumen in the church in the next couple of weeks. God bless and thank you
Father, it wasnt until my late 20s that I started to piece together that my mom and dad divorcing was actually a devastating tragedy. I was 6 when it happened, but it was so normalized to me that I had no concept that it was damaging at all to me emotionally, let alone spiritually. It was only 4 years ago I started to realize this, and truly I think I still have much to piece together about it. Please, if you have any more to share about divorce and its effects on children and families, it would be greatly appreciated 🙏🏻
Im young gen Z, you can see the unbelievers be so confused at everything in life. With Christ it all makes sense. Everything falls into place.
@@TboneWTF Christ is Risen!
Maybe during the honeymoon phase. I had a good four month honeymoon phase, got baptized, and life became a million times worse. Im quite lost bur will continue to attend liturgy, pray, and fast.
@@TboneWTFwilling to bet you've never seriously cracked open a bible to try and understand. Never attended church willingly as an adult to see the community healing. Apologists and other scholars have dedicated their entire lives trying to disprove God and cannot, do you think you know more than society and its history off your presumption ?
@@TboneWTFSure. Though there are many reasons, too many for a youtube comment. And in general religion is far too deep a topic for this format.
But the way it helps is pretty simple actually. With god you are able to come to more answers about why certain things happen in your life. Why did I lose x job? It felt devastating and life ruining at the time, but it's because God was trying to put me in a position where I could accept y job instead and it ends up being better for me. These revelations usually only happen for me in hindsight. I wonder why god allowed me to suffer in x or y way, only to come to an understanding of why later on as I look back and see the maturity and growth I had to go through because of the suffering. Growth I would never experience otherwise. Usually you suffer to become stronger and a better person, and god wants to facilitate you becoming a better person. It helps make sense of life in that it helps you become more accepting and resistant to life's challenges and temptations. There are other ways, but I feel that is a decently easy one to understand from an atheist viewpoint.
By the way, I'm not trying any type of conversion here, that would be foolish. I just wanted to answer because I was an atheist for years and would have asked the same question you did. So while I'm not great at explaining these things and others could do a much better job, I hope the answer I gave at least makes sense to you and helps you understand people of the faith a bit better.
@@sunshine69962 rofl
I’m gen Z, I know I’m unworthy of heaven, but I’m still gonna try to please god, and maybe if I do that enough I’ll get there to be with him.
Father you should visit my Orthodox church here in Upstate New York. A solid 1/3 of my parish is made up of Gen-z young people including my son. There is hope. ☦️
I was born in 1997 in a Christian household. In fact my dad even had his own little church group that he ran. Unfortunately I had little interest in the faith when all I was told growing up was that I was gonna “burn in the eternal lake of fire” if I wasn’t a good person and all I liked as a kid was “demonic.” The absolute loveless marriage my parents were in was also a hypocritical sight to see and what broke the camels back was my fathers descent into pornography and alcohol addiction (after losing his job) that eventually led to him having a stroke, developing dementia and dying a slow death over the course of the next 10 years. Somehow through all of this, I never rejected the fact that I was a Christian deep down, but I had no interest in understanding it myself, until last Christmas when my father finally passed away (yes, he died on Christmas Day). Since then I’ve picked up the bible and I’ve somehow found my way into the life of faith as a once completely uninterested child. There is hope yet for Gen Z, but they are certainly not to blame for their lack of faith. The world around us is more corrupt and focused on the self than ever and they are just trying to survive in a society that makes absolutely no sense and has little time for Jesus Christ and the people that follow him
@@DavidMauerMusic I think about how many people can genuinely believe certain things, and how many are just barely hanging on and trying not to lose Pascal's Wager.
Having that in my youth left me with a permanent distaste.
The only reason I ever bother looking at conversion is because the mainstream hates it, and I hate the mainstream.
My personality trait has always been "screw the establishment."
Screw the establishment is not a valid reason to convert. I suppose if genuine spiritual experience happens or some religion becomes believable to me, I would join.
I tend to argue that I am agnostic because the truth is not genuinely knowable to me at this time.
I have a daughter born in 2010 and a son born in 2013. Both of them absolutely love and believe the Orthodox church so much.
My daughter was one of the first in our family, after my husband, to be interested and attend services. My son loves serving as an altar boy and wants to be a priest.
Praise be to God, i'm 16 and actively always engaging and correcting my family members to help them along the path of Christ. Christ have mercy on us all, Father not all of Gen Z is lost to delusion, have faith in our generation ❤
Great video Father. I’m a Catholic who found you from your conversations with my sphere. Always happy to hear from you. God Bless!
The problem with the hypothesis that abandoning religion leads to community decline is that community engagement in the US fell before participation in traditional religious communities. Lions Clubs, Masonic Lodges, even trade unions and PTA have been declining since the 70's, not just traditional organized religions.
1997 here the phones are horrible for this generation we have a great distraction introduced for some of us in middle school and high school now with some very young, and I see a lot of people isolating from community I know because I’m part of that, there are positive’s when it comes to access of information but also it’s causing addiction issues to social media and pornography. Me coming back to my faith in Jesus Christ is what is causing the greatest change away from those mistakes. I grew up Christian was homeschooled went to church, slowly as I got older and went to public school I didn’t focus on my faith and began seeking through other things such as phsycadelics and lost my way to other drugs and drinking thinking I was just having fun and finding myself. I didn’t find anything special until I started seeking the lord again recently and I feel like I did nearly as a kid again and I can’t be thankful enough to be following Jesus Christ
I’m Antiochian Orthodox. A few years back, I sat next to an Episcopal Bishop on a plane going across country. In a very condescending tone, he told me that the Orthodox Church will be extinct in a generation because we won’t reinvent ourselves to appeal to gays and minorities and all the other identity groups.
My mom happens to be Episcopalian. My late dad was Orthodox. My mother never converted throughout my parents’ 54 year marriage.
Anyway, I know a bit about the Episcopal Church.
I told the Bishop, with all due respect, that I disagree. My church will survive. It’ll be the mainstream Protestant churches that will die. The reason I believe that? I’ve been to Episcopal Church services with my relatives on my mom’s side. The congregations are small, getting smaller and mostly old people. There’s almost always no children.
On the other hand, our churches are filled with families, including small children and young people.
We haven’t sacrificed our beliefs like Protestants. We offer something of value that western Christianity doesn’t. That’s attracting members, not driving them away.
Sola Scriptura, fella. Don't dismiss the works of the Reformation. We are children of God, no better or worse than other sinners. Be better.
@@TheSpeakenglish I didn’t dismiss the works of the Reformation. The Reformation wasn’t about abandoning the word of God to appeal to the latest fads, including perversion.
Can attest to this. My church(orthodox) is full of kids and I only see old people attend the episcopal church near my house.
@@TheSpeakenglishSola Scriptura is wrong.
@@TheSpeakenglishSola Scriptura makes every Protestant their own Pope.
As a Gen Z Baptist confused by the amount of Eastern Orthodoxy in my feed lately... I needed this. Thank you. I can always spot a true Christian regardless of denomination by where their focus is-- you've got it, brother.
15:38 About the aggressively anti-Christian culture, I agree that's what I perceive as well.
Anecdotally, I noticed this sentiment picked up dramatically after September 11, 2001. I overheard many young adults at that time conflate radical Islam with all religion, and quite unfairly, Christianity as well. They would say religion inevitably leads to holy wars, which is the exact wrong conclusion.
Let us pray that America remembers the centrality of peace and forgiveness to Jesus' message.
I like to point this out to people --think of the billions of lives that have been saved of the centuries due to Christianity, the wars and destruction avoided due to Christianity!
I find it interesting that in Europe, people can freely trash Jesus's people, but can't dare say anything bad about Mohammed's people.
Many people argue that all religions suck equally.
26 years old Catholic here, we’ve literally grown up in a environment that is either completely indifferent or moderately hostile towards the faith, as a result, those of us who hold it are actually somewhat dedicated, viva Cristo Ray!
24 yr old here born and raised in the Church of Christ, they didn’t bring the gospel to me in a way that made sense, baptized at 9 but didn’t understand what it meant to have a relationship with the Lord until 19. I didn’t look any deeper in faith at the age of 9 and a lot of pain happened in those 10 years but made me a stronger believer today. I think of myself as a walking testimony to the verse “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it” Prov. 22:6
There are plenty of young people hungry for truth today, I sadly must say I think a lot of church’s in previous decades made a bad example of how a religious life ought to be conducted leading to a generation that sees the church as backbiting hypocrites, rather than looking at all people believer or not as sinners in need of saving grace
I am a gen z, and i was an unbeliever as well. But later on i found orthodoxy and now ive been a catechumen for 3 years 🙏🏼☦️
Excellent points. I’m going to begin fasting Thursday and Fridays and join an Orthodox Church near me. Christ is Lord. If my generation is going to be less Christian than the least I can do is ensure my future children (Lord willing) and their generation are more Christian
24 years old. My wife and 10 month old son were all baptized a couple of months ago!
Glory to God... Most Holy Theotokos may protect ur family
Very interesting discussion. In my experience as a millennial the reason so many have left religion was because it was so empty. The questions they had couldn’t ever be answered, too many times when I was growing up I was told not to ask questions, just do what I was told. It causes great frustration especially for those who are born and raised in high demand religions/denominations. That was my experience. When I started doing research and finding answers I found peace outside of the legalism I’d been raised in. Too many who are in authority in Christianity do not understand what they are even preaching or teaching. They have separated scripture from the culture that was around when it was written, therefore losing the reason why such statements were made.
I was like that.
Whenever I read some holy man asking why there are too few butts in seats, I just say "Did you ever bother to read from redditors?"
Many holy men just see athiesm as edgy teens being edgy teens. Some see reddit as a bunch of immature people who refuse to grow up. I say that no matter how distasteful someone sees athiests and redditors, if they are dismissive of the points then they get nowhere.
Born into the Celtic Christianity I have become interested in the orthodox path. I would like to have a good teacher. I have prayed to God for guidance on this. I am interested in becoming orthodox.
Because many of my generation weren’t raised in spiritually Christian homes. They never had that reinforcement at home and they certainly weren’t getting it at school. If anything public school and university taught my generation to despise Christianity, and maybe their parents were “Christian,” but there are many who make claims but don’t practice at all. That’s the problem
I’m ever grateful I grew up in a family that took their Christian faith seriously, even if it was the Anglican Church. And I’m grateful for growing up in a High Church Protestant tradition, much closer to Roman Catholicism than any other Protestant church, because it put me on the path to the True Orthodox Church.
@@Nathan-zw7nq I think about how many parents who aren't hardcore ship their kids to some Christian or Catholic school for some academic edge.
George Carlin once made a clean joke about it. He was asked "Why aren't you Catholic? You were in Catholic school for 12 years." His answer "Because I was in Catholic school for 12 years!"
Very reasonable and honest assessment of the Christian milleaus. Very inspiring, selfless and seemingly unbiased words. Christ forgive us. It inspires me to make orthodoxy more accessible to the people of my country, I always try to give the new people I see at my parish a chance to join the “non Russian” community of converts, or at least let them know of our existence.
I am a Catholic. For me I left the church for years and just explored other avenues of spiritual activity, but my wife and I have been attending church, and as a child I was raised Catholic so that’s why we attend the same church I grew up going to. I love the beauty of Catholicism, the history of it, the elegence and mythology. And I respect all forms of Christianity now and I think there’s wisdom to learn from everyone. I definitely appreciate your words and Orthodox but I am staying with what I grew up on.
Good word on realizing our children have a different world, they will shine even brighter in the Power of the Holy Spirit!
Father Josiah, I was very impressed with the app. I will use it often. Have been listening to you, Father Spyridon and John MacArthur.
Thank you for this beautiful and inspirational message! Jesus Christ and God have mercy on me a sinner 🙏
Thank you for this beautiful and inspirational message! LOrd Jesus Christ son of God have mercy on me a sinner 🙏
I’m 23 and Ive been reborn multiple times, once at 18, again at 22. I love Jesus Christ with all my heart, mind and soul. When you study scripture you begin to realize the inherently supernatural nature of the Bible arc, and you realize it’s impossible for it to be made up. It’s simply not possible. There is nothing more true than Christ. I try to lead my contemporaries and friends in that direction. God always finds ways to humble me and redirect me. Atheists have a funny belief and that’s that being Christian is easy. Nothing can be further from the truth, there is NOTHING harder than being a Christian in the course of your life. If it isn’t hard, you’re not doing it right. You must reject yourself. And im certainly a failure in the eyes of God if it were not for Christ.
Thank you so much for all the great work that you do 🙏
I have downloaded the app. So many enlightening lectures and edifications.
I'm a 16-year-old (about to turn 17), and I find that the reasons for unbelief are feeble. It seems that instead of looking into God, they presume that it's all a myth or just made up by men to gain power. I pray from them and the Catholic Church. God bless to my fellow Catholics and Orthodox brothers and sisters.
It’s a separation of people like oil from water, those who never believed or come from families who never believed have left, while those who truly believe have grown closer to God.
I’ve met some of the most passionate Christian’s I’ve ever seen in my generation as well as some of the most virulent bile spitting atheists.
Thank you for this good content! Praying for the young adults in my family and across the world.
Im 19 hated church my whole life. I thought i was so smart when i was 15 and became an atheist saying if Grace is just to become a better person, then God could have just let the philosophers teach the world. When i realised that atheism had nothing to do with there being no god but being your own god I started searching for truth... orthodoxy was the only thing that made sense im planning on getting baptised and spending all my days off at the greek orthodox church near the college i just started at since my home town had no orthodox church. However my Catholic and Presbyterian parents think im joining a cult and are not supporting me at all. I do not care ive found truth and finally in my life ive been happy and excited to go to church for the first time in my life communion with the lord isint a burden. Im forever in debt to the jesus and the orthodox church for coming into my life. Thank you for preserving the teachings of our Lord.
Thank you for all you do Father Josia☦️
In spite of Orthodoxy's terrible track record of reaching out to our neighbors, God being faithful to His own great commission is bringing many new converts to our doors here in Kansas City.
Also Kansas City.
@@wjckc79 Holy Trinity in Lenexa. You?
Thank you. Well said. We need revival. Only God can save America 🇺🇸 🙏 🙌
Today I listened to the Holy apostle Mathias and the ten martyrs of the icon. Amazing. I prayed for them all. All ten men and the lady Maria.
Another fellow Gen Z here in America 🇺🇸, (2005), I just want to say I have converted to Christ in 2019 when I was fourteen around my birthday, I have been struggling with sin, but as I grew in the Christian Faith, I started not to mature physically but spiritually having knowledge and understanding, even getting more virtuous and seeing life a different way on how I see things then my teen years being new in the faith. I have grown more patient, and started to know my gifts, I’m still new in the faith because I’m still learning, but Jesus did call me. I have been now identifying myself a mixture of nondenominational Protestant beliefs and having Orthodoxy Scriptures (specifically Ethiopian Bible by the Tewahdo Orthodoxy and King James Bible ‘with Apocrypha’ Mix).
Edit: I have a Rare King James Bible that holds onto Orthodox Canonical Scriptures by Thomas Nelson.
Have i heard anything so excellent and so well put in a long time? Praise The Lord.
I am gen z and after being non denominational for a few years I want to convert to orthodox 😊 thank you for helping us you have answered many of my questions
Gen z 2005 atheist here, I respect you for preaching this. While I myself am an athiest, I still believe there’s hope for me. Whether I find him on time is up to me, I just hope one day someone can give me that reason why god exists. I believe in proof, and I guess that’s why it’s hard to believe. I hope I can find him before it’s too late.
Hi brother, I know absolutely nothing and am an idiot, but if you truly seek God and want to know why he exists, I would do this in your situation. I would buy an ikon of Jesus Christ the Good Sheperd and prostrate before him 30 times, asking him to answer your question each night before you sleep. Without humbling ourselves before God, we cannot even grasp at the miniscule grain of understanding that is offered to us. In a cruder sense, its like asking a blind man to color a rainbow.
It doesn't make sense that we were randomly created in a freak accident, yet we have the inner drive to survive and breed. That in itself makes zero sense. Atheists simply can't comprehend things that don't exist in the material world (not you dude, people who are older and should know better).
Scientists can mechanically explain the release of brain chemicals that makes people fall in love. They can't tell you why people fall in love or why love even exists. They'll tell you that it boils down to a pseudo-Darwinist will to survive, but they can't tell you who imbued mankind with that will to survive. You can't create *something* from *nothing*. Even a scientist will tell you that.
You can question the validity of the specific Christian interpretation of God, but to say that we came from nothing is frankly childish and low-tier. These people don't engage seriously with the world. Simply put, atheism is cringe-inducing intellectual brainrot.
You don't need proof, you need faith. Reject the BS education system that was instilled in you beginning at age 3 or 4 that you need proof for everything. You absolutely do not. With what I've seen in my life, there's been DOZENS of things that cannot be explained.
i think the easiest and most true explanation to why GenZ is less religious.
Is due to people seeing through the facades of protestantism and also the technological revolution that has enabled a lot of hedonism and entertainment.
I figured it was because Gen Z doubts something, reads reddit, and falls down a rabbit hole.
I think about how many people in history could truly believe to their core, and how many were fire insurance clients. Perhaps now there are fewer fire insurance clients.
Thank you, father! God help us 🙏🏻
Thank you Father ☦
Im old to mid gen z and i seek to learn what makes life good and it has lead me to find a faith and a faith that is not a corpse eatwn by maggots of modernaty, the muscular faith firm in it self and sure in line with its actions and words
Though I’m non denominational I hold and continue the faith and no matter how the times changes the holy trinity is constant
I'm Gen Z and went to my first Vespers yesterday. I was always turned away from church because when I went to service growing up, it was always a person speaking to entertain and inform the audience. At the Orthadox Chruch, I felt like everyone and the priest were worshipping instead, and it was incredible, I feel like it is what I've been looking for for years.
GEN Z HERE
Yes there’s a rise of atheism but there’s also a huge rise of and teens (male and female) that are not from Christian families that are going to church
Western heterodoxy has generally struck me as superficial, especially Protestantism. Secularism and Atheism was the inevitable result of this.
Father I am 24 and glory be to god I fall and struggle but don't lose hope in the mercy and love of our lord Christ and her Orthodox Church. This generation i feel has had a very poor form and structure and perception of faith especially in American secular society and frankly many Protestant churches have lost so much of its little structure that it had that embodied Christian life and from my own experience it took me gods grace to come upon the church but I listened and didn't look back and actively try to share my faith for the sake that I have so many people my age around me that do not know Christ but not from a lack of wanting to believe but of simply not knowing who Christ is or have a secular and down right sick perception of him.
Father, I've lived in a Catholic seminary for all my life and in 2016 I was even close to become a deacon, but after I've fallen in love with a girl and I've left the seminary, I agree with traditional values to live, the purity and the cardinal values, but I can't deny that for me Christianity was just a long bored, boring way, to nothingness, and for I've found in the communities the opposite of love, that's why I've left the Church and becomed agnostic. Sometimes I still pray, but I've Transmutated my life through simple practices of meditation,where finally I've started to taste something inside of me, a little bit of compassion for other beings. If one day I will have a family, we'll, I will give to my son's my values offcourse, but I will left to them, their personal choice to become and to choose what kind of religion believe, if they want.
Please pray for me Father, I am 21 and struggling to live a life of holiness and accordance to God's will. Pray that the light and fire of the Holy Spirit woukd shine in my heart, so that I may be a light unto the world, as God has commanded of us. Pray that I keep my salt.
Yours in prayer,
Elijah
I am 20 years old and i have been a Eastern Orthodox Catechumen for a year now!
Wow. You're final point of "being inexplicable" is right on point. I've been "baptized" into doubts and skepticism, and that has been one sticking point preventing me from full engagement. Just how "explicable" so much, if not virtually all, of modern Christianity is.
I'm a millennial raising gen alpha kids. My parents both came from strict religious families, which drove them away. They raised us without any type of religious view outside of occasional family events / weddings/ funeral etc.
i now find myself on a spiritual journey as a non denominational Christian. Nobody convinced or pressured me to get here but the Holy Spirit.
My family started attending church services in person last year. (edit to add: our church is not non denominational. It is Baptist. I'm just not sure of my "label" because I'm still figuring things out).
My children love the kids' ministry. I hope to raise them with love and appreciation for His sacrifice, so they won't feel pressured or be scared away.
i don't want to raise them to make decisions from a place of fear. I'm trying to teach them the power of prayer and discernment that was absent in my upbringing - well, it was still there. I was just trained to ignore it. When we were blessed with children, the presence became too strong to deny.
@@doesnotFempute sounds interesting. When I heard people call Pascal's Wager a Protestant heresy, I finally felt like I found something.
Pascal's Wager is basically that hellfire and brimstone stuff the Southern Baptist Convention loves using. If it makes kids paranoid, so be it according to the actions of SBC holy men.
Thank you dear Father for your concern, love, and wisdom....PS. we downloaded the stunning app, love it and hope God gives you your heart's desire for more patrons to this OUR Patristic Nectar Project and guidance for OUR Youth!!! Love, Thanksgiving and Prayers!!!
Its so interesting to see on both on Orthodox and Catholic pages all these conversion stories, something might be telling us to come home
Glory to God