There are many people who think and pray this way, dear Diane. There are many people who feel that they must support people who need their help (either by speaking out, or by joining a protest or making a donation - whatever they are able to do), while also feeling pressured to 'sign up' to some political agenda in order to do so. But that is a lie - we are free to act according to our conscience, without having to take a political side. We can allow our conscience to be informed by Christ, not political ideologies. Thank you for your kindness. May we all be blessed.
Dear Father Seraphim! I was born in Transilvania, and at the moment I am a pastor in the Hungarian Reformed Church! I would like to thank you for your,honest,pure,clear spiritual teaching,which gives me joy, delight and strength! God bless you with all His trenghts from Heaven!
Dear Father Seraphim, firstly thank you for the black sheep’s wool prayer ropes that arrived safe and sound to me in Tasmania 6 weeks after you posted them! When I pray with this prayer rope I can feel all your pure love and energy and I am moved to tears that seem to come from deep in my heart. Secondly, may I say every teaching you put here is something of a miracle for me as it is always precisely addressing what I am troubled by at that time. Each week I seem to get into a state about something or other and then like a clear and direct answer to my dismay and confusion, your teaching of the week pops up and I am again rendered amazed and speechless at its relevance and helpfulness. GOD BLESS YOU FATHER 🙏🏼
Dear Chris, I give thanks to God for each word that seems to help someone - I am fully aware of my own sinfulness and I know that, if there is any good, it can only come from Christ. Thank you for ordering the prayer rope and I am sorry that it took so long for it to arrive. It is obvious that something is slowing postal offices world-wide, and I can only imagine it has to do with this coronavirus pandemic. May we all be blessed, dear one.
I just listened to this 4 times. It fills my heart with peace and contentment . Thank you for speaking the Truth and giving us clarity in these uncertain times .
Amen bless you farther very well said indeed whole heartedly agree 👍 thanks heavenly farther for this wonderful monastery on the island of Mull blessings 🙌
May it be so, dear Seraphim. And may we keep in mind, always, that the enemy are the devil, not those whose we, fallen people, fail to love. This is important, so that we do not end up mistaking our brother or sister for a devil. May we all find our salvation, through His grace and mercy for all mankind.
This message is a providential gift, and feels especially splendid, making my day more full of Christ. Struggling against vain information is very real. I often receive politics as either disturbing or entertaining, both or which can easily lead to the spiritual death and division you speak about. As an American, I see I’m prone to react and feel justified in the very notion of having an opinion on various things. I agree with you that there is a place for opinion, or response, but according to that “tiny but perfectly clear voice of Christ’s love, that crucified love of Christ, which speaks in any human heart.” This is such a beautiful and otherworldly matter. Thank you dear Father. Thank you for helping guide us amidst the various manifestations of the demons and on our journey on the Royal Path to Christ. My prayers are with you and the monks and nuns of your holy monastery.
Thank you for your prayers, dear one. They are what keeps us going. This is an extraordinary opportunity for the US to finally address this issue, and there is a great danger that the violence of the conversation will simply distract from its true significance. If we learnt to speak with love, the conversation could continue and could - God willing - lead to peace and true, deep reconciliation. I pray for everyone - may we all be saved.
We Americans feel we must exercise great privileges we think we possess. We are mistaken. These are bottom line "rights" which can be accessed only through political power. But we can do all things through Christ, Who strengthens us.
Thank you for taking the time, prayer, and love to record this exhortation. As a fairly new Orthodox believer who in the past were very engaged in politics and frustrated by what I perceived to be the apathy of self-proclaimed Christians, this current time has been a painful struggle in trying to break out of my old ways of activism yet not wanting to cease to care. Truly Christ shows a new way that is not of the world, and I can only learn from Him and do His will with greater humility and not reacting from passions.
I am Ethiopian orthodox and thanks for your teaching about the evil of politics. Father pray for Ethiopian orthodox we are on civil war with each other because of politics. We need prayer 🙏
Dear Father Seraphim, thank you for this reminder, this special gift of peace. I have no spiritual Father in the Church... thus I drift back and forth and my light grows dim many days. Lately politics has clutched my soul and has tried to drain my life. Your gentle reminders in this video have reeled me back to shore. Please pray for my souls sanity! Humbly... Barsanuphius
Christ is always with us, dear one. He is always here, in the most real sense - but it is our duty to act as His followers, so that, in seeing us, the world may come to love Him. Thank you for your kind comment, may we all be blessed.
If I hadn't separated myself from the political world years ago seeing it for what it is, I would not be strong enough to get through the kind of trials I had and still have. Thankyou for your candid explanation! God bless....
Thank you, dear Margaret. Thank you for your prayers and thank you for your comment. May we all find the strength to walk away from all these divisive narratives, while still finding some clarity tone able to speak about the things that need to be addressed. May we all be blessed.
I haven't watched TV since 2006. It is an altered existence. ALL the images seem demonic. Social media..a cesspool. Fast and pray..for there's no other way.☀️☦️🌍
Thank you once again for sharing with us the fruits of your thoughts, studies, prayers, attempts, failures, successes, thoughts and efforts! May God bless your work! Greetings and prayers from Georgia.
Thank you father! I wish I've been told this advice years ago. I can't see how you offend or hurt anyone,really. We need this words! God bless,please pray for us in the world.
Dear Petros, I offend people daily and I have no intention to do so. I offend people and I hurt them, and it is irrelevant whether they really should be offended - the fact remains that I cause hurt in their hearts simply by saying theses things, and for that, I am genuinely sorry. But one must do what feels right one's heart, otherwise how would I stand before God and before mown conscience?
Thank you father for your ministry! Your comments about Christians not being called to be political people is timely and powerful. So many of us have lost our peace and have experienced fractured relationships due to opposing political views. It is no wonder why there is much hatred in the world. Behind Christ there is LIFE. Behind politics there is DEATH. These two statements spoke volumes! Please keep posting your videos. God is speaking truth through you to many of us around the world. Many blessings!
Amen! Listening to this now - and it is even more relevant as we struggle in America with fraud, lies, anger and destruction! Lord help us! Amen and Amen!
This message is wonderful. Thank you very much. With everything going these days I've been pouring over where I stand on the issues in the world. Then I heard this and felt such a relief at the reminder that I am a Christian and not a politician! God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
Holy is the Spirit of God. One is the Spirit of God. One are those who live by his Spirit. Keep talking dear Father ❤️at least we should talk.may you be blessed 🙏🏻
Thank you for your encouragement, dear one. Talking is essential, words are essential - the Son of God is called the Word and that is because words can lead to change (repentance), and change can lead to life. May we all be blessed, dear one.
Dear Father, thank you for these words of truth and clarity offered to us at this time. It is all to easy for me, sinful person that I am, to read or watch some “us vs them” news clip that rarely if ever sows peace in my heart, but instead inevitably arouses anger and ever hatred against others of God’s children. I know in my heart there is no hope in politics but only in Christ. Thank you Father. Please continue with these much needed video messages. God bless you and the brothers and sisters at Mull Monastery.
Dear one, we need to somehow (we all have our own ways of doing this) lift our minds from the divisions of the world and learn to get our 'information' from our prayer. No one prays for the world, but we all have opinions and we all pass judgement against the world. We are called to love and save our brothers and sisters, but we end up doing just the opposite, all in the name of a narrative that has nothing to do with Christ. Anyway - may we all be blessed.
This is precisely my view of politics. Your verbal articulation, is a blessing. The anthropology of Saint Sophrony is the response I use to politics. Your insight to his work has also helped me greatly. I am praying for your continued work and authenticity ☦
St Sophrony has revealed to me the way - my way - to Christ. I still remember the state of shock in which I was while reading him for the first time. I was in my very early twenties then, and I have not stopped learning to look at the world through his eyes ever since. His wisdom is endless, because it feeds from the Wisdom of God. Our wisdom is limited and always distorted in some way, because we (or, at least, I) have not even taken our first steps towards true repentance. May we all be blessed through his prayers, dear Michael.
Thank you Father for the video, this needed to be said right now! From age 17-25 I worked in American politics and over time it literally felt like it was eating away my soul. We are divided, broken into groups, and consumed by this political fire in America. I was about to sign another political contract in D.C. in August of 2016 and Christ would simply not allow it. He drove my heart away and days after signing the contract I called and returned the signing bonus. I was saddened because I felt like I had no worldy purpose without politics and simply no motivation to find other work. Years have passed and now I'm a sommelier spreading the beauty of God's creation through the grapevine and bringing joy (not division) to peoples lives. Christ also brought me to Orthodoxy which has since decreased my worries for worldy status and worldy praise, thanks be to God!
May God bless you, dear one. This is something we are easily tempted to forget - our job, our place of work, the place where we live, the way we spend our holidays and our money, these are all (to a great degree) in our control. We can change a job if it goes against our conscience, we can move places if we feel living in a city or in the countryside better serves our spiritual lives, we can spend our holiday on a beach or save those days for Holy Week - these are all personal choices, but we forget (or fear to remember) that we remain free to choose the good over the bad. May we all be blessed.
Bless you Father! No wonder you labored over this topic. I have been chewing on it ever since you posted. Christ said Give to Caesar the things that are Caessr's. In practice, when politics seizes a human rights issue, how to respond & whether to respond is tough. Thank you for challenging our faith. Praying for you and the monastery.
I was once told by a Protestant priest that Jesus was the first socialist 🤔. Thank you Father for your clarity of thought, for your caring love and consideration. You are a blessed bright light shining towards Christ Jesus in this ever darkening world. I pray for your welfare and continued fatherly guidance in our lives. 🙏
Dear Maxine, that is precisely the danger - when you break Christ into pieces and select the pieces you like, leaving aside those you do not like, Christ becomes whatever you want Him to become, but that 'thing' is no longer the Living God. We can turn anything and anyone into what our minds want them to be, but then we become just as Christ warns us: the blind leaning the blind. May we all be blessed, dear one.
Glory be to God for all things, dear Vicky. I agonise over these videos, and I dread offering anyone, but I have to do exactly what I encourage everyone else: act according to my conscience and Christ's teaching, regardless of how I come across to others. May we all be blessed, dear one.
Old Roman African once said, a statement worthy of repitition: This is the rule of our faith, that we love those who hate us, and that we beseech God to bless those who afflict us; and herein lies that goodness which is peculiar to us. All men love those who love them, Christians alone those who hate them.
This is very wise Father and I needed to hear this. Intolerance is a force that divides for sure. I love how you say rules need to be overturned to keep the dignity and humanity of the person. Bless you and thank you for your words. They are a great great help to me.
This couldn't have arrived in my feed at a better time! Both this video, and the one which warns against rejecting the world in a "demonic" way, have highlighted for me the very dangerous path I've been going down these last few years, and why I need to stop immediately. Working my way through this channel's content, I feel as though I've been slapped (with love) out of my delusional state. A strange dissonant feeling of knowing that I've been rolling around in filth yet at the same time I feel elated and hopeful because there is a path out of it. I've never firmly committed to anything before, caught up in worldly things and various ideologies that have done nothing for me but encourage indulgence in pride, arrogance and judgement of others. I don't want to be that way any more. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner
Glory to God for His Great Mercy. Thank you so much for these wise, Inspired and Truthful Words, dearest Holy Father. It is superb to hear the Divine Truth of Christ expressed so well. This is the Message of Love which I have always tried to convey to all my fellow Orthodox Brethren and students. Love never fails, and God Who is Love Itself, can never fail. May these words bear the sweetest Fruit for the Glory of God and for the Eternal Benefit of every immortal soul who struggles to survive in these Spiritually Dead and Dark times. Thank you most sincerely. May God continue to Bless all your Labours of Love. With Love in Christ, Marguerite Paizis.
I hear you , I agree with you and I try to follow this approach. I recently read Tolstoy's "The Kingdom of God is within you" and this really resonates with what you are saying. I thank you for your wisdom and for your Prayers for us sinners and you are always in my Prayers and I do say a special Prayer for you all when the little sea shell passes between my thumb and finger :)
That is so kind of you. I love Lev Tolstoy, and I make a point of reading something of his every year. Every ten years, I also go through War and Peace and Anna Karenina - a small personal ritual, as it shows me how much my brain has changed from one decade to the next. Thank you for your kindness and your prayers - the little shells come from either Mull (a small beach just in front of the Monastery) or InchKenneth (a tiny isle where St Kenneth lived as a hermit in the 500s)
The very nature of this world / realm is a place of suffering joy change loss gain ,when we know the nature of this world we can let it go , but not abandon it to evil .thank you Father.
Thank you, Father, for speaking truth with such clarity. Only recently a friend and I were discussing the phenomenon of us appearing to be of one mind with people supporting this or that cause, but because our motives are different from theirs, we later find ourselves a source of bafflement to these same people when they learn that we also support something with which they directly fiercely disagree. It means that we may often find ourselves considered traitors to this cause or that, or to the left or to the right, but I suppose this is what it is to try to live in Christ, where we don't fit neatly into these political categories, and where the world never quite knows what to make of us. Please pray for me.
I know exactly what you say, dear father. I have lost long-term friends over these videos, but I need to be honest and not pretend to be what people expect me to be. I have been called everything, from a heretic to a white fundamentalist. Someone was kind enough to indirectly threaten me with guns, while someone else put an anathema on me. All of this because I choose not to follow either of the main political 'solutions' of the world today and I allow my conscience to be informed by my prayer and my faith, not a political narrative. But, dear father, Christ created us FREE - if God allows me to be free in my fall and in my virtue, who is the one who hates my freedom? May we all be blessed - all, with no exception. Please keep me and the Monastery in your prayers.
This is Truth!!! This is Profound!!! The whole world needs to here this message Father! This is a Powerful, Powerful Message!! Thank you for feeding my soul, for I am so hungry for the true word that you speak....I really appreciate you making these videos and for taking time out of your day to share God's Word! I sure wish your Monastery was around me so I could visit and also so I could talk to you and be in the presence of a genuine soldier for Christ! God Bless you and your Monastery
When for around 10years before the october 7th Hamas atrocities i committed to support for Palestine there were many who said, we dont do politics. I said politics was never my intent, but social justice. Because Christians should be a voice too. Micah 6.8 so yes, i agree.❤
Father, thank you for speaking truth to us. We so need someone from whom to hear it!! On another note, it would be lovely to be able to hear your monks chant prayers. Maybe it could be another income source for you, through an album or something like that?
Dear me, I have never considered that. We'll see. We are by NO means professional singers, and I personally cannot sing to see my life. But we shall pray and think about it, thank you for suggesting it.
Father, your message was so important to hear in today's climate of politics. The Chants were so meaningful. May the Lord bless your Monastery and your mission. Christ is in our midst!
@@mullmonastery Me too, I need the peace of the singing prayers. Father, I sent you 1-2 weeks ago an email about my daughter losing her faith. Please, can you pray for us to tell us something that is helpful for us? How can we help our daughter, please?
@@MyMoldoveanu Dear Nadia, you cannot save your daughter. She might need you to release her into the hands of Jesus. She is safer there than in our anxieties. Sometimes people need to walk away to get closer in the end. Don't be afraid, stay faithful in prayer and Christ will work as he wills. Bless you....
Dear Father, this is very courageous, but so good to hear it said with such authority and humility. When I first heard of the monastery and your videos I wondered of course if I would be included or excluded in your bonds of friendship and prayer, since I am not Orthodox. Would Fr Seraphim speak out against something or someone I held dear, I wondered? Would he be gentle or harsh? Full of welcome or disdainful of heretics and sinners? Would he use his authority for politics? I find instead that you are able to speak with the humility necessary for me to hear Christ speaking in and through you. It is a real joy to witness someone who is so transparently himself, vulnerable, guileless. I wish I could somehow encourage you. I heard you say in some other video that when one meets a spiritual father one simply wants to sit at their feet and listen all day. I feel like this whenever I see your videos. You stir my heart immediately to prayer. God bless you.
Dear Tess, I don't quite know how to respond to this. It is too much and you are too kind,, but I understand that your reaction comes from a good place in your heart. I know who I am, I know my fallenness and I could not be further from the person you are describing. But thank you for your encouragement - we all need support these days, precisely because we are weak and we cannot act simply based on the words of Christ. May we all be blessed, dear one.
I really don't speak from a position of any authority. I am orthodox and as far as I understand, there is only love in the orthodox church for all of humanity. I pray that one day we can all be together in the true church. Also I pray that the division's within our churches can be healed, by the grace of God.
Bless you Father! I've been struggling with this, and hadn't quite figured out how to put it into words. You so eloquently spoke right to my heart. I will try to remind myself of this Truth each time the demon tries to ensnare me, how easily I become snared! God bless you all. Pray for us!
Thank God for everything, dear one. There is a danger or not speaking out and failing to support our brothers and sisters, but there is also a danger of speaking from a place that lacks love and compassion - both are equally wrong. We do need to help whenever possible, but we need to do so in a way that doesn't deepen our brokenness.
Father, we Thank you with all our hearts for your amazing and honest videos, full of truth and love!! Please pray for us always!! Yes, we are one, and we cannot even imagine how much you are gently directing us to follow our Lord Jesus Christ more, instead of politics -- you, an inseparable person from humanity (like all of us), by doing the task that God has assigned to you, are calling us each to do our part of the whole. Are calling us to follow God's Plan for us, instead of the powers of this world. Are calling us to serve God instead of man, for it is said: "You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men." 1 Corinthians 7:23 I really love the chanting which you have included!! Especially of minute 10:00. Please, give us your blessings, Father!! Thank you!!!
Bless me Father, this is Steven from Las Vegas using my wife’s account. I ask for your prayers for my wife and I to whom I recently confessed my infidelity. The sadness in her is painful. I am grateful for your words which seem to me to be exactly what I should focus on. I’m sorry that all I think about is myself. I am in great need of Christ’s salvation today and always. But I refuse to despair. By the grace of God I will be changed. Oh Lord have mercy on me, a sinner!!
May Christ bless your marriage, dear one. I do hope that both you and your wife have a good confessor in your life, someone to guide both of you through this difficult time.
Your videos are a rock for me down here in the Cotteswolds living in a shed in my mother's back garden. The only Christian support I have here is fragments such as encouragement from muslims and yogic practioners, some times there are sacred moments in the local Catholic church During the lockdown I have been able to visit old church's and try to connect to some of the faith that was once here. I am surrounded in the worldly sense by hedonism, nature worship, atheism and worse. Thank you so much for your work and presence here in Britain. We really need you here. May God bless you.
My dear Matthew, Christ is everywhere - He can offer you support if you ask Him to do so. And there is an entire community of monastics - known and unknown to us - who spend their lives, each hour of their days, praying for the world. My own hope of salvation is for the prayers of these real monastics, some of whom I was blessed to meet at various times in my life. I pray for you, please pray for me - where two gather in His name, Christ is also present.
Bless you, Father. I am very drawn to Orthodox Christianity. There is much that I have to learn. Lord have mercy. I've been watching TH-cam videos about "Russia returning to Orthodoxy). What are your thoughts on separation (or no separation) between Church and state? Whether it be in Russia or anywhere in the world. Thank you Father.
Perhaps you could say something about the movement of Muslims into previously Christian areas which has political but not always popular support. Unlike Christian doctrine, Islamic teachings do divide people into us and them and encourage the unequal treatment of non-Muslims. Is this population movement something we as Christians should encourage, resist or simply silently accept?
God bless you father Seraphim I want to ask you how can i can get the chant and hymns that you put into your videos sometimes? I love it but i can't find it on TH-cam, what should i write exactly to find it? Thank you alot! Pray for us in Lebanon, and i pray for you too🙏❤️🇱🇧
Thank you for this message. My question: Who is singing the hymns you have interspersed throughout this video? The voice sounds like a priest I know here in the US.
Glory to God that you are serving His Mighty vision for a united body of Christ. Thank you for being strong and stable and a wonderful Son for the Lord. My Anglo Catholic personal choice of traditions are not in any way as I understand it conflicting with the essence of your teachings. Jesus died and rose and ascended. We who accept Him as Saviour and Redeemer are saved from Hell while being sanctified on Earth from our lower egoic nature. I am not interested in worldly attractions. I have recently worked hard to let go of any such attachments. I realise we are all in a spiritual daily battle. I am a daughter, wife and Mother. A Grandmother, cousin and sister. I believe from reading books written and inspired by Lord Jesus and Greek Orthodox Vassula Ryden that the Lord Christ Jesus wills for the three branches of the Eastern, Western Catholic Roman Church and Greek traditional believers to be united. I have no idea how or what it shall be like! It is a good idea to not want fragmentation or broken Churches. There is much need for prayer, fasting, Rosaries, devotion and adoration of Jesus. I am so grateful you are where you live, in your Mull Monastery, as Scotland needs much prayer to save souls, as does everywhere. Remain ever hopeful of the Lord using the sacred gifts He gave all of us and you to build a united strong Church. God is above all Love and Wisdom, Goodness and Truth. I pray you recover your holistic well-being and in the mighty Holy Name of Jesus recover from the Covid virus to continue serving Our Lord the Living Omnipresent God.
Father Bless, What you said today is true although it is hard to stand apart from the divers of politics and situation so to act freely not just as a reaction. Reactions breed a counter reaction which can spiral out of control, hence in his wisdom God limited reaction in the OT to the same as what had been done "an eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth" Christ then tort us to go beyond this and to not react impulsively or reek redress for ourselves. Rather we must seek to protect the little ones of Christ and expect to be treated as Christ was, for being a disciple of Christ means to act as he did and if the situation demands it following him to death which is our birthday into the Kingdom (we will all die but some are called to be witnesses even with their lives). The opinion of the crowd or mod (ὅχλος in Greek) is not stable and always seeks new experiences, hence they can cry Hosanna on one day and Crucify later the same week! What really court my attention was that today your message was the way it resonated with what Archimandrite Philip has been saying in bible studies videos over the last few weeks. I have the feeling that the Holy Spirit in His wisdom is trying to get a message across to us, but in the normally human way we do not listen.
My dear Phoebe, we need to act based on the teaching Christ, not as a reaction to the world. But that does not mean in any way that we should be quiet and look the other way when our brothers and sisters need our support. We do need to act, we do need to talk, but the 'engine' of everything must Christ, not our emotional response to the world.
Politics is not only manipulation of people but also about how to divide the money of the state. How to take care for the sick, the elderly, the poor etc. Then there are measures that are good or bad. Must you not have to opinion about that and try to help the people who need most the help of the state?
I believe the Tower of Babel must be viewed in the light of Pentecost. They are contrasting narratives. Babel represents a human-centered utopian pursuit that was misguided, focused on the immediate and divorced from a relationship with God. Pentecost (paralleled to Babel by the speaking of many languages yet being understood by all) shows that Christ's established Church provides a path of unity in obedience to the will of God, the goal of which is fixed firmly on the eschaton.
Father , and what's your opinion about the Soviet Military's Church? Was just consecrated by Kyril Patriarch of Moscow. Many Orthodox Christians thinks that it is wonderful. But let me add here an article for you to read it . Because I'm very disappointed that the Orthodox Christians are deceived. it just confirms Christ words and Saint Paul words.
so who is this that you call Christ? Christ nor the Jesus that you speak of exist in the manner in which you speak... Misleading the masses is a sin...You repent to an enemy in hopes that they don't destroy you. Tell the truth and shame the devil
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A voice crying in the wilderness. Thank you father
There are many people who think and pray this way, dear Diane. There are many people who feel that they must support people who need their help (either by speaking out, or by joining a protest or making a donation - whatever they are able to do), while also feeling pressured to 'sign up' to some political agenda in order to do so. But that is a lie - we are free to act according to our conscience, without having to take a political side. We can allow our conscience to be informed by Christ, not political ideologies. Thank you for your kindness. May we all be blessed.
Dear Father Seraphim! I was born in Transilvania, and at the moment I am a pastor in the Hungarian Reformed Church! I would like to thank you for your,honest,pure,clear spiritual teaching,which gives me joy, delight and strength! God bless you with all His trenghts from Heaven!
My heart is so challenged, comforted and inspired by this talk Fr. Seraphim...
Thank you
Father bless. My sincerest gratitude for this powerful and beautiful homily. This message speaks directly to my heart.
Dear Father Seraphim, firstly thank you for the black sheep’s wool prayer ropes that arrived safe and sound to me in Tasmania 6 weeks after you posted them! When I pray with this prayer rope I can feel all your pure love and energy and I am moved to tears that seem to come from deep in my heart.
Secondly, may I say every teaching you put here is something of a miracle for me as it is always precisely addressing what I am troubled by at that time. Each week I seem to get into a state about something or other and then like a clear and direct answer to my dismay and confusion, your teaching of the week pops up and I am again rendered amazed and speechless at its relevance and helpfulness. GOD BLESS YOU FATHER 🙏🏼
Dear Chris, I give thanks to God for each word that seems to help someone - I am fully aware of my own sinfulness and I know that, if there is any good, it can only come from Christ. Thank you for ordering the prayer rope and I am sorry that it took so long for it to arrive. It is obvious that something is slowing postal offices world-wide, and I can only imagine it has to do with this coronavirus pandemic. May we all be blessed, dear one.
Dear father. You are a blessing! I hear you and I want to pray and be good and loving and kind. I pray for you and your monastery.
This is so very relevant today in how politics is splitting the Orthodox Church with the Russian/Ukraine War
I just listened to this 4 times. It fills my heart with peace and contentment . Thank you for speaking the Truth and giving us clarity in these uncertain times .
Amen bless you farther very well said indeed whole heartedly agree 👍 thanks heavenly farther for this wonderful monastery on the island of Mull blessings 🙌
Thank you father your word give me strength
You are a breath of fresh air! May You be Bless, Fr. Seraphim!
....."Let God arise and let His enemies be scattered...."
May it be so, dear Seraphim. And may we keep in mind, always, that the enemy are the devil, not those whose we, fallen people, fail to love. This is important, so that we do not end up mistaking our brother or sister for a devil. May we all find our salvation, through His grace and mercy for all mankind.
May God bless you to Fr. Seraphim and thank you brother for your wise words. You are loved and appreciated by us+++ Fr.James
This message is a providential gift, and feels especially splendid, making my day more full of Christ. Struggling against vain information is very real. I often receive politics as either disturbing or entertaining, both or which can easily lead to the spiritual death and division you speak about. As an American, I see I’m prone to react and feel justified in the very notion of having an opinion on various things. I agree with you that there is a place for opinion, or response, but according to that “tiny but perfectly clear voice of Christ’s love, that crucified love of Christ, which speaks in any human heart.” This is such a beautiful and otherworldly matter. Thank you dear Father. Thank you for helping guide us amidst the various manifestations of the demons and on our journey on the Royal Path to Christ. My prayers are with you and the monks and nuns of your holy monastery.
Thank you for your prayers, dear one. They are what keeps us going. This is an extraordinary opportunity for the US to finally address this issue, and there is a great danger that the violence of the conversation will simply distract from its true significance. If we learnt to speak with love, the conversation could continue and could - God willing - lead to peace and true, deep reconciliation. I pray for everyone - may we all be saved.
We Americans feel we must exercise great privileges we think we possess. We are mistaken. These are bottom line "rights" which can be accessed only through political power. But we can do all things through Christ, Who strengthens us.
Thank you for taking the time, prayer, and love to record this exhortation. As a fairly new Orthodox believer who in the past were very engaged in politics and frustrated by what I perceived to be the apathy of self-proclaimed Christians, this current time has been a painful struggle in trying to break out of my old ways of activism yet not wanting to cease to care. Truly Christ shows a new way that is not of the world, and I can only learn from Him and do His will with greater humility and not reacting from passions.
Surely God sent me here. God bless you Father. May we all surrender to the will of Christ. Peace be with you. David
Thank you, dear David. Thank you for your kindness and for your prayer. We all need both in our lives.
Beautiful & enlightening video. Christianity is Christ in us, practicing love & goodness towards neighbors. God bless you.
Amin! God bless you beyond hope for these inspiring words!
I am Ethiopian orthodox and thanks for your teaching about the evil of politics. Father pray for Ethiopian orthodox we are on civil war with each other because of politics. We need prayer 🙏
Dear Father Seraphim, thank you for this reminder, this special gift of peace. I have no spiritual Father in the Church... thus I drift back and forth and my light grows dim many days. Lately politics has clutched my soul and has tried to drain my life. Your gentle reminders in this video have reeled me back to shore. Please pray for my souls sanity!
Humbly...
Barsanuphius
May God forgive me for allowing these demons into my heart. May God forgive me for prioritizing the world over Him.
Surely God sent me to your channel. God bless you Father. Peace be with you. David
Amen brother!
May the Lord Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit be in yours and all our hearts as we represent Him here on earth.
Christ is always with us, dear one. He is always here, in the most real sense - but it is our duty to act as His followers, so that, in seeing us, the world may come to love Him. Thank you for your kind comment, may we all be blessed.
@@mullmonastery Thank you father Seraphim
Excellent advice.
Father, Bless. A message which all should hear.
May we all be blessed, dear one. Thank you for your kind message.
Bless, Father.
May we all be blessed, may we all find our salvation. Please keep me and the Monastery in your prayers.
If I hadn't separated myself from the political world years ago seeing it for what it is, I would not be strong enough to get through the kind of trials I had and still have. Thankyou for your candid explanation! God bless....
Thank you, dear Margaret. Thank you for your prayers and thank you for your comment. May we all find the strength to walk away from all these divisive narratives, while still finding some clarity tone able to speak about the things that need to be addressed. May we all be blessed.
I haven't watched TV since 2006. It is an altered existence. ALL the images seem demonic. Social media..a cesspool. Fast and pray..for there's no other way.☀️☦️🌍
♥️
THANK YOU SO MUCH I AGREE TOTALY... YOU CLEAR MY MIND....GIVE ME A LOT TO MEDITATE.. 🙏🙏🙏🙏❤️
I have sinned greatly in this matter. I repent and reject political loyalty over Christ and the good of my fellow man.
You have not nurt me. You speak the truth. I pray my brother will watch this.
1:27 "Behind Christ there is life, and behind politics there is death." The only thing we need to know about politics. God bless you. 💙
Thank you for the vedeo father seraphim God Bless .
Thank you once again for sharing with us the fruits of your thoughts, studies, prayers, attempts, failures, successes, thoughts and efforts! May God bless your work! Greetings and prayers from Georgia.
I find your videos beautiful and powerful and brilliant. May God bless you, I’m very grateful for your efforts, thank you.
halleluYAHUAH and amen brother.
Amen . Thank you 🙏🏻
Thank you for praying for us.
thank you for your sermon. God Bless you Father.Peace be with you.
I thank the lord for use you to teach our soul
Thank you father!
I wish I've been told this advice years ago.
I can't see how you offend or hurt anyone,really.
We need this words!
God bless,please pray for us in the world.
Dear Petros, I offend people daily and I have no intention to do so. I offend people and I hurt them, and it is irrelevant whether they really should be offended - the fact remains that I cause hurt in their hearts simply by saying theses things, and for that, I am genuinely sorry. But one must do what feels right one's heart, otherwise how would I stand before God and before mown conscience?
Thank you father for your ministry! Your comments about Christians not being called to be political people is timely and powerful. So many of us have lost our peace and have experienced fractured relationships due to opposing political views. It is no wonder why there is much hatred in the world.
Behind Christ there is LIFE.
Behind politics there is DEATH.
These two statements spoke volumes! Please keep posting your videos. God is speaking truth through you to many of us around the world.
Many blessings!
Thank you Father, very well spoken and very understandable.
Glory be to God, dear George. Thank you for your kind comment.
Thank you so much.
Thank you very much for the teaching.
Amen! Listening to this now - and it is even more relevant as we struggle in America with fraud, lies, anger and destruction! Lord help us! Amen and Amen!
Words of wisdom and understanding, thank you.
This message is wonderful. Thank you very much. With everything going these days I've been pouring over where I stand on the issues in the world. Then I heard this and felt such a relief at the reminder that I am a Christian and not a politician! God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
That was wonderful, thank you and God bless you, Fr. Seraphim!
Glory be to God for all things, dear one. Thank you for your kindness and for your encouragement - we all need both in our lives.
Thank you father for this powerful lesson. May our Lord have mercy upon us all.
Holy is the Spirit of God. One is the Spirit of God. One are those who live by his Spirit. Keep talking dear Father ❤️at least we should talk.may you be blessed 🙏🏻
Thank you for your encouragement, dear one. Talking is essential, words are essential - the Son of God is called the Word and that is because words can lead to change (repentance), and change can lead to life. May we all be blessed, dear one.
Dear Father, thank you for these words of truth and clarity offered to us at this time. It is all to easy for me, sinful person that I am, to read or watch some “us vs them” news clip that rarely if ever sows peace in my heart, but instead inevitably arouses anger and ever hatred against others of God’s children. I know in my heart there is no hope in politics but only in Christ. Thank you Father. Please continue with these much needed video messages. God bless you and the brothers and sisters at Mull Monastery.
Dear one, we need to somehow (we all have our own ways of doing this) lift our minds from the divisions of the world and learn to get our 'information' from our prayer. No one prays for the world, but we all have opinions and we all pass judgement against the world. We are called to love and save our brothers and sisters, but we end up doing just the opposite, all in the name of a narrative that has nothing to do with Christ. Anyway - may we all be blessed.
This is precisely my view of politics. Your verbal articulation, is a blessing. The anthropology of Saint Sophrony is the response I use to politics. Your insight to his work has also helped me greatly. I am praying for your continued work and authenticity ☦
St Sophrony has revealed to me the way - my way - to Christ. I still remember the state of shock in which I was while reading him for the first time. I was in my very early twenties then, and I have not stopped learning to look at the world through his eyes ever since. His wisdom is endless, because it feeds from the Wisdom of God. Our wisdom is limited and always distorted in some way, because we (or, at least, I) have not even taken our first steps towards true repentance. May we all be blessed through his prayers, dear Michael.
@@mullmonastery What book would you recommend from St. Sophrony?
@@Pilgrim22 I would like to know as well.
Trust not in princes nor the sons of men in whom there is no salvation.
Every Sunday we sing this.
Thank you Father for the video, this needed to be said right now! From age 17-25 I worked in American politics and over time it literally felt like it was eating away my soul. We are divided, broken into groups, and consumed by this political fire in America. I was about to sign another political contract in D.C. in August of 2016 and Christ would simply not allow it. He drove my heart away and days after signing the contract I called and returned the signing bonus. I was saddened because I felt like I had no worldy purpose without politics and simply no motivation to find other work. Years have passed and now I'm a sommelier spreading the beauty of God's creation through the grapevine and bringing joy (not division) to peoples lives. Christ also brought me to Orthodoxy which has since decreased my worries for worldy status and worldy praise, thanks be to God!
May God bless you, dear one. This is something we are easily tempted to forget - our job, our place of work, the place where we live, the way we spend our holidays and our money, these are all (to a great degree) in our control. We can change a job if it goes against our conscience, we can move places if we feel living in a city or in the countryside better serves our spiritual lives, we can spend our holiday on a beach or save those days for Holy Week - these are all personal choices, but we forget (or fear to remember) that we remain free to choose the good over the bad. May we all be blessed.
@@mullmonastery Thank you for your kind words and reply Father. May God continue to watch over you and guide your path.
Such clarity and it touched my heart. Thank you holy Father!
Glory be to God for all good things, dear Lydia. Thank you for your kindness.
Bless you Father! No wonder you labored over this topic. I have been chewing on it ever since you posted. Christ said Give to Caesar the things that are Caessr's. In practice, when politics seizes a human rights issue, how to respond & whether to respond is
tough. Thank you for challenging our faith. Praying for you and the monastery.
Always timely, Fr. Seraphim. Thank you.
Glory be to God. Thank you for your kindness.
I feel the love you are sharing. Thanks
LUMINA LUI HRISTOS V A STRĂPUNGE ÎNTUNERICUL TIRANIEI LOR👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
I was once told by a Protestant priest that Jesus was the first socialist 🤔. Thank you Father for your clarity of thought, for your caring love and consideration. You are a blessed bright light shining towards Christ Jesus in this ever darkening world. I pray for your welfare and continued fatherly guidance in our lives. 🙏
Dear Maxine, that is precisely the danger - when you break Christ into pieces and select the pieces you like, leaving aside those you do not like, Christ becomes whatever you want Him to become, but that 'thing' is no longer the Living God. We can turn anything and anyone into what our minds want them to be, but then we become just as Christ warns us: the blind leaning the blind. May we all be blessed, dear one.
Mull Monastery Correct, subordinating Christ to any political agenda like a certain section of people do is a grave transgression.
Dear Fr Seraphim ,God bless you 🙏🙏your true words full of pure love went straight to the heart . Thank you🌷🌷
Glory be to God for all things, dear Vicky. I agonise over these videos, and I dread offering anyone, but I have to do exactly what I encourage everyone else: act according to my conscience and Christ's teaching, regardless of how I come across to others. May we all be blessed, dear one.
Old Roman African once said, a statement worthy of repitition: This is the rule of our faith, that we love those who hate us, and that we beseech God to bless those who afflict us; and herein lies that goodness which is peculiar to us. All men love those who love them, Christians alone those who hate them.
This is very wise Father and I needed to hear this. Intolerance is a force that divides for sure. I love how you say rules need to be overturned to keep the dignity and humanity of the person. Bless you and thank you for your words. They are a great great help to me.
This couldn't have arrived in my feed at a better time! Both this video, and the one which warns against rejecting the world in a "demonic" way, have highlighted for me the very dangerous path I've been going down these last few years, and why I need to stop immediately.
Working my way through this channel's content, I feel as though I've been slapped (with love) out of my delusional state. A strange dissonant feeling of knowing that I've been rolling around in filth yet at the same time I feel elated and hopeful because there is a path out of it. I've never firmly committed to anything before, caught up in worldly things and various ideologies that have done nothing for me but encourage indulgence in pride, arrogance and judgement of others. I don't want to be that way any more.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner
Glory to God for His Great Mercy. Thank you so much for these wise, Inspired and Truthful Words, dearest Holy Father. It is superb to hear the Divine Truth of Christ expressed so well. This is the Message of Love which I have always tried to convey to all my fellow Orthodox Brethren and students. Love never fails, and God Who is Love Itself, can never fail. May these words bear the sweetest Fruit for the Glory of God and for the Eternal Benefit of every immortal soul who struggles to survive in these Spiritually Dead and Dark times. Thank you most sincerely. May God continue to Bless all your Labours of Love. With Love in Christ, Marguerite Paizis.
Thank you! Thank you for u this insanity into perspective. I have not found any source but you explaining our current situation so clearly.
I hear you , I agree with you and I try to follow this approach. I recently read Tolstoy's "The Kingdom of God is within you" and this really resonates with what you are saying. I thank you for your wisdom and for your Prayers for us sinners and you are always in my Prayers and I do say a special Prayer for you all when the little sea shell passes between my thumb and finger :)
That is so kind of you. I love Lev Tolstoy, and I make a point of reading something of his every year. Every ten years, I also go through War and Peace and Anna Karenina - a small personal ritual, as it shows me how much my brain has changed from one decade to the next. Thank you for your kindness and your prayers - the little shells come from either Mull (a small beach just in front of the Monastery) or InchKenneth (a tiny isle where St Kenneth lived as a hermit in the 500s)
The very nature of this world / realm is a place of suffering joy change loss gain ,when we know the nature of this world we can let it go , but not abandon it to evil .thank you Father.
Amen❤
Thank you, Father, for speaking truth with such clarity.
Only recently a friend and I were discussing the phenomenon of us appearing to be of one mind with people supporting this or that cause, but because our motives are different from theirs, we later find ourselves a source of bafflement to these same people when they learn that we also support something with which they directly fiercely disagree.
It means that we may often find ourselves considered traitors to this cause or that, or to the left or to the right, but I suppose this is what it is to try to live in Christ, where we don't fit neatly into these political categories, and where the world never quite knows what to make of us.
Please pray for me.
I know exactly what you say, dear father. I have lost long-term friends over these videos, but I need to be honest and not pretend to be what people expect me to be. I have been called everything, from a heretic to a white fundamentalist. Someone was kind enough to indirectly threaten me with guns, while someone else put an anathema on me. All of this because I choose not to follow either of the main political 'solutions' of the world today and I allow my conscience to be informed by my prayer and my faith, not a political narrative. But, dear father, Christ created us FREE - if God allows me to be free in my fall and in my virtue, who is the one who hates my freedom? May we all be blessed - all, with no exception. Please keep me and the Monastery in your prayers.
This is Truth!!! This is Profound!!! The whole world needs to here this message Father! This is a Powerful, Powerful Message!! Thank you for feeding my soul, for I am so hungry for the true word that you speak....I really appreciate you making these videos and for taking time out of your day to share God's Word! I sure wish your Monastery was around me so I could visit and also so I could talk to you and be in the presence of a genuine soldier for Christ! God Bless you and your Monastery
Very helpful. Politics is dividing all of us into shreds.
When for around 10years before the october 7th Hamas atrocities i committed to support for Palestine there were many who said, we dont do politics. I said politics was never my intent, but social justice. Because Christians should be a voice too. Micah 6.8
so yes, i agree.❤
Father, thank you for speaking truth to us. We so need someone from whom to hear it!! On another note, it would be lovely to be able to hear your monks chant prayers. Maybe it could be another income source for you, through an album or something like that?
I would love that as well.
Dear me, I have never considered that. We'll see. We are by NO means professional singers, and I personally cannot sing to see my life. But we shall pray and think about it, thank you for suggesting it.
Father, your message was so important to hear in today's climate of politics.
The Chants were so meaningful.
May the Lord bless your Monastery and your mission.
Christ is in our midst!
@@mullmonastery Me too, I need the peace of the singing prayers. Father, I sent you 1-2 weeks ago an email about my daughter losing her faith. Please, can you pray for us to tell us something that is helpful for us? How can we help our daughter, please?
@@MyMoldoveanu Dear Nadia, you cannot save your daughter. She might need you to release her into the hands of Jesus. She is safer there than in our anxieties. Sometimes people need to walk away to get closer in the end. Don't be afraid, stay faithful in prayer and Christ will work as he wills. Bless you....
Dear Father, this is very courageous, but so good to hear it said with such authority and humility. When I first heard of the monastery and your videos I wondered of course if I would be included or excluded in your bonds of friendship and prayer, since I am not Orthodox. Would Fr Seraphim speak out against something or someone I held dear, I wondered? Would he be gentle or harsh? Full of welcome or disdainful of heretics and sinners? Would he use his authority for politics? I find instead that you are able to speak with the humility necessary for me to hear Christ speaking in and through you. It is a real joy to witness someone who is so transparently himself, vulnerable, guileless. I wish I could somehow encourage you. I heard you say in some other video that when one meets a spiritual father one simply wants to sit at their feet and listen all day. I feel like this whenever I see your videos. You stir my heart immediately to prayer. God bless you.
Dear Tess, I don't quite know how to respond to this. It is too much and you are too kind,, but I understand that your reaction comes from a good place in your heart. I know who I am, I know my fallenness and I could not be further from the person you are describing. But thank you for your encouragement - we all need support these days, precisely because we are weak and we cannot act simply based on the words of Christ. May we all be blessed, dear one.
I really don't speak from a position of any authority. I am orthodox and as far as I understand, there is only love in the orthodox church for all of humanity. I pray that one day we can all be together in the true church. Also I pray that the division's within our churches can be healed, by the grace of God.
So far always my favorite youtuber monk. :D
Amen!!!!
Bless you Father! I've been struggling with this, and hadn't quite figured out how to put it into words. You so eloquently spoke right to my heart. I will try to remind myself of this Truth each time the demon tries to ensnare me, how easily I become snared! God bless you all. Pray for us!
Thank God for everything, dear one. There is a danger or not speaking out and failing to support our brothers and sisters, but there is also a danger of speaking from a place that lacks love and compassion - both are equally wrong. We do need to help whenever possible, but we need to do so in a way that doesn't deepen our brokenness.
Father, we Thank you with all our hearts for your amazing and honest videos, full of truth and love!! Please pray for us always!!
Yes, we are one, and we cannot even imagine how much you are gently directing us to follow our Lord Jesus Christ more, instead of politics -- you, an inseparable person from humanity (like all of us), by doing the task that God has assigned to you, are calling us each to do our part of the whole. Are calling us to follow God's Plan for us, instead of the powers of this world. Are calling us to serve God instead of man, for it is said: "You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men." 1 Corinthians 7:23
I really love the chanting which you have included!! Especially of minute 10:00. Please, give us your blessings, Father!! Thank you!!!
Thank you for your wise words - I have ordered a 100 knot prayer rope from the monastery on Mull - thank you for your prayers
That is so kind of you, dear Adrian. Thank you for your support, we very much need it.
Bless me Father, this is Steven from Las Vegas using my wife’s account. I ask for your prayers for my wife and I to whom I recently confessed my infidelity. The sadness in her is painful. I am grateful for your words which seem to me to be exactly what I should focus on. I’m sorry that all I think about is myself. I am in great need of Christ’s salvation today and always. But I refuse to despair. By the grace of God I will be changed. Oh Lord have mercy on me, a sinner!!
May Christ bless your marriage, dear one. I do hope that both you and your wife have a good confessor in your life, someone to guide both of you through this difficult time.
I do have a confessor and just spoke with him yesterday. Pray for us, Father. I pray for you and your fellow monks at Mull.
Your videos are a rock for me down here in the Cotteswolds living in a shed in my mother's back garden. The only Christian support I have here is fragments such as encouragement from muslims and yogic practioners, some times there are sacred moments in the local Catholic church During the lockdown I have been able to visit old church's and try to connect to some of the faith that was once here. I am surrounded in the worldly sense by hedonism, nature worship, atheism and worse. Thank you so much for your work and presence here in Britain. We really need you here. May God bless you.
My dear Matthew, Christ is everywhere - He can offer you support if you ask Him to do so. And there is an entire community of monastics - known and unknown to us - who spend their lives, each hour of their days, praying for the world. My own hope of salvation is for the prayers of these real monastics, some of whom I was blessed to meet at various times in my life. I pray for you, please pray for me - where two gather in His name, Christ is also present.
Bless you, Father. I am very drawn to Orthodox Christianity. There is much that I have to learn. Lord have mercy. I've been watching TH-cam videos about "Russia returning to Orthodoxy). What are your thoughts on separation (or no separation) between Church and state? Whether it be in Russia or anywhere in the world. Thank you Father.
Perhaps you could say something about the movement of Muslims into previously Christian areas which has political but not always popular support. Unlike Christian doctrine, Islamic teachings do divide people into us and them and encourage the unequal treatment of non-Muslims. Is this population movement something we as Christians should encourage, resist or simply silently accept?
God bless you father Seraphim
I want to ask you how can i can get the chant and hymns that you put into your videos sometimes? I love it but i can't find it on TH-cam, what should i write exactly to find it? Thank you alot! Pray for us in Lebanon, and i pray for you too🙏❤️🇱🇧
Is it possible to visit you and your beautiful area sometime? To escape and realign? The South East of England feels like hell
Thank you for this message. My question: Who is singing the hymns you have interspersed throughout this video? The voice sounds like a priest I know here in the US.
We sometimes use recordings we make ourselves at the Monastery, dear one - either one of the brothers or one of the sisters. May we all be blessed.
Glory to God that you are serving His Mighty vision for a united body of Christ. Thank you for being strong and stable and a wonderful Son for the Lord. My Anglo Catholic personal choice of traditions are not in any way as I understand it conflicting with the essence of your teachings.
Jesus died and rose and ascended. We who accept Him as Saviour and Redeemer are saved from Hell while being sanctified on Earth from our lower egoic nature. I am not interested in worldly attractions. I have recently worked hard to let go of any such attachments. I realise we are all in a spiritual daily battle. I am a daughter, wife and Mother. A Grandmother, cousin and sister. I believe from reading books written and inspired by Lord Jesus and Greek Orthodox Vassula Ryden that the Lord Christ Jesus wills for the three branches of the Eastern, Western Catholic Roman Church and Greek traditional believers to be united. I have no idea how or what it shall be like! It is a good idea to not want fragmentation or broken Churches. There is much need for prayer, fasting, Rosaries, devotion and adoration of Jesus. I am so grateful you are where you live, in your Mull Monastery, as Scotland needs much prayer to save souls, as does everywhere. Remain ever hopeful of the Lord using the sacred gifts He gave all of us and you to build a united strong Church. God is above all Love and Wisdom, Goodness and Truth. I pray you recover your holistic well-being and in the mighty Holy Name of Jesus recover from the Covid virus to continue serving Our Lord the Living Omnipresent God.
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Father Bless,
What you said today is true although it is hard to stand apart from the divers of politics and situation so to act freely not just as a reaction. Reactions breed a counter reaction which can spiral out of control, hence in his wisdom God limited reaction in the OT to the same as what had been done "an eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth" Christ then tort us to go beyond this and to not react impulsively or reek redress for ourselves. Rather we must seek to protect the little ones of Christ and expect to be treated as Christ was, for being a disciple of Christ means to act as he did and if the situation demands it following him to death which is our birthday into the Kingdom (we will all die but some are called to be witnesses even with their lives).
The opinion of the crowd or mod (ὅχλος in Greek) is not stable and always seeks new experiences, hence they can cry Hosanna on one day and Crucify later the same week!
What really court my attention was that today your message was the way it resonated with what Archimandrite Philip has been saying in bible studies videos over the last few weeks. I have the feeling that the Holy Spirit in His wisdom is trying to get a message across to us, but in the normally human way we do not listen.
My dear Phoebe, we need to act based on the teaching Christ, not as a reaction to the world. But that does not mean in any way that we should be quiet and look the other way when our brothers and sisters need our support. We do need to act, we do need to talk, but the 'engine' of everything must Christ, not our emotional response to the world.
Politics is not only manipulation of people but also about how to divide the money of the state. How to take care for the sick, the elderly, the poor etc. Then there are measures that are good or bad. Must you not have to opinion about that and try to help the people who need most the help of the state?
"Any act of separation cannot be from God, but from a demon...." - yeah, but what about the Tower of Babel?
I believe the Tower of Babel must be viewed in the light of Pentecost. They are contrasting narratives. Babel represents a human-centered utopian pursuit that was misguided, focused on the immediate and divorced from a relationship with God. Pentecost (paralleled to Babel by the speaking of many languages yet being understood by all) shows that Christ's established Church provides a path of unity in obedience to the will of God, the goal of which is fixed firmly on the eschaton.
I believe it is a sin not to be involved in our civic duties. Am I wrong?
Father , and what's your opinion about the Soviet Military's Church? Was just consecrated by Kyril Patriarch of Moscow.
Many Orthodox Christians thinks that it is wonderful. But let me add here an article for you to read it . Because I'm very disappointed that the Orthodox Christians are deceived. it just confirms Christ words and Saint Paul words.
so who is this that you call Christ? Christ nor the Jesus that you speak of exist in the manner in which you speak... Misleading the masses is a sin...You repent to an enemy in hopes that they don't destroy you. Tell the truth and shame the devil