Transcript for:
Lesson 16: The Birth of Christ and Its Prophecies

Lesson 16 and the prophecies and in particular the birth of Christ let's begin uh we're just as a way of information for everybody we are now at page uh2 we'll begin the next section 182 public activity next time uh and so 182 out of that a long way to go let's see without counting the footnotes 650 about so 182 650 what about third of the way there not quite all right so the birth of Christ and the prophecies uh what do we have what is witnessed to in the prophets about the birth of Christ showing his divinity his Divine Humanity or the that he is the theanthropos the prophet Micah prophesies that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem in Matthew 2:6 is commemorated in Micah 52 you'll find it and thou Bethlehem in the land of Judah art not the least among the princes of Judah for out of thee came shall come a governor that shall Shepherd My People Israel and his goings forth were from the from the beginning even from eternity obvious and amazing prophecy all of you out there who are still languishing in the syncretism and confusion and denial of the Divinity of Jesus Christ what else do you need clearly telling us that God incarnate will come from that little sleepy Town of Bethlehem that you see on the picture there it's a picture of Bethlehem and we go on to the second part of this little section the high priests and lawyers or scribes I guess high priest and lawyers knew of this prophecy let me actually have the Greek in front of me in case we run into any any discrepancies here Niki I guess it would be lawyers knew of this prophecy and when Herod asked them where will Christ be born they answered in Bethlehem of Judea David the great king of Israel who was was also from this same town but the prophet is not speaking of him here since he lived before Micah's time here he speaks of a future event neither can this prophecy be applied to zorobabel although he was a descendant of David and a ruler and a governor who led the captives back to Jerusalem and built the temple seeing that he was born in Babylon not in Bethlehem all right so just so people are clear in case they're thinking well this could be applied to those figures there's ample evidence that they cannot and then the prophecy also proclaims the Messiah as God and man as St John cusum interprets it and he says in his proof to both Jews and Greeks that Christ is God St John chusum you've not read St John chasam you're missing out you should be reading you could be reading his commentary and all the different many of the Epistles and gospels Along on your daily readings he reveals both the Divine and the human nature by for by saying his goings forth were from the beginning even from eternity he revealed his pre-existence pre-eternal existance and by saying shall come a governor that shall Shepherd My People Israel he revealed his birth after the flesh so he's God and man here this prophecy was also interpreted by the message of the Angel to the Shepherds of Bethlehem unto you is Born This Day in the city of Bethlehem a savior which is Christ the lord Luke 21 so from eternity the Divine human divine nature and a governor that shall Shepherd My People Israel and that is revealing his birth after the flesh so now we go to the second section of this overall section on the birth of Christ the birth from a virgin and the birth from a virgin we we read the prophet Isaiah prophesies the messiah's birth from the Virgin saying in Isaiah 7:14 and Matthew recorded in Matthew 1:23 therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign Behold a virgin shall conceive in the womb and shall bring forth a son and thou shall call his name Emmanuel which being interpreted is God With Us now this this is taken of course from the Septuagint that's the of the 70 the 70 Scholars of Jews before the time of Christ who translated it into Greek and not from the mastic text and for good reason the mic text was done long after the Incarnation and in largely in reaction to the Christians after the after the destruction of the temple and therefore is not nearly as trustworth they never used by the church never commemorated in the scriptures the New Testament that is the septent was before Christ and throughout the early church until today the text used by the church and there it clearly says and it says as translating from the Hebrew themselves right the 40 the 70 rather a transl human a virgin shall conceive it's hardly a sign if a young woman conceives right but if a virgin conceives that is a great sign so very strange U that some would follow this other reading of the mtic when it's do make any sense and it's also not trustworthy the prophet prophesied the great sign or Miracle that ever that that ever occurred the greatest should be probably the greatest sign or Miracle that ever occurred in the history of mankind the Incarnation and birth of God the word through the Virgin maram so that is that is the clear um the clear witness here no one called Christ Emanuel by name but all Christians recognize him as such in practice since they believe in him as the God man of course Emanuel means god with us right so uh no one referred to him during his life as Emmanuel said Emanuel come here but but the term is applied to him because he is God and man God With Us the one born is of the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit as the angel said to Joseph the betroth Matthew 1:20 Mary was found with child by of the Holy Spirit Matthew 1:18 the Virgin did not undergo corruption when she gave birth because she gave birth of the Holy Spirit and remained incorrupt Mar's by Nature a virgin and by economy she became a mother in other words the economy or the Providence or the plan of God for the Salvation of mankind she becomes a mother even though she was a virgin and both before during and after the the birth of Christ so this confirms in the scriptural passage that she was that he was born from a virgin therefore the sign that we spoke of pre previously is confirmed and and believed um and she was always a virgin that's another question they have virginity which unfortunately is one more heretical doctrine that the Protestants have swallowed there so many uh it was made an impression me yesterday or this morning when whenever was that they went live with the interview I did with Maria Z you know these Maria Z's um Channel but many of these channels have tons of very fervent Protestants who are following um and uh immediately immediately I mean within seconds there were comments underneath call no man father you know they hadn't even listened to the interview they hadn't spent any time and they just regurgitating the the the talking points without understanding anything I mean that we've shown we've shown that the whole Protestant interpretation of calling no man father is all wrong all talks about being fathers to them and no one has ever ceased calling their own father father and they call them themselves they call them their own father's father I mean it's clearly a misinterpretation of the words never it actually literally is a misinterpretation doesn't mean doesn't say in Greek what they think it does but anyway it's an off topic but my point is that there are many many false understandings doctrinal errors heretical teachings today among those many Protestant sectarians and this is a tragedy uh but and because these things matter because they keep people away from the grace of God ultimately they keep people away from the life in Christ they keep people away from the truth uh of the gospel and the liberation from the passions and and and so they become important right because they get stuck on these things but it's just a it's just an amazing thing we need to understand our faith thoroughly that's why we're doing this week in and week out or almost every week uh and G to bring this out God willing in in circulate in printed form and make a lecture um or rather a lesson plan for children to be able to follow the same content because many of us as Orthodox don't know and aren't ready to give a good defense for the faith that's been once delivered so hopefully this is all helping you all to do exactly that all right let's get back to the text we're talking now in the next section about the theanthropos or the godman so so important the theanthropos elsewhere the prophet Isaiah again speaks of the child that will be born in the future the Messiah and he says 96 For unto us a child is born and unto us a son is given and his name is called the messenger of great counsel the Mighty God could be angel of good counsil as well two different ways to render that in English this child however is certainly a man but he's also the Mighty God that is he will be the god man so he's Mighty God and he's a child at the same time witness to the theanthropic nature of Jesus Christ the same nature which was confessed by Peter and upon which the church is built that confession of his theanthropic nature the same let's say issue or matter that will be at the heart of and has been at the heart for 2,000 years will be at the heart at the time of the rise of antichrist who do they say that I am right you are the the theanthropos this is this this is the core and the people who deny that will go and follow the Antichrist and those who confess it unto death will will be eternally with Christ this is what has been revealed to us so the Eternal King now he is he is a theanthropos he is a God man and he is the Eternal King of the Throne of David prophet Isaiah prophesies concerning the coming Messiah the following in 97 his government shall be great and his peace and of his peace there is no end it shall be upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom vasilia right it talk about that in a second to establish it and to support it with judgment and with righteousness and henceforth and for ever so he's the Eternal King he's not just a king he's not just David for a Time on the throne but he's an eternal King there is no end to his peace to his government and it is established and henceforth and forever now the vasilia with the Greek term that is translated as Kingdom it's important to understand that this is not a worldly external economic political military Kingdom have no no no mistakes about it they will no there will be no thousand year reign on Earth that delusional teaching of of the helas of the millennialist and and the and you see this re rearing its head uh in our day and having major political implications this this heterodox heretical teaching this is not the nature of the kingdom of Our Lord but rather Eternal Kingdom not a temporal Kingdom Eternal Kingdom and that's a spiritual Kingdom of course because that's the heart and the basis of everything else everything flows from The Stance the spiritual reality of every human being if you are given over to the passions a slave to them you are worshiping at the foot foot stols of the Demons because behind all the passions of the Demons so they are ruling over you you are in the vasilia the kingdom of the Demonic right because that's what you live for the things that they uh introduce Revel in teach but if you are picking up your cross denying yourself walking the Narrow Path loving the Lord Jesus and calling upon him to rule and Reign within you that's the kingdom of God that he promised would be within us right so it's a spiritual Kingdom and it is established now and forever that's the goal to re re reestablish men in communion with God that they might never ever fall away again and then eternally in their body and soul they would be in communion with God he would be their Master their their lord their guide noetic practically as well right right so he would reign in their hearts he would you would you would worship at his foot stol in your heart you would call upon and enthrone him in your heart through the prayer Lord Jesus Christ have mercy me this is the vasilia the kingdom do not be confused to think as some unfortunate ones have in the past that this has anything to do with a Earthly Kingdom and again the prophet they um let's see that's the prophesied Messiah the prophesied Messiah will restore and perpetuate the kingdom the Reign or vasilia of David establishing the indisoluble church his kingdom will reign basilia will be spiritual there you go we just said it that word henceforth signifies here the time a definite beginning which indicates that the coming of Christ to men will be continual right begins but there's no end to that Perpetual a Perpetual kingdom indisoluble kingdom indisoluble church and from that forth the time of the coming of the Lord henceforth that will be available to those who are his disciples who become one with him now there is also in the uh prophets there is reference to him coming from the south the ELO as it says in Greek furthermore the prophet abuk prophesies of the messiah's coming from famon and from the dark Shady Mount habakuk 3:3 fam is the southern part of iduma which storms usually come close to Sinai the theater of the great theophanes this is in a uh reference book that the authors are referencing in Greek metaphorically the he quote he prophesizes the Theodor of Cyrus the Theodor of Cyrus he prophesies the Incarnation of our God and savior which would take place in Bethlehem which lies to the south of Jerusalem this is what he's talking about here in nation in Bethlehem south of Jerusalem he's coming from the south of Jerusalem so that's another aspect of the prophecy concerning his birth this theophany which so vividly describes the future coming of the Messiah is the most comprehensive and most beautiful of all the Divine manifestations in the Old Testament since as he goes on to describe before the Majestic appearance of of the passing God the Earth trembled the Nations melted away the tents of the Ethiopians were afraid and the tents of the mid deits danites were dismayed all of that in habakuk 35 to7 so these are various expressions of course referring to the spiritual State and the spiritual reality uh at the coming and not some political only or mainly reality interpreting to Nebuchadnezzar the dream that he had seen with the Statue the Prophet Daniel prophetically determines the time of the messiah's coming he says that Christ would come during the fourth Kingdom that the that of the Romans after there three other kingdoms had gone before namely the Babylonian Assyrian the meadow Persian and the Greek of and of the great so this is the prophecy of the coming of the Messiah clearly put in the time that he came the heart of the rise of the Roman Empire and let's read in Daniel 2:44 to 45 what does it say then in the days of those kings of the fourth Kingdom God Of Heaven shall set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed and his kingdom shall not be left to another people but it shall beat to pieces and grind to powder all other kingdoms that it shall stand forever where is thou speaking to Nebuchadnezzar sawest that a stone was cut out of a mountain without hands Stone was cut out of a mountain without hands he saw that in a dream and it beat to Pieces the Earth andwar the iron the brass the silver the gold the components of the statue right the statue represents those the kingdoms these are components of the statue they're being beat the pieces so will this Kingdom beat to Pieces the other kingdoms right so this Kingdom of course is the kingdom of Our Lord there's not some temporal political Kingdom the stone cut without hands this is of course if you know our press this is the symbol of the image that we have uh portrayed there the mother of God is of course the mountain the uncut Mountain Stone is cut without hands miraculously which crushed the statue right so this Stone of course is Christ referring to Christ many references as a stone referring to Christ Christ crushed the statue which represented the other kingdoms and then became the great Mountain that filled the whole earth the stone is Christ who is called a stone elsewhere in scriptures so you go to Psalm 117 Matthew 21 acts 4 Ephesians 2 1 Corinthians 3 and 104 uh all referring to Christ as the stone while the AL Theus is the mountain Christ was born without the intervention of a man virginal is from the Virgin just as the stone was cut uh out of the mountain without human hands that's the prophecy the stone was cut without human hands for which reason it is called AOS AOS H without hands that is Pinal and so everybody knows now why do we call our press uncut Mountain Press it's a reference to the most holy Theos as the mountain from which the Lord was cut without hands and that is of course the Incarnation so we're very very grateful that we can focus on and have at the center of our work the Incarnation of the most holy Theus Beyond this we have from Daniel also a more exact determination of the time so let's even go further here he himself determines more exactly the times of the coming of the Messiah that more exactly than what we just heard with the various uh kingdoms and the Roman Kingdom while the Archangel Gabriel speaking as the representative of God was praying for the captive judaic people this is Daniel again 9: 25-27 while the Archangel Gabriel was speaking as a representative of God was praying for the captive judaic people taking captive he revealed that from the going forth of the command for the answer and for the building of Jerusalem until Christ the prince there shall be seven weeks weeks and 62 weeks 7 weeks and 62 weeks and after the 62 weeks the anointed one shall be destroyed and there is no judgment or properly interpreted sin in him and he shall destroy the city and the sanctuary with the prince that is coming and one week shall establish the Covenant with many and in the midst of the week my sacrifice and drink offering shall be taken away this is in Daniel we're going to unpack this a bit we understand why this is telling about the time of the coming of the Messiah so the Prophet Daniel himself determines even more exactly the times of the coming of the Messiah while the Archangel Gabriel speaking as representative of God was praying for the captive people he revealed did I just I just put this twice no no sorry that's what I should be reading for forgive me I went back to read the previous one so moving on from that and more more giving a more detailed explanation of what is said in Daniel we have the following from the authors the seven and 62 weeks of years right weeks of years represent years total how many 483 years so 7 plus 62 69 times 7 because they represent seven days of the week so the 483 the basis of the calculation of the time is the decree of Anis the first marro Hiro that's Greek for long hand and he was the Persian Emperor it's the basis of the calculation of the time is the decree that he put forth concerning the rebuilding of Jerusalem in about 4445 BC all right so we're at 4:45 that this decree comes down now we're going to see how many years until the coming of the Messiah so therefore 445 years and 30 years 445 to the birth 30 more years until his appearance as in public right the pre-public Life of Christ until his manifestation of the time of the baptism equals how many years 475 years 445 and 30 475 which is in weeks of years 69 * 7 4 8 3 years in the midst of the one week which is missing from the 70 right so it's 69 not 70 the one week what is that that's referred to in the scriptures previously the Messiah will strengthen his Covenant will be murdered even though without sin as the clearly said in Daniel and with his sacrifice he will abolish the sacrifices of the law with his sacrifice then the the type now fulfilled with the truth and they'll be abolished establishing a New Covenant a new sacrifice abolishing even in 70 AD ad the temple itself this is all foreshadowed for foretold here in Daniel with the words that we just heard right should we hear them again let's go back and hear the Daniel's word again and try to having that in mind understand it better so he says there in 25 9:25 Archangel Gabriel was speaking as a representative of God praying for the captive people and he says that from the going forth of the command for the answer for the building of Jerusalem all right so there's a command from the King until Christ comes until the Messiah comes the prince Christ the prince there shall be seven weeks and 62 weeks s and 62 69 and after the 62 weeks in other words after the 69 is what they mean because it would be 7even and then 62 so after the 69 what happens the anointing will will be destroyed in other words he'll be crucified that's what they're talking about here and there is no judgment in him so he's sinless the sinless one will be crucified and he shall destroy the city and the sanctuary with the prince that is coming so the Fulfillment now of the prophecies about the coming destruction of the temple I think this is referred to that and one week shall and and one week shall establish the Covenant with many and in the midst of the week sacrifice and drink offering shall be taken away all of this referring to the coming of the Messiah and the doing away of the old and the initiation into the new and the Fulfillment in Christ now Christ is also referred to as the expectation expectation of the Nations not just the expectation of the prophets not just the expectation of people but of the Nations the nations are waiting for Christ if you want to learn more about that maybe uh Justin can put in the chat in the various chats links to our two lectures we have two lectures on the first and second coming and how these are prophesied outside of and Beyond The House of David and the Israel Israelite people but outside among the Nations there were prophecies and foreshadowing of the coming of the Messiah and so he is the expectation of the Nations as well and we see here patriarch Jacob prophesied concerning Judea the following or Judah the following a ruler shall not fail from Judah nor a prince from his loins until there come the things stored up for him in other words the Messiah and he is the expectation of the Nations the expectation of Na not just expectation of the Jews this is how could this be overseen by the Jews it's uh unbeliev right there in Genesis 49:10 he's not just for the Jews but all the world indeed this prophecy was fulfilled to the last letter all right so let's look at this prophecy a second here prophecy declares that the leaders of the tribe of Judah will remain until the coming of Christ truly is descendants first of all King David retained the King's throne for 1,000 Thousand Years the House of David with the exception of the 70 years of Babylonian captivity this is truly a unique phenomenon in all of world history for 1,000 years the descendants of David maintained the throne this is a unique phenomenon as I said and so very impressive Herod murdered the high priest and King hus oranus depending on the language you're talking about the Last Descendant of the House of David and thus the tribe of Judah ceased to Reign interesting isn't it not far around the time of Christ it was then that Christ came the expectation and salvation of the nation so there were signs and there were clear and and the Thousand Years came to an end and the Christ came as the the New Covenant and it's very very unique that thousand years but also the end in in the coming of the Lord to give us a true thousand in other words endless that's what that will mean not a literal Chron chronological date but endless Kingdom Eternal Kingdom so what about the the the the descent from Jessie the tree of Jesse right with this is icon here is called the RZA to the root of Jesse that's what the icon you're seeing here in part on the screen is called showing Christ coming from Jesse below and giving all the prophets talking about his coming prophet Isaiah foresees the birth of the Messiah and determines his descent from Jesse the father of David saying in recorded in Isaiah 11 1 and 10 and there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse and a blossom shall come from up from his root and in that day there shall be a root of Jesse and he that shall rise to rule over the Gentiles in him shall the Gentiles trust so not only is it coming out and and confirming and as a descendant from Jesse and there's prophecies showing that but clearly showing that the Nations will Embrace him the Nations will Embrace him right there in Isaiah it's unbelievable how in transient the Jews became and not wanting to see the prophecies fulfilled in our Lord the prophet habakuk heard the voice of God and was afraid he understood his works and was astonished and prophesied that the coming Messiah quote AB 32 shalt make known between the two shalt be made known between the two living creatures th shal be acknowledged when the year is draw nigh th shal be manifested when the time is come so between two living creatures or to animals he will be made manifest and what do we have right there in the icon you see it on the screen the two animals on the left and right are above Christ and this is the historical reality of the birth of Christ in the manger in the cave that is so the Evangelist Luke relates quote virgin brought forth her first born her firstborn son wrapped him in swaddled and clothes and laid him in a Manger because there was no room for them in the end so it was there among two animals the Shepherds found him they recognized him and they worshiped him there was a sign and they saw the sign of the two animals so there you go another yet another witness and then finally for tonight finally for tonight the birth of Christ uh the prophecies referring to the birth of Christ and in particular the prophecy with the slaughter of the infants and what do we have in in in the Old Testament commemorated in Matthew 2:18 and along with Matthew 2:18 there's also Jeremiah uh 38:15 for those who want to look it up the Prophet Jeremiah prophesied the slaughter of the infants of Bethlehem by Herod and he said in ra there was a voice heard lamentation and weeping and great mourning Rachel weeping for her children and would not be comforted because they were not Matthew 2:18 so this is pro a prophecy of the sling of the infants you see the icon there uh which is actually I think depicting all of the innocent children that have been killed by abortion but there is an icon I I have another icon which I probably I meant to put and didn't put which is actually specifically about the infants that were slaughtered after his birth but same very similar and so what's going on here well Rachel why do we refer to Rachel Rachel was the wife of Jacob who was buried there in Bethlehem and she was weeping through her Descendants the mothers of Bethlehem who lost their children so this is very common in uh Semitic literature and and to understand like some are our forebearers weeping through us for us as their descendants so that's why this is connected and understood to be fulfilled with the slaughter of innocence in Bethlehem and surrounding areas but that is yet another uh prophecy concerning and surrounding just the birth of Christ right just was what do we have 23 slides about 15 or more different references just to the question of the birth of Christ so much evidence so much Clear evidence pointing to the Divinity of Christ is and he is the Messiah and yet the world does not want to understand but we understand glory to God and many others and many more will come and so hopefully all of this will remain as a witness and people can quickly understand and believe and in trust because what I see around the world even among Orthodox Christians is there's a great lack of sincere deep trust in Jesus Christ and so one of the things I hope come out of this if all of you have been following is that your trust will increase immensely you'll have no doubts and that's the task of the catechist right task of the catechist largely is to be a mogue for those who are coming um to the church uh catechist catechist but a MOG which means you initiate them into the mystery of a of of the communion and Union with Christ which of course presupposes and increases one's trust immensely and that's the heart of all the progress in spiritual life and it's the heart of all the lack of progress in other words the lack of trust the lack of faith the lack of abandoning oneself and one's will to the will of God and humbling ourselves all of that is implied and so there is uh it's very important that we all through these Witnesses have no doubt whatsoever ever in our Lord and that he is the Messiah he is the the God incarnate he is coming back to judge the living and dead and we are his disciples and therefore what what should we fear why should we fear you saw what happened during Co everybody was afraid including many people who call themselves Orthodox and Bishops who call themselves Orthodox Bishops and Priests who call themselves Orthodox priests and all kinds of people around the world were afraid afraid of sickness afraid of death afraid of whatever and many other things that are far less serious so let's hope that through this lecture course some degree of Greater trust will be born within all of our hearts all right let's see our questions here we've got this here first we'll start with the donation thank you very much from Embrace Orthodoxy glad to see you again uh just saw it saw you two nights ago and you're coming from Norway and thank you for your donation blessings father how are you allowed to kill insects that are in your house um I think that this is something that I've never seen doubted among the elders and fathers on Mount AOS of course they're going to take care of their house their their their Abode um could one say that it's a higher and more even more aesthetic feet to Simply live with them and not kill them yeah but for the vast majority of us that's not going to be the case so we will take refuge and uh put things in order um do we have a crowdcast connection there it is I didn't see it initially so over at crowdcast what do we have do we have any questions not yet so we'll see if you all have questions just a few folks there tonight everybody seems to be over here tonight all right so what's our next question cies cies where you from Cy are you Bulgarian can I as a northest Christian get my haircut by a Jew or by clothing or buy clothing from a Muslim well I think the Cannons that are that we have that are somewhat relevant to what you're saying were written at a time that um there must have been a pastoral issue that the church was was responding to and being very careful because of whatever there were things going on that unsuspecting in innocent ignorant naive Christians were being led astray by by having contact and friendship because things obviously were not like this impersonal Mass you know millions and millions of people in a city you simply go and into a uh store without even knowing who the people are are or you go into a hospital you have no idea if this person is a Jew or not a Jew or whatever right so obviously the reality in many people's lives is not what it was in the fifth sixth sth 8th 10th century when these cannons were passed for instance that we should not have doctors that are Jewish there was obviously something going on there there was pastoral ramifications for that and the church felt very serious that people were being lost or confused or deluded uh through their contact with those who do not accept the Divinity of Christ so if that's the case if any of that pastoral reality is in your life if you have contact and friendships with heterodox or other religions that you end up starting to doubt the Divinity of Christ doubt the Providence of God well then obviously Retreat have nothing to do with them I mean cut cut off your hand and poke out your eye as as figuratively speaking of course like our lord said and enter the kingdom of God rather than continue enjoying whatever it is that you're that you're after you're enjoying in this life friendships money whatever it is right so there that's clearly the imperative there that's everything was given and done that was received and lived out by the church and c and counseling by the fathers was done for our salvation and same thing would apply today if that's if that's at stake right so you have to have discernment is that the Canon is always applicable if the spiritual circumstances are also applicable can has never ceased to be applicable but sometimes there's such a massive change in historical circumstances they just never get applied because it's no longer uh relevant right or not relevant but no no longer applicable so I think that answered your question I'm not going to say yes or no I'm GNA say depends depends on what's implied what's possible what dangers exist there are lots of Orthodox Christians who love having friendships with heterodox and they spend most of their day around the heterodox maybe even around the the others of of other religions those who deny the Divinity of Christ and I think that many times they're affected many times they're undermined many times they have worldly ideas many times they're they're uh undermined and their zealous zealousness I mean if we can just simply if we just have some experience in our life if we're around holy things and holy people like maybe some people in America have gone to uh the wonderwork and gushing icon of the mother of God of airan for instance that Circle that goes around the United States or the one from Pennsylvania which is theoa or the Holy Cross sometimes which is Circ circulating among faithful in America that that clings to the body and and sometimes heals and many other things and when you're around that you feel oftentimes the grace of God or you go to relics of of someone um just somebody was talking recently about going to Romania to a particular Saint and there in that Chapel where the Relic was there was an unbelievable amount of grace of God I think somebody just said today that they were exhuming the relics of St Raphael in antiochian village in Pennsylvania and there was a everyone smelled a beautiful Aroma I mean so if that's the case with Holiness if that's the case with righteousness that we are affected in a good way what going to be the case with those who are rejecting God and rejecting Holiness and rejecting Christ we're going to probably be not in affected in a good way we're not going to be encouraged we're not going to uh be emboldened by those relationships or another example would be if you're in a church where people are sincerely and really praying like you might be in a you know vigil where people are really praying fervently the the the Jesus prayer calling out to God you at least this my experience I think many people say this as well you feel the difference you sense the great difference between that in a place where people are not praying people are just there standing and their mind is fleeing away to the worldly cares and that's true with you personally right if you're engaged praying you're gonna have compunction if you're not and your mind is wandering [Music] then your mind is wandering all right next question so I think all that's applicable St Joseph the hus said that if a monk does not obey the first word out of his spiritual father's mouth he could travel the world and never find peace and St Anthony said to St Paul the simple when he said I want to become a monk here was you cannot become a monk here go home and give glory to God how do we discern when to insist like St Paul did with St Anthony after telling him over and over again to go away and when he to listen to the first thing a monastic says okay so that's the that's the part three all right so what three parts it's a good question and the answer is that the context and discernment give it there's no there's no like one size fits all give me that answer and now I can apply it that the answer is discernment and context and so that's not uncommon for elders to test their disciples in the beginning of their their monastic life to test their disciples and see well how much how serious are they how much are they going to struggle how much humility they have are they going to listen to me um and Obey uh or whatever it might be there's ways of vetting someone or for instance I just read a story about how important the program is we're doing a student planner by the way all of you who are homeschoolers all of you who have children uh hopefully God willing will end at the end of this month and we'll have it ready by September 1st we're going to be offering it's our goal anyway offering a student planner from uncom out and press a student planner unique un there's nothing like it in the in the English-speaking language uh Orthodox Christian uh you know offering there's nothing like what we're going to be offering and we're very excited about it but still working hard to try to get it done in time to have it on sale by September 1st which is of course the new year right the first year day of the ecclesiastical year so in the uh preparations for this we were reading uh about the program how important St Joseph isus said about the schedule the pro daily schedule and he says uh there uh the story of an aesthetic somebody wanted to join him and become his disciple and he said to him look you see the everything in here you see everything you see this uh the way it is here the way it is there the way it is in my desk the way it is in my bed the way it is in the kitchen that's how I want it I don't want it anything change that is the way I have things in this place and basically you said something like you know if that if you can't keep that order you can't keep that schedule that's that that um daily uh like order in this place then you need to leave right there's no non-negotiable anyway my point is that depending on the context and depending on what we're talking about it you apply it differently so uh you Paul and Anthony were clearly understanding I think both of them understood this is a test whereas St Joseph is talking about the willful uh very often very willful young man today who's raised in so many different ways and in a very arrogant and egotistical climate he's it's egotism is cultivated in very subtle ways and so in the 20th century you know all of this explosion of comfort and ease and Technology undermines many way in many ways the spiritual life the humility The Obedience the Simplicity and all the rest so St Joseph in that context is talking about people who cannot say let it be blessed right they don't understand the importance of obedience and he talks again and again about the Cornerstone is obedience right that's the Cornerstone of the spiritual life you won't make progress even if you pray night and day but you are disobedient you will make no progress It's the foundation for all the rest of the monastic life so in that context uh it's applied in in in a in a relationship that's already been established right Paul was not his disciple uh and Paul wanted that's to be his disciple and he felt that this was a test and I think that's pretty obvious from the context so once you choose your spiritual father once you put your head and you say let it you know I let me be take me on as your son your spiritual son then Begins the denial of Will and obedience and that's where is the context where people think well there's a blind obedience well in those minor things of the daily life yes there is a blind obedience not in terms of Dogma not if the elder falls into the delusion and starts praying with Heretics not if he's a w you know pedophile I mean that's that's not gonna be oh I need to be obedient first words out of his mouth right he's a he's somebody who's departed from the monastic life no that that's when the connection to Christ the hierarchy is broken and therefore obedience is no longer to Christ right because he's no longer obedient to Christ so I think that's how hopefully that helps you to understand when is it appropriate if ever to cover icons or religious books uh I mean you know there are icons depends it depends what are we talking about we're talking about icons in the iconostasis are we talking about icons in our prayer corner um I don't know of any reason why you would cover them I mean like religiously as a practice um however there are icons in churches for instance that are only taken out once a year and they're in a room in a in a Cupboard and on the feast day they go and take the icon they put it out for veneration or like many times with relics we do the same thing so those are put away and those are you know in a in a Cupboard somewhere shut away so that's perfectly accept but otherwise um to cover them maybe you mean to put things on them is that what you want to say like if you have a book The Holy Bible here and you put a GL you know like a glass of water on it no that's not acceptable no you treat that with great respect the holy books and the holy icons are never treated in with disrespect I'm not sure if that's answer your question I'm not sure exactly what you're referring to by cover but I think that's it father blessed you've mentioned a holy Canon spef specifying that we should have a Christian doctor for our examinations would you comment a little on what it is uh seems to be be particularly relevant during pregnancy given that the church teaches us concerning the forming of babies before Souls before birth uh yes there was a particular Canon I don't remember the N the number or Council uh I'm pretty sure it's in the true l but I don't I don't remember actually but if you have the ballion you can find it fairly easily or search online but there is a clear reference that the Christian doctor should be Christian and not somebody who rejects Christ and I think it's um especially pertinent when you're talking about today in this day and age when I've heard many times couples going to doctors they're pregnant and the doctors are are almost immediately saying you know you need to get a a test of the baby and see if they've got a Down syndrome and parents was like why I wouldn't kill the baby so why would I do that I mean what you know usually it's it's because they want to push people to abortions um that's that's the experience of many people and I've had we've had the same experience in fact in Greece with a Greek Doctor Who uh we had our one of our children who had in the examination I think in the fourth month or fifth month I can't remember they said that his lungs were entirely like not forming one of his lungs was not forming and examin it on the what do you call it the uh whatever that is I forget I'm thinking in Greek but you know where they show the picture through the through the ultrasound the ultrasound and he examined he say see here this and he showed us the whole thing and they said it's all black here there's nothing there there's no formation of the lung and this is this is not he's not going to survive it's going to die he's going to die in the womb and so we were very sad of course we went back to our spiritual father Mount AOS and he said pray you know pray the supplication service in particular to the Holy Cross because that's uh we had the connection with the the relics of the Holy Cross and so we prayed fervently and the next time we went back two months later or a month and a half later I think it was there was no problem there was no problem at all and so uh um it's extremely important that we don't listen to our doctors when they tell us to do things that are going to be contrary to the teaching of the church now we people who are less informed weaker I think that's the Canon had those people in mind who weren't catechized well and they were being taught to take whatever at that time I don't know what would have been some kind of medicine that would have been consistent maybe abortions I mean certain abortions have been around forever and so yeah absolutely you want to have a Christian minded doctor to today because there's so many things for instance the the the Jabs that were promoted it's very well known now we've there's been been video released and circulated by different people showing and proclaiming that the cells of aborted babies were used in the development of a lot of this medicine and so as Orthodox Christians of course we would have nothing to do with that we would never want and this is actually something that the Senate of the of the Orthodox Church in America in 2012 I want to say they actually ised a statement on that and said there's no way we can justify that there's no uh you know good thing cannot happen in a bad way uh we don't uh the end does not justify the means and therefore whatever good is coming out of it if it's used you know the remains of human beings who have been slaughtered and murdered or used to produce things we cannot abide by that that was the holy Senate of the Orthodox Church in America if my memory serves me well so if you don't know and you're going to some atheist or some you know somebody who has no moral qualms and they won't tell you they won't alert you they won't help you to discern these things well that could be very detrimental to you so I think that there is a good basis to say we go to those who have fear of God when Christ said traditions of men and called out the Pharisees what was he referring to exactly all Traditions the Pharisees traditions and why are they done away with thank you so obviously throughout uh the Old Testament and then and certainly you can see this now after the Jews um in the time of Christ those who I should say did not receive the Messiah did not accept Christ and U Were thrown out of Jerusalem after the destruction of Jerusalem and then you know began to develop the talmud and wrting down all the traditions of the fathers there was a lot there that was um either foreign that crept in it was contrary to any Revelation or it was just the opinions of men that they they they hardened and made into rules that had not been uh given by and revealed by God in the Old Testament you know the Lord when he spoke so harshly put that away when the Lord spoke so harshly to the Pharisees and said that they were the sons of the enemy of our salvation and that he was their their their master I mean that was not it was not figurative he was literally telling them that he knew that they had gone over to the to the en enemy and the other side and they had they're working against him and salvation and there's a lot of speculation on what that means but I think there's a lot of evidence to say that there was a portion of the people of God who fell away during the Babylonian captivity adopted Pagan Idol worshipping ways kept those when they came back to the to the city of Jerusalem and never really abandon them until the time of Christ and so the the Lord is talking about things that were never inspired by him that had been adopted by some of the people and of course that led to their rejection of the Messiah right the the rejection of the Messiah is not there's no way to understand it properly by the Pharisees and others who rejected him except that they had long ago this is how it is in the spiritual life like why are we they had long ago abandoned the god of Israel right and they were no longer serving him and so it's the same in our day like why are we seeing Insanity around the world why are we saying people don't know if they're men or women all this is a fruit of long ago apostasy going back back back back back right thousand years it's a long long disintegration thousand years now we're at Total absurdity Insanity it definitely has to do with the apostasy of Christians from Christ in previous generations going back hundreds and thousand and a thousand years so the same thing was happening in time of Christ so when he's talking to these leaders he's not talking about uh holy tradition that's passed on from word word of mouth to Word of Mouth which is definitely a big part of how people have always understood and lived the truth of the Gospel right Paul says clearly there is by word of mouth and by written is the tradition he's passing on to them so it's very simple it's like this is not hard to understand paradosi in Greek the passing on from one to another that's the core of everything that's the experience not not enough for something to be written down you have to have the experience passed on you have to have the the the living example of what those scriptures mean and how to unpack them the living example there's a continuity and it was never lost and that existed in Israel Among The Remnant among the elect and it exists today in the church and there are of course those who are either in apostasy or leaving the church always every generation has them every generation has Bishops and Priests and theologians who are on their way out or out I mean we had Judas never ceased to have judices in every generation where do we get all the heresies from inside Aras was a priest of the the church right Paul samato or theor was a bishop of the church macedonians was a bishop of the church etc etc etc these so always in the old and the New Testament in the old people of God and the new people of God there's always a Remnant and there's always those who are in apostasy now then there are those who walk away and entirely are alienated those are the heresies the Heretics the various heto confessions who never or never even were apart of the church they walked away uh they were they were LED astray earlier and then they developed their own way uh years after the departure of their for forefathers so all of that explains the tradition of men it's not referring to Revelation it's not referring to the elect and the core that had passed on generation to generation the experience and the faith of the people of God but it's referring to to those who had already departed those things that were not inspired by Revelation not coming down to us by Revelation not uh uh yeah that's it forgive my ignorance father how do we know that the Jews today no longer have the Priestly lineage because they don't have the they lost it all in 70 AD they lost it all and they Lo when they lost the the um uh the temple and the priests were scattered and they haven't been practicing it for for what almost 2,000 years so they don't even know they don't know their own lineage anymore it was totally lost to them and uh they became essentially a different religion a religion of the synagogue and the and the study and the reflection and the talud and all this this is something very different than what was going on in the time of our Lord and I don't know I'm not an expert on Judaism but that much seems to be pretty obvious do you know if uh y ever rebuked uh P phos for any of his actions they seem to have had regular correspondence with each other based on things I've seen uh I don't know where you get the idea they've had regular correspondents I don't think that's true uh all I know is the there was a visit um and they had a picture taken it was put online a year or so maybe before his Repose it was within the year before his Repose for sure maybe even six months before his Repose um because that's that's when Arch Forest came to America he came right before the Repose of the Elder so I don't know why you would think they had correspondence regular correspondence now I may be wrong but I don't see any manifestation of that or any public I don't have any public witness to that I never heard anybody say that so did he ever rebuke I don't know I have no idea if he ever rebuked him I'm not privy to that I have uh never quite understood this this verse in Psalm 50 that might us be justified in thy words and Prevail when that are judged any insight you could offer father thank you so I don't I don't like to do exit Jesus of the fly there are patristic commentaries on the on the Psalms St Augustine has it um and there's contemporary um commentaries as well there's St basil I think as well I'd have to look for see but uh just on the face of it what's it's a poetic way of saying that um let's see I have to go back and and remember the context but it's it's saying that he is our our falling away our sin our our um our departure we can never stand and justify ourselves before the Lord he will he will always Prevail when we stand and say anything with respect to his law or his gospel El or his U you know his word we're going to be judged by it he's not judged by us um and and the words he's spoken he because we we contravene his gospel he's teaching his Commandments he will be justified he will he will never be unjustified in his words they will be again confirmed again and again the wisdom of God the teaching of God the love of God and his Commandments will be again and again confirmed and not uh he will never be you know shown to be unjust or shown to be wrong or shown to be U his C Commandments not applicable or you know we were more righteous or anything like that what is the significance of the name of Mary in Greek and Hebrew and why are there so many women named Mam and Mary throughout scripture um it's a good question I don't know the answer right off the bat maram i' have to look at the Edom if you find the atmology then you'll probably understand why the name was used but I don't have that information off the top of my head is it a sin to knowingly eat Halal and kosher food for us Christians um it's not it's not offered to Idols is it is it offered to Idols I mean is that the purpose of those things there was prayers read over them but I don't think it's the same thing as the idol uh worship of the pagans where the food was prepared and offered to them I don't know of Judaism or Islam offering food to Idols so I don't think that it's forbidden on that basis in scripture um if your conscience bothers you and you don't like the idea that you're eating food prayed over by those who reject the Divinity of Christ then you should avoid it I don't I don't know of um I don't know of anything that would imply spiritual harm coming to those who pray over their food make the sign of the cross of the food because someone else who is an idol worship or not an is worship but a essentially a heretic or of another religion um I mean they in one could say they're they're worshiping the idol of themselves and they're in delusion yes but they're not I don't think the food is being offered you know Jews don't offer their food to Idols do they to my knowledge so I guess I've never heard anybody say You must avoid the food that's been prayed over by whatever some cleric somewhere in a warehouse I I've never heard any spiritual father say oh you must avoid all that find out what that is and avoid it I think you make the sign of the cross you say the prayer over the food I don't think we have anything to worry about but that's just my preliminary judgment I guess I don't know that I have never sat down with anybody and said y or what do you think about this should we tell all the Christians to avoid food now that there's a spread of it in the western but maybe that's also partly because you don't see that in Greece like it never came up in Greece I never heard anybody say this question it's all coming from Australia or Canada um so I don't know I don't know if I can give you a definitive answer on it but that would be my first reply would Christ have incarnated if there was no fall of Man I respond to somebody saying that only reason he had to Incarnate was to save us after the fall well he knew everything beforehand so this is kind of a futile question isn't it he St Maximus Confessor implies or says yes he would have incarnate in any case um so there is one Church Father that says that um but there's also a clear response I mean the whole of the Gospel is that we fell and he came and he came to redeem us I mean that's also very true so I don't think anybody can say that it's wrong to say he came to save us after the fall obviously that's a good that's the true right um would he have done it anyway is a little bit speculative there's a good basis for it in St Maximus but it's not kind it's not kind of a hardfest Dogma that we have to we confess so it's a little bit speculative I don't I don't understand why these things become you know as a priest and as somebody studies the fathers they're always responding to things on a pastoral level and not speculating so is there some reason why we this is an issue like this person is making this an issue we're going to argue about it this seems to me to fall in the category of a waste of time like you don't I just don't hear these discussions around the monastics like they don't sit and speculate this is usually the realm of academic theology they love to go on and on speculate speculating about this oh I read so and so I read so and so okay I mean I'm not saying it's bad I'm just saying is it is it it shouldn't become a point of contradiction and conflict between two Orthodox Christians somebody wants to say I love what St B St Maximus says and I think that that's the way that we should go and this is the Theology and this is it and he would have become incarnate anyway okay that'll be blessed question when saying jesus' prayer I can paraphrase can I paraphrase and say Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me um but that is the Jesus prayer Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me is the Jesus prayer there's also the form of Jesus prayer Lord Jesus Christ Son of God have mercy me a sinner but actually on Athos and among at least among the Disciples of St Joseph hisus they prefer the shorter version at least for those who have already been around and are praying fervently for a while right maybe very beginners can start with a longer version but over time they they're praying they're they're saying that Jesus prayer thousands of times every day five six 10 20 thousand there's it it's far far more than we can imagine um the prayer rope uh that most monks have is a 300 knot prayer rope and they will have 20 beads which means that they're doing 6,000 Jesus prayers in their prayer rule if they do all 20 beads maybe they don't all do 20 beads maybe do 10 or 15 but it's three to five or 6,000 for sure every night so they're not going to say the full version they're going to say the shortened version do some saints say that the pray that they pray even for insects um in specific specifically for insects I've never heard that for are there prayers for Animals yes absolutely are there prayers for generally for creation and all yes particularly for insects I don't remember any prayers in the prayer book usually they're the problem what happens to babies that die through abortion well their soul departs from the body and then God takes care of him out of love I don't know I don't know what I mean how can I know do we have some kind of vision from Heaven that tells us what happens to them I can't stand the speculation I'm not saying you're doing this but there's tons of specul ulation among this segment small little Twitter World on on X you sit around and debate and argue and get and become you know impassioned over like you know this Theologian and that Theologian forgive me but nobody seriously is doing that I don't remember anybody ever doing that in Greece among any serious spir serious spiritual father because this what you brought up is actually something that's been debated I guess a lot Twitter lately what happens in the theology behind it in St Augustine and the west and the East original sin just you know and I to a certain degree it's very important I agree but I wonder how much of it is just is driven by an curiosity a speculation and an arrogance that really is not so benefiting so be careful that the speculative theology doesn't consume us it's really it's really a waste of our efforts but so I don't what to say what happens to babies that die through abortion I mean we have quotes from certain Saints like there's a Romanian Elder that said those who are slaughtered in abortion are absolutely embraced and taken into the bosom of God or something like that I forget the quote but they they definitely um had a beautiful way to describe that um but I don't think we have some kind of like we never had a council called and all the fathers got together and said you know Peter has spoken on this topic so I there's so many so many things that we could we could be striving so I think yes that they're in the hands of God and they're in the love of God but beyond that I don't know how to put it what is the best source for the patristic writings which collection is most trustworthy well the Greek Greek version because almost all the big series are either done by the anglicans or the Protestants or the papal Protestants um so you have to take away the grain of salt I mean there's a lot of material produced by the Catholic University of America some of it better than others some of it translated by some Orthodox but not that many but there are problems in Translation because to translate a book properly and give it the proper understanding in English does imply that we have an experience of what We're translating otherwise how do we know that in you know the exact a lot of times there's subtleties there's nuances there's obscurities and so you may run into problems if you take uh series that are translated by the heterodox and just run with it but um you know this the Orthodox series they're limited by St Vaz and other places are more trustworthy than the heterodox ones and so that's probably a and then there's just particular volumes from different places that are not a part of a series that are trustworthy like professor vamin translated um the um homilies of St G palamas so that's a very I think good text to get uh and and there are other others who translated material and published material by particular saints that just one off though it's one you know one book here one book there we've translated or published Greg palamas and the holy procession of the Holy Spirit St St Nicodemus the Holy Mountain but a whole series or to my knowledge there's no Orthodox you know entire Orthodox series of patristic writings that been translated to date so it's hit and miss pick and choose um or or go with those series from Catholic University or the the old erdman's uh series and then maybe when you have issues you go to the Greek I don't know I don't know what to say there it's not easy you don't know when to go right how do you know if you don't know um if my wife is a wife is a witch and I recently converted to Orthodox Christian and was married outside of the church and don't see her converting what do I do what do I do what do you do do you have a if is this a theoretical question you have if you're converting you converted Orthodox Church you have a spiritual father um he has a bishop I would suggest you go to them and you see I I can't answer easily this pastoral question in this context right how am I going to answer this I have no I'm not I'm not given by God to answer it I'm not enlightened by God to answer it and I don't know you and I don't know your wife and I don't know anything about your situation so this is a really serious spiritual and pastoral question needs to be answered by your spiritual father or the bishop or go to a monastery and get to know the future fathers there but it takes time like we would need I would need to know much more and I would need to know you and I would want to reflect in prayer um about how to handle that I mean I obviously there's two options right you leave her if she's committed to witchery which is satanic or you you stay around but I don't I don't think see I'm not even gonna get there I'm not going to start answering it because it's totally speculative on my part you got to go to a spiritual father I would go to a monastery and find a good spiritual father and he would pray fervently I'm sure very unique situation when should we expect the new ecumenical council that will condemn the heres of humanism and the robbert Council of cre um only God knows ultimately but it seems to me from the elders that I have heard from and their disciples that that will happen after the war that is coming but after the war things will be very different if we if we survive we may see the day for the restoration uh of of unity of all the Orthodox and the condemnation of the heresies that have Arisen in the 20th century are there many documented miracles in the Orthodox Church as the Catholic Church frequently claims they witness in their Church such as Eucharistic Miracles no uh oh wait your question is are there documented miracles in the Orthodox Church sure there's tons of them uh there's a whole book there's a whole book there's several books that I've that we have in English now uh one is from the pericet monastery um miracles from The Divine Liturgy and then one is by all father Stephanos from Athens who produced a whole book on The Divine Liturgy and there are tons and tons of Miracles commemorated in that book and then there's all kinds of Miracles throughout Theon the spiritual medal of St John mosus in the lives of many Saints yeah they're all over the place they're scattered all over the place in different books but those two books actually would be the ones I would in English uh so it's on the Divine Liturgy by father Stephanos anos and it's hard to find but you can get him at the monasteries of Elder F the various monasteries father many people say different things about the rank of Lucifer was he a cherubim or a sarim he was neither he was in one of the highest he was like the archangels he was the one of the uh highest ranking are there any early church fathers that give a detailed history of The ecumenical councils especially one to four like what youus did for for the time prior and how does this how does his church history reconcile with patristic consensus uh histories are pretty rare in the Orthodox Church like like youus is history by Church fathers Church fathers didn't s sit around and write histories Divine knowledge I mean that wasn't really their their their pastoral imperative was the people in front of them and everything they did and even their theology was written in in the context in the context of their pastoral work with the people of God shepherding them so they didn't sit and and have time or the ability to go to the um libraries and write histories to my knowledge I don't know any patristic history of the first four centuries now we have one Saint in the 20th century who wrote a tremendous treaties on the early church father's teaching on the church and we published it it's called on the church the dogma of the church rather excuse me and that's by starian troski so if you want to see all the patristic evidence for the dogma of the church in the first four centuries that's a book you can get from uncom press That's a rare Saint who who wrote Such a treaties I don't know maybe I'm missing somebody but nothing comes to mind in terms of a patristic history there is of course the there's very smaller histories of the monks uh of Palestine and uh like I just said the spiritual Meadow by St John mosus um but the sinaran actually would be a great great source for for a lot of historical events surrounding the Saints in the lives of the Saints obviously but it's very interesting and fascinating the little insight you get from the sinari in the lives of the Saints yeah maybe I'm missing somebody I don't remember anything father hears I have heard it said that Christ will meet you where you are my question is do you have any wisdom regarding this saying this is from soap and five five looks like five um what is it called year leas we say in English anyway thank you for the donation appreciate that and as far as as the question Christ will meet you where you are yeah well I mean the first thought is that there's no other way for Christ to meet us is there is there a different place for us to be meant than where we are so yeah it's absolutely true and uh he'll meet us in the sense not of like changing the gospel or discounting the gospel or anything like that none of that going to happen his word is truth unto the ages of Ages he'll meet us in condescension as he did all of humanity in his Incarnation and he continues that emptying and cond being condescending to our needs and you know think well what one thing comes to mind as I'm talking is something that was said by Elder of blessed memory talking about the spiritual state of contemporary Christians and he said the the he say in Greek the pey the pey is like the bar he said the bar is being lowered again and again and again we're going from five seven to six it's one of 10 right so bars you know passing bar is five but even that's now the four and then he said he was talking to an elder a great Elder and he was asking him is it where's it at now and he said the low L the Lord he begged the Lord to lower it even further can you lower it to to four not you know to three and then you know he down here very low now it's down to two in other words his point was and this of course he was talking about himself and the the he was getting through prayer answers to his questions that the mercy and the condescension the love of God is making it you know because of the difficulties because of the insanity of this world today because of the apostasy because of the the rise of of really satanic things that never never been seen really for thousands of years among Christians all all of this that we you know are seeing the spirit of the age he's saying that because of all these great Temptations the Lord essentially is changing the expectations for Christians be not because salvation changes but because those Temptations are also working if one is patient one is struggling even if one struggles a little bit in this context it's like struggling a lot in a previous context TT so absolutely God I mean says it says in the ancient yon it says that to an elder somebody says you know what's going to happen after us we've come out here we've essentially you know reached Heights of spiritual Heights what's going to happen to the people who come after us and he said well that ones who come after us are going to be half of what we do what about the ones who come after them and say well the ones after them and he and you know he essentially talking about at the end of History he says well those the end of History just confessing Christ they'll be greater than we are so this is an example of Christ meeting us where we are in other words the context matters for Christ like he cares what the context is we that's where spiritual discernment and pastoral discernment is so invaluable and important and lacking in many ways today because we don't have the experience and only through experience can you have discernment so um so there's many ways that you can see through L the Saint stains of the desert fathers and all these things you can see that indeed he's continually doing what he did when we were in darkness he's coming to us and showing us the light and that's happening again again there's many people coming to Orthodoxy who were in darkness and saw the light through God's Providence so yeah he's doing that but it's not to keep us there right he doesn't come and meet us where we are in order to keep us there but to bring us where he is and that's far beyond anything we can imagine like the level he wants to bring us to is far beyond anything we can imagine we don't even understand the the degree and the love and the and the things that he has in store for us and that's why it's a tragedy many times because we don't struggle we don't understand we don't see and we don't struggle right so the more you struggle the more your eyes are opened the more you see how much further you have to go and or rather what God has in store for you right it's a very positive thing it's not a negative thing I it's very very positive so I'm opening up of the mysteries of this of this salvation that he offers us and so he's meeting us he's knocking on the door he's waiting for us he's seeking us out he's chasing us all in order to bring us where he is and that's that's deification that's glorification that's likeness he's taking us restoring us and then he wants to bring us to likeness but we have to struggle for that it doesn't come magically St piser said if you pray for healing for another and ask God to pass the sickness unto yourself then that makes the prayer more powerful as God loves self-sacrifice do we know if St pises did that before he died absolutely in fact he asked to have cancer so somebody else would not have it and then he had cancer God gave him cancer that's how he died so he absolutely did that St P was whatever he said he did consciously aware 499 thank you very much appreciate the little gift that everything Matters father hears it's an S at the end was wondering was wondering why food like pork is considered lit to eat when in acts in Acts Christ was clearly talking about Gentiles while mentioning all food too good to eat uh anybody know what he's talking to I don't know what you're referring to I'm in Acts oh you're talking about Peter and what happened there you're saying that he well I mean the whole story there uh for Peter's to understand that he needs to let the Gentiles in and look at the Acts of the Apostles where at the um the Council of Jerusalem what did they say there did they put up they put up a uh barrier did they put up uh that kind of rule for all the Gentiles no the meat offered to Idols is what they talked about uh they didn't talk about pork they didn't say pork was necessary to give up we we never the Christian peoples never fell into that practice like the Muslims or the Jews where you don't that's never been a part of it because those were types in the Old Testament they were ways of keeping they were they were the the um ritualistic law which was no longer in effect with Christ because they were part of the preparation of the people of God they're part of the pedagogy of the people of God and there's nothing wrong with eating meat especi I mean after the the flood right after the flood the Lord allowed for meeting clearly with Noah so uh I don't know what else to tell you I don't see I don't see any scriptural basis for us to demand that Christians not eat pork I don't see any basis for that I don't know what you're trying to refer to there during pregnancy is okay to be more lenient with fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays in regards to food what would you recommend would be acceptable so this is something you go to your spiritual father with you don't come to me personally I not your spiritual father your spiritual father would guide you depending on a variety of issues generally speaking spiritual fathers will give of course a you know katal we say in Greek in other words they'll allow a pregnant woman to eat more food for the sake of the baby yeah absolutely and but it depends on the spiritual father and your and your your eating habits and your spiritual condition and things like that it's not I don't think it's like one rule all pregnant women get to eat anything they want no I don't think I don't think that's a good idea I mean something I would say something depending on you those factors should be kept um but probably something very minimal compared to the full fast because of the baby and the need for nutrition and all the rest um so but you need to talk to your spiritual father about that they're going to guide you that means I guess if you don't have a spiritual father your Parish priest and U um find that Medium find that Royal path where you're not going to become totally LAX in the spiritual life and just eat eat eat that's a bad thing that is not necessary you want good food nutritious food and so you look at it like a like taking medicine for your baby like okay I'm gonna I'm gonna eat that yogurt for the sake of the baby I'm gonna eat that protein for the sake of the baby I'm not going to go and gouge myself and oh it's an opportunity for me to eat whatever I want for the next nine months that's not the spirit at all uh so don't do that but do you change your diet and eat things that you normally wouldn't of course that's part of having to take care of the baby out of love for the baby right but again only what's really good and necessary not not indulging father is there no sacrament of last rights in ory of course there is we have the uh unction service that's read and there's also that's not we don't call it last rights but it's the unction service that's read there's also a service for the departure of the Soul at the at the departing of the Soul so when somebody's very close to death they read that service it's in the prayer book for the priest would you provide the sacrament of pentant to a Catholic requesting an emergency situation um I don't know what that would mean like so they're not a part of the whole life of the church but they're going to take this part of the life of the church what's the meaning there if if there's you know if the church includes Catholicism they can take all the services and all the Mysteries if it doesn't why would they take any I don't really understand this like halfway house of uh of the church where does this exist why on what basis does it exist the Mysteries are one the Mysteries are united they're Inseparable from The Mystery of the church they initiate you into the mystery of the church all the Mysteries are Christ given and being given so you can't divide the Mysteries up I'll give this one but not that one that's a very legalistic Western idea does not exist in Orthodoxy it's impossible to imagine I don't see how and and the only the whole ecclesiology Vatican 2 and Catholicism today is very legalistic extremely bizarre for an orthodox Theologian I I studied Vatican 2 I wrote a book on it right my whole thesis was on the the ecclesiology Vatican 2 and it's very legalistic and it's just not the patristic spirit and understanding the there's a simple profound Unity of the Mysteries in the mystery of the church which imparts to us the mystery of of Christ The Mystery of the Incarnation it's all one so I I don't understand what that would mean what would I be doing I'd be giving confession to somebody who's not going to commune it's not going to be reconciled to commun the whole point of confession is is that they come back to communion I one of the major reasons why people go to confession is that they're able then to be reconciled to the church if they they've sinned you know grievously and then to commune so I it doesn't make any sense to me can you elaborate on the potential contradictions in the narrative surrounding John the Baptist role as the Forerunner of Jesus in the New Testament um no because I don't know what you're talking about what do you what contradictions we don't have any contradictions in the narratives you got to be more specific I I mean in Orthodoxy I don't see any contradictions in the narratives fathers don't have any problem with the different gospel narratives and imagine that there uh is any real contradiction so you'd have to be more specific if I was to answer but I don't like doing EX aesus on the Fly I've always avoid that I look at the fathers and what they have to say and then I tell them to you I'm not it doesn't matter what I think doesn't matter what I say it doesn't matter what I imagine about the scriptural passages father you PR you said that the sobriety comes when an Affliction hits a family such as death can you explain that please is that why God allows these things to happen um depending on our spiritual state of need sometimes we need strong medicine and strong medicine uh often times is uh given to get us out of a deep Slumber a deep delusion a deep indifference a worldliness and of course we all will die we all depart the question is not if but when and so God arranges Our Lives Many Times that those tragedies become lifegiving they wake us they give us compunction and and we're we're woken from this this stuper which if we live with the rest of our life we will end in the grave not only bodily but spiritually and far from Christ so God allows tragedy not for its own sake but for as always everything happens for salvation he arranges our life in such a way that the best possible uh outcome is there and and spiritual benefit can if we want doesn't have to be if we want to participate and understand and Obey and submit then that spiritual benefit come to us so yes sometimes the time of death or the you know of our loved ones can can be allowed or is allowed um also not only for their benefit because every time anyone comes or leaves it's God's do ultimately God allows it or brings it about and it's for our Salvation right everything is arranged for our Salvation so um that can also be the case for those around like this is the great mystery of his Providence that so many things happen that we don't understand or at least don't understand at the time and they they bring about consequences now all of that presupposes we have Synergy cooperation with God it's not magical we have we can he can do a zillion things and he does and we can be totally blind and dumb to them and nothing changes right so it it presupposes their Synergy uh and U where taking taking advantage of the opportunities to to go deeper all right so we're gonna come back to that in a minute let me see if we have anybody over at crowdcast no nothing over growcast God bless you all just a few folks over there tonight we didn't uh you know Justin I don't think we uh sent out an email to all of our patrons that's something I we we missed tonight that's one reason why we might not have a lot of people over crowdcast all right next question is this one here what are your thoughts on the infancy Gospel of Thomas and its portrayal of Jesus's childhood particularly the accounts that some might find violent or miraculous why wasn't it added in the Bible one of the reason wasn't added in the Bible is because there were there were things in there that the church saw as not consistent with their experience and the tradition that been handed down there are things that the church apparently didn't have a problem with they include them in some of the hymnography but it's very it's very hit and miss it's very particular um some things work themselves in I don't know about the th Gospel of Thomas uh how extensive that is because I haven't examined the Gospel of Thomas very well but it is something that you find in the some of these other script non biblical texts that come down to us from the early church there are there are pieces that in there that the church has embraced and accepted as part of its inheritance um but I can't tell you you know we're not talking about specifics here you didn't you didn't tell me about a specific passage but there are things like that that you see in hymnography for instance uh regarding heresy the other day at the Republican convention uh at the Republican convention the delegates joined together prayer to some make believe seek Creator God should we even bother voting in November yeah Lord have mercy Lord have mercy yeah this is the America that we live in folks I mean the if you ever thought America was a Christian Nation I don't know I never thought it was a Christian Nation I mean got a lot of Christians in it and that was what makes it feel like a Christian Nation but it's never even founded on Christian principles it's Enlightenment principles it's John Lock the enlightenment was the darkening of Western civilization and so a lot of these things that came out were the inversion of the Christian monarchy and all the rest so I mean anybody who's still operating on this delusion that we have a Christian Nation I I don't know what to say uh I'm not surprised that that happened at the Republican convention because there's a conscious decision everywhere not just among the Republicans to go in that direction it's a spirit of the world it's it's it's it's coming and being forced all over the world it's the it's the spirit of python is one way to describe it and understand it the syncretism of the of the age denialism all of this uh is at work and so yes um that's the reality now should you not vote well that's a to me that's a different question um you I think you could either not vote and your conscience and you know if your conscious bothering you you say I don't want to vote because this is all a sham and a shade and I feel like I'm supporting the charade that's in front of me and so I'm not going to vote I mean I can't argue with that because I think it is a charade on the other hand those who vote also have a basis for what they're doing and and indeed St pus the athonite himself encouraged people to vote in Greece and when they said well these people are all corrupt he said choose the least worst choose the least you know problematic and now was Greece now can we apply it to America probably because modern Greece is very European and it's very similar politicians have sold Greece down the river again and again and again the last 25 years uh there are Orthodox Christians who are in in uh in office and there's a political party that's pretty much made up of I think sincere Orthodox Christians so that's different uh we don't really have that in America but I think there's a ba there's a base to someone say look I'm G to vote for the least worse uh and the reason I do that is that is that is at least on these the these issues here that are that this person represents well uh and the other one is you know far far worse and across the board okay I'm gonna choose the least worse because at least I'm doing something positive right I'm gonna make a positive statement I'm gonna and I think if you before God say this is why I'm doing it Lord I'm doing it for the sake of avoiding that consequence which is very detrimental and I want to support other politicians that this person who are actually legitimate there are people on the local level who are sincere God-fearing people who are running for office and therefore I'm going to vote for their sake and for others sake at least to Stave off the the more you know abrupt and and immediate departure into more more Insanity I don't think that's a bad position to take I don't think that's blameworthy uh and I think that um you know I don't when somebody said the other day if you know Trump had not got in in two 216 and Hillary got in you know this is just speculation on his part things would have been far far worse would it would have War World War I already we would have marched already and had you know massive Wars and things like that you know there's a there is a basis to that like Trump didn't do any wars I think Hillary was kind of a warmonger I mean whatever there's all kinds of other things right there's all kinds of other things that uh I always forget to turn off there's all kinds of other things that are problematic you know Trump pushed the jab he's never repented of that that's huge that's hugely problematic nobody really talks about that they kind of like say well roll their eyes and keep going he just ran through in the in the RNC the other day he Ram through a u platform that doesn't sound too Orthodox or too pro- lifee to me but anyway it doesn't sound like he's really interested in pro lifee at all anymore he's playing politics a little bit I don't know and then you know there's other things that he does and says the the whole LGBT is Zealot for that let's not get deluded and think like because he's good here there and there and people hate him in the Deep State therefore you know he represents Orthodoxy God forbid don't don't fall into that delusion so you need to have discernment you have to understand the limits of these people people don't put your hope in any human being don't put your hope in any system uh keep it keep a very good tension in your life always looking to Christ always having you know skepticism toward politicians and political systems don't have any desire any delusion to think we're gonna bring back any kind of idelic America that's not gonna happen uh you know we're we're marching to World War III no matter who's elected we're marching toward probably other terrible things because it's not about one man at at the top he's not he's not a magician he's not a monarch he's not going to change everything right so let's keep it in in context and proportion and don't have great expectations doesn't mean you don't do the good things I mean for themselves you do that right you fight in and of it for the good right you don't have to figure out the consequences and every time you're not you're not responsible for for for overturning everything and everywhere right just focus and say I'm doing this good thing for this good reason at this time that's it you don't have to figure it all out you don't have to you don't have to have the answers of the whole system you don't have to you don't have to judge every person and Trump is this the other person is that you don't have to do that you can say I'm gonna take that one step I'm gonna do this one thing because I think it's gonna help that person spite of it all that's what I'm going to do I think that's that's probably where where we need to stay and not and because we want to also be careful not to become diluted and utopian right we're gonna like oh we're take the culture back we're gonna take America back all this kind of stuff okay it's slogans it's politics great you know more power to you but it's far far uh you know deeper than that the ship sailed a long time ago not just for America but Western Civilization I mean so it's going to be whatever it is going to be shortlived and we're going to and including the whole return to Orthodoxy there's going to be an immense return to Orthodoxy according to the Saints there's going to be a mission to the world it's true it's not going to be long lived it's not going to be like the next you know Thousand Years something it's gonna be shortlived whatever it is so let's be sober minded and uh and stay in that context I think is there an Interlinear version of Orthodox Bible seeing the transliteration next to the Greek and Hebrew can it be helpful for those who do not know Greek so I don't know if inter Interlinear Bible no but is there uh a English translation with a lot of patristic commentary and therefore you can see many times in the footnotes Greek text and explanations from the fathers why that's been translated the way it is yes and that's the one I've been recommending for years it's the uh let's see I don't have it right it's behind me uh the Orthodox New Testament from buav Vista in Colorado um mother I want to say miam is that her name she's done amazing work I think she's the one who does everything amazing work not that it's perfect language or it's beautiful language it's not not it's not meant to be it's meant to be a study Bible I think that's the way I look at it um and it's very literal and it's close to the Greek and there's a lot of explanations of why she chose what she chose and of you know of all the things that I've seen in in Orthodox America it's one of the more serious and extensive in terms of patristic commentary so that's what I recommend could it be possible that the Book of Revelation there's a lot of questions from from one or two people we've got to diversify the questions otherwise it's kind of a monopoly I'm gonna have to pick and choose uh and get some other people in here it be possible that the Book of Revelation was prophesying the fall of the Roman Empire uh yes and no so the Rome and Babylon is a type and it's both applicable in history and applicable at the end of History check out our course on this and you can get more answers on that go to go to our what are we in lecture 80 or something now and we're analyzing literally like five verses at a time so you can go right to where you want to go and find out what the uh the Elder and the fathers are saying about that Elder eosio that I'm using I little bit of water folks hang on a second what are the Saints uh that lived with nature called heard the name before but I forgot it would like to learn more about that the Saints lived with nature that that that category of saints I don't know what you're talking about I mean St Sarah from sov uh was uh had a bear you fed a bear you have St gimos of Jordan who who uh had a lion I mean is there a category of those Saints do we have a particular name for them I never I don't remember any categor do anybody have any category for that for that I'm not sure what that would be happy to happy to pass it along if somebody knows it I never heard of it all right um so I'm GNA chck pick and choose here because we're already at about two hours although we could go another half an hour but I'm gonna pick and choose and because there's some that are never been answered and there let's see here let's see father I love people do you ever feel drained by the amount of people need from you I find I could never give enough I'd be happy to give it all but why can't they control themselves their need is infinite uh yeah sure I mean we're human beings we have limitations and but it is the characteristic of the Saints imitating our Lord that they live for them they live for their neighbor they they struggle for the neighbor they give everything for the neighbor and that's that's just what it means to be a Christian and um so you've got however to make time for for yourself in the sense of you got to go back to the well and be rejuvenated right because if you just give give give and you're not keeping your prayer rule going to Divine Liturgy going to Divine Services you will burn out and so for the sake of them at least if not for your sake of your own spiritual condition of course you need to say no you need to close the door and say no I need time alone I need time for prayer I need time for reading these things so yes don't be don't get sucked into the trap uh kind of has egotism in it I'm going to be constantly you know on call I'm gonna be constantly giving myself night and day night and day night and day there could be egotism in that like not a sense of self- knowledge like you have limitations you know don't you're not the Savior so don't try to be uh Superman because you could crash and uh and spiritually crash as well which is far worse than physically so yeah I do that and I think everybody kind of does that's constantly serving people on one level or another balance is good it's very important do you have any advice on obtaining the Orthodox mind after converting from being Baptist I have I have a problem looking at Orthodoxy through Baptist glasses you and everybody else welcome to the Orthodox Church in North America uh it's nice to have you because you are now a part of hundreds of thousands perhaps or at least tens of thousands of Orthodox Christians who are converts and they're all coming with their baggage and they're coming to the church oftentimes not properly catechized and I mean by that purified not put through an aesthetic regiment not approaching the holy mysteries in a proper way oftentimes not always thank God they're a wonderful priests they're wonderful people but that is a problem uh that I've noticed and therefore they're undermined in their ability to to absorb and to assimilate uh because it's not just on an intellectual level that you're struggling it's a deep spiritual level that needs to be cleansed purified and it's a painful process to a certain degree right but uh the the struggle here that you're talking about is acquiring the ethos the ethos is acquired when you have examples you can't really acquire the ethos if you don't have examples right ethos meaning the way of Christ you see that way in un unspoken uh examples and ways in the Saints and in the elders and others who who become saintly you see it witnessed to you in those ways which are not verbal rational but they're spiritual and super rational and so that's the big struggle for most Americans they don't have those examples they don't have that opportunity uh to um sit at the feet of people who are progressed and to watch them and observe them and to learn from them uh which is essential right and there's ways of thinking and ways of living there that you C you can't get in a book like the church didn't say okay here's the book everybody needs to read to become a Christian the Lord didn't say here's a book I'm going to give you no he gave 12 disciples and they made disciples and they made disciples and then so all of them learned from experience in person what it means to be a Christian they didn't even have the book for the first 300 years right mean so that's the problem is that all of us are coming in and many times we're coming into parishes where the priest is was a Protestant too or recently converted they never lived around Saints or in the old country or around people old ladies who have that ethos right it's a different way I mean I the best example I can give you at least the one from my for my my time when I first came to Greece and I think this is this is funny but also a good example and the what you're struggling with and everybody struggles with in America is the following like just give an example I grew up you know with when a young adult I would go out or maybe my 16 18 20 whatever 25 even I would go out to dinner with friends maybe not often but we'd go out you know to and so what would you do you sit and count the uh the money and then you know what do I owe and then everybody pay their own portion and then all together we would you know give the $20 here $20 there and so nobody no nobody even attempted or thought that maybe I should just pay for it myself I'll get up and I'll go pay for it but that's what I found in Greece when I went to Greece this was the norm the vast majority of people that I met and they were of course Orthodox Christians almost all of them they were serious Orthodox Christians that was like a no-brainer like I'm pain no no no I'm pain no I'm pain no I'm pain they would fight over it nobody ever thought oh how much do you have $22.50 sense here's my 2250 okay I got Chang that never happens because people have filimo phot means they're they're trying to outdo the other in virtue they want to be hospitable they they want to give more than receive I mean there's a lot of that going on just in their culture right they grew up having that going back to their great great great great great great great grandfather I mean just the way they learn to live and I'm not saying everybody's like that in Greece by any means I think that it's fortunately becoming less and less but the serious Orthodox Christians that's how they would do it like you would never go to a house without food or something in your hand like that was kind of a shame like you would go there and say forgive me I'm coming without anything my I'm like really that's okay whatever but so uh you know there's there we are in a lot of us are coming from very puritanical moralistic ritualistic uh legalistic um religious environments and not spiritual environments not spiritual lives not deeply looking at the Spirit the internal life of man for ourselves first and then our neighbor and getting stuck on the on the externals in a bad way right the externals are very important you can't just throw them out but they're not the they're not the alone they don't save alone they're not they're not going to save you so uh that's what you're struggling with and everybody else so you got to go to monasteries you got to go around old ladies who know you know who live simply and deeply the Orthodox Faith there's no way around it I can't cut Corners here I'll get the book I'll get the manual I'll get the tape I'll download the the online course doesn't happen it's not possible forget it all right so you got to you got to get to know people who are virtuous you got be around priests Bishops whatever Layman I doesn't matter monks nuns whatever doesn't matter you need to be around people who are already progressed in the in their heart in their soul right not legalistically mentally I mean there is a growing sickness among Orthodox converts they're super intellectual speculative rationalistic and it's not the spiritual life it's a problem it's a problem there a problem next question what is your say on the difference between Greek or Eastern Caledonian in contrast to Oriental Orthodox in actual detail I'm seeing a difference in words but not the term meaning okay so I don't know what you're referring to in terms of where you're seeing it in books and what am I asked to compare actual detail detail in what spiritual life your question is not very specific um in my experience and I can only speak from my experience obviously there is a big Chasm between the Orthodox and the so-called Oriental or non-estonian or monopos sites um and it's not apparent to us in the west because it's especially even even at converts and i' I've been shocked to see prominent converts just without any basis saying you know what the cops are just like us we're all one Church like where did you get this who told you this who taught you that on what basis are you saying that because they look like us because they look Eastern because they're nice people because they have P they're very Pious none of that has to do with the spiritual life that coming down to us from the the fathers when Pope shinuda stands and teaches in his books and elsewhere everybody knows this and nobody denies it that that against he teaches against theosis the patristic understanding theosis he says it's nonsense it's like heretical and he calls the Orthodox Heretics and that's the pope shinuda right the one of the most you know revered of recent Patriarchs for the cops when when that's taught and defended and nobody denies that he was teaching that to me that's a confirmation of their falling away from the church it's a confirmation of them not being Orthodox it's a confirmation of them having lost the patristic Theology and therefore the siology that is is at the core of the patristic teaching right or when a friend of mine who's who I met I mean we met through the internet and he came and told to me about his experience he's in Cairo he's a convert from the cops and uh grew up there but then he became Orthodox and he said says father you won't believe today most young people in Cairo who are cops are Protestant in their in their piony they love Protestant stuff they sound Protestant they sing Protestant kind of song Sometimes I mean you won't believe I said really I I never expected that but of course why not I mean um the the Eastern people in the East they're just eating up America they're eating up the spiritual offerings of America all over the the world so it wasn't it shouldn't be a surprise but it was and I have other other experiences uh of um the way that the Saints in our day Elder isak St pisos and other fathers of manthos they they would require and and ask um well they they would baptize the converts from the the cops there was one monk uh who left uh I'm not sure he was a cop so I'm assuming he left Egypt and went to AOS in the 80s and and or early 90s and he was catechized and baptized and became a monk of mon AOS and Elder isak did that he was Elder isaka was the disciple of St pus and author of his life any case we're off topic but that's a few words on that but I'm not I wasn't really sure how to answer your question because it was kind of I didn't understand if you were looking at something very specifically uh do spells actually work if you give rights to the devil yes absolutely in other words if you open yourself up if a if an Orthodox Christian is serious fasting prayer spiritual father obedience he has nothing to worry about there's nothing that the devil and the demons can do without our consent of course we can we apostasis then but if you're living a LAX life and you're giving a lot of rights to the devil in other words you're opening yourself up to the Demonic you're uh you're living a life of uh Lous and whatever right you're disobeying God you're you're not going to church you're not confessing you're not communing then yeah you can definitely be impacted by the Demonic and they're and they're calling on the devil if uh if rights are given to the devil then he happily comes to our house in our life and does what he can to bring us even further down into the pit father I've been praying and praying about some family members to get out of sin and have a love for Jesus they believe but I don't know if they are saved I'm running out of patience any encouraging words uh well first of all I would say that you should look at it differently you're not their savior God is their savior you should not run out of patience you should not look at it like I got a time limit here uh you should turn to God and offer prayers and God God everything God allows is for your salvation so here it's actually for your salvation that you're praying for them not theirs that's how you should look at that I'm praying for them and struggling for them and concerned about them because that's what it means to be a disciple of Christ to love Christ and be more like Christ and I'm going to make sure I do it in a Christian Manner and not an over-the Toop you know fanatical slash ideological slash moralistic pietistic way I'm not seeing you do that I'm not saying you do that but I just make sure that that's a part of your prayer God keep me from the ways of the world and the heterodox I want to be I want to do your thy will and then do it according to thy will not only the truth but I want the way so you're going to learn from all that and it it's not in your hands it's not even ultimately it's not alone in God's hands it's in their hands so you pray that they come to a moment where they have the good uneasiness pray that they and help them in any way you can to come to that good uneasiness right they start to ask questions be concerned wonder that has to happen in them though they have to want it there's no way anybody else can do anything about it so it's irrational for you to be upset or impatient because you're not in charge and God's not expecting you to save them so go deeper become a great great great example of Love pray fervently to God and in due time when God so deems and they want there'll be an opportunity for you might be their deathbed but there'll be an opportunity for you so don't rush don't push Don't Preach pray and give an example and trust God that he is working more than you by a million times to bring them close to him question why didn't anyone condemn the Creed Council if those Elders told you after War they will have counsel why not now why was it not denounced eight years ago so it was denounced eight years ago and there were four churches that didn't go and in those churches there were clerics that were denouncing it and in the Church of Greece there were a lot of clerics and Bishops who were denouncing it and were Bishops in the council itself which walked away and did not sign the documents and did not agree to the decisions so you're not informed it has happened it hasn't happened on a level or scale that anybody would you know that we would like it's not happened like at a council level it's not happened even on a I mean the sonical council depends how what you mean by condemned it the Russian Church certainly didn't embrace it neither did the Bulgarian neither the Georgian neither did the antiochian [Music] it certainly doesn't have this Universal Authority at all in fact I think it's kind of already dead in many ways it really does not impact most local churches their decisions uh whether you know there are churches that are certainly in that mindset I mean in other words not churches but leaders in those churches like Patriarchs and and and others that certainly are that's their mindset and so that's very unfortunate but that happened that happened before that wasn't a result of creed that was already happening so Creed kind of just it was a dud I mean it didn't achieve anything and um it really became I think this a source of division but that division may have been inevitable and it may bring about Unity again like there's certain painful things the church we have to go through before we're purged the church Pur is purged of these heretical ideas and and U but takes time and so keep struggling it was denounced many times by the way I don't know in Greek we it was denounced by a lot of people when do you start fasting Thursday after Vespers or after Sunset after 12 midnight we follow I mean I don't know anybody who doesn't do this maybe there are some exceptions around the Orthodox world but that's how it is in my EXP exp everywhere midnight to midnight I don't know don't ask me why but that's how we've always done it and there are good practical reasons uh one of them that I remember right now I mean if you started fasting at Vespers um the problem is that you're not going to be fasting in the evening the next day and so you create you could create can create issues for the next day's liturgy depending on like you're in a Wednesday the day of the Lord and it's Wednesday and now you're eating in the evening we' never done that like that's never been the case right so uh as far as I know my experience 30 years it's 12 to 12 is midnight to midnight and if you want to go you know Sunset to Sunset or Sunset to midnight I mean rather that's fine you can start fasting earlier but you got at least fast from 12 to 12 so that's my experience I don't know anybody I've never heard anybody say no we start fasting at Vespers in America I'm sure there are somebody but it's not not in Greece Church know does the church know where the body of St yuanes the Baptist is we have relics all over the Orthodox Church of St John the Baptist there's on on monos there's a bunch of monasteries there's all over Russia so his relics were taken they're found there's like four findings of his of his skull kep getting taken by enemies of the faith brought back um so we have like three or four excuse me three or four feasts uh throughout the year for the finding of the uh the skull of of the Forerunner but the um to my knows the relics were taken to kople and they were and they were dispersed all throughout the Orthodox world but uh I I've never read any detailed analysis of that so I I'm just talking from my peripheral knowledge father sorry if you've already covered this is there a chance of a discussion or reading on who are the three Witnesses who have not reposed and are living throughout the years on Earth three Witnesses maybe two you mean you're talking about Enoch and Elijah you got to be more specific in your questions guys you're talking about Enoch and Elijah and then maybe some people say St John the Evangelist some say that but it's a little disputed I mean for sure it's project it's Enoch and Elijah Elijah what what am I supposed to say exactly I mean what's the analysis that I'm supposed to give it's a mystery nobody knows where or how they are but they didn't die and God somehow has them we don't know yeah they're not reposed but they're not in the world either they're not like somewhere hiding out or something so it's it's in God's hands we don't know in the gospel I'm not going to answer this one because Tata has asked a lot of questions I got I'm gonna come back to this one okay no no offense please don't take any offense but we gotta keep get everybody's questions hi Father how should we avoid kids technology addiction since it is so prevalent in our lives you know there's no easy answer on that one is like you know I got some kind of insight uh except discipline discipline discipline and don't let them have it early and as they grow limit it as much as possible use it for educational purposes there's no subsidy it's it's an ubiquitous difficult thing I mean I work all day on these devices my kids see me all day in front of one of these devices right because I'm communicating constantly writing reading Etc so there's just no way that you can just make dis at least not in my life I mean if you can go live on a farm or something great wonderful um but you gotta you got to be disciplined and put limits on it your own self right show them an example first and then and then minimize it big time in terms of entertainment uh get your news Summit maybe a little bit here and there use it for your you know all of your various business and everything as far as the kids and sitting in front of the first of all get rid of the television get rid of the big screen TV if it's it all connected to the internet unless you're just using it a a screen or something and then be very careful with the internet don't allow the kids to have access to the internet uh until very late age don't give them a mobile phone at any age until they're like at least 17 18 and they're going off because they need you know now they're going to be in college or something and then you want to have a mobile phone for them to communicate but then you can get a very simple one you got to just be very Vigilant prayerful and give them a good example and read a lot to them and so they love reading and stuff so I've noticed with the years I've got five children I've noticed with the years I've gotten more and more LAX which is really bad but not LAX in sense I don't care in other words I'm super busy far more than i' ever been when I was in Greece as a priest in a little parish and so I'm getting you know behind I'm behind on this and so it's just it's a constant vigilance yeah if you gotta you gotta with addictions you've got to replace them with something else and root them up and avoid occasion for sin and pray fervently with any kind of addiction and you got to always stay vigilant because it'll come back if you're not careful sexual addictions drinking addictions Whatever by the grace of God though by the grace of God everything how does we how does one know if they are receiving a call to an anism is there a certain feeling you love to pray that's the number one you love to pray you love to be in church you better love to be pray and be in church otherwise why would you go to a monastery that's what they do all the time that's the first thing secondly go to a monastery go and meet the monastery just like you would go and meet somebody you might want to marry spend time with her not much you don't need much time couple weeks couple weeks ply yourself hard to the monastic life in a few weeks you should be able to figure it out with the abis or abbit [Music] as a sincere Inquirer what is the Orthodox blessing before a meal there is the Our Father in the evenings in the morning there's a prayer I mean in the mornings in the evenings there's another prayer that we say the poor shall eat and be filled and those seek the Lord shall Praise Him their hearts shall live forever and ever and then the priest blesses the food and as he does after the Our Father in the morning then there's prayers after the meals so in the morning we say we give thanks to thee Oh Christ Our God for thou has made worthy through blessings the pro of heavenly good things th come th disciples and Grant them peace and now come to us Savior and save us glory to the father Spirit age of Lord Merc Merc Mercy father bless and then priest bless us Jesus Christ Our God Bless The Remains the POR the table multip multiply them in this house and the world entire blessed is our God with Mercy nourish His abundant gifts by his grace and love for mankind always not ever to ages of Ages that's the Priestly prayer before and after the meal and then in the evening you have the prayer uh the POR be filled the one I just read and then you um and then you have the blessing then you have another prayer afterwards which I don't know in in English actually I've never learned in English I know it in Greek from the Suter in anyway it's Greek and I don't remember right now that was gladness by the that was gladness that was gladness by in our heart Etc I don't remember but you can find it in all the prayer books and then the blessing of the priest is that what you're looking [Music] for thank you soap for another five Great Britain monetary which I can't remember right now I'm tired oh my gosh I heard a monk on Athos who said unless you have seen the uncreated light you will not be saved do you have any insight from the fathers on this um that's that's a that's a very interesting statement um I don't know on what basis he can say that personally um who said it what church fathers said it I mean so I would have to I'd have to see a lot more than some Monk on Manos said that I mean what monk on Manos what Patricia commentary is there that says that that is a prerequisite I don't think so I never heard that um seems it seems like almost too small in a way uh there's so much to the spiritual life long suffering patience humility and then that may or may not end up being uh the fruit of that being seeing the created light why would isn't that in part God's Providence and decision for us it's not automatic I do XYZ I see the INR light it's a relationship with a person and he reveals that analogous with our needs and and uh our status I mean so the thief on the cross he saw the uncreated light do we have any witness to that what does he mean maybe he means something that we're not thinking maybe he means something else I don't know I don't think so what does God do to the he with heterodox prayers what does he do I mean God does whatever he wants I don't think there's like one answer to that we do know though in the scriptures that God listens to a righteous man we also see that he doesn't listen to the people of God sometimes when they are sinful and disobedient uh and scripture says you know we don't know of anyone uh if God if you live in a certain way God will not bless you et so there's there's plenty of evidence to say that those who um are not in the church and have turned away from the church or reject the church which to a certain degree that's the status of certain people in the various heterodox confessions right there they're knowledgeable they're they know something and they're not interested and they reject it and they say no the true church is the cops or the true church is the pap Protestants or whatever so that stance doesn't seem to be consistent with hearing God hearing their prayers right in the sense of their petitions are not going to be um let's say serviced because they're first things first is to repent of the heresy they're not doing that so that's a certain amount of pride and so they're not going to prayers aren't going to be heard for their salvation sake now God is going to be working constantly to bring them about salvation every he does for every human being but beyond that I mean I you want me to speculate what God's going to do with the prayers of a simple Coptic lady in the middle of Egypt who's never seen an Orthodox Church no I don't think that's our business why why do we have to speculate about that let it let it be God's in charge I don't need to know no body asked me I don't need to know I know that that that's not the church I know that this is the church I know that I want to be in the church there's a lot of speculation in Western American Orthodoxy a lot of curiosity and then they want to get answers for everything you know what you don't have answers for everything you don't so stop trying to act like you do that I'm not saying you good question I appreciate your question but that's the reality for a lot of people they want to know what why do I what do I I certainly hope that he hears the prayers of Protestants Roman Catholics and cops I would pray that they that they would hear his prayers and I I would hope that their prayers would be to know the truth to come closer to God and therefore to be ultimately to be move toward Orthodoxy right that would be my prayer that they would be illumin to come closer to the truth and they would seek the truth and certainly God would lead them along if they have that openness to Synergy so I guess the answer is he's going to he's going to hear certain prayers and others he won't depending on what they're praying for why do I still struggle after confession isn't someone supposed to feel better yeah sure I mean you never felt better ever have you always like I can't answer that question because I would do would you know did you go to right did do a life confession did you uh are you holding anything back um what do you you know I I would need to get to know you a little bit to be able to tell you if there's some spiritual uh obstacle or you know you've given rights to the enemy or whatever now you may be just feeling bad because you're feeling bad because of your circumstances in life it has nothing to do with the confession and you're not trusting God enough you're not abandoning yourself to God you're not you're not enjoy you know engaging and enjoying the love and the blessings of being a Christian there there might be a variety of things that are playing a role in your life that are depriving you of joy and have nothing to do with confession at all or you're not dealing with those things and getting guidance from your spiritual father so I don't know it could be a variety of things what happens between a break in concelebration and a full break in communion and an an how far can Schism go without causing a split in the body of Christ you guys these are you know I'm like this is like a whole night I could talk on a whole night just on that question right there so this is unrealistic for me to answer all these questions definitively so I'll just do my best in a quick answer uh there is in terms of the church according to St St yustin Povich who summarizes the patristic tradition there is never a split of the church into two separate organisms there's only a departure from the church uh so today's Schism let's just go right to the punch uh between uh Moscow patriar and the patriar of constant Nole uh is is it a Schism of the church into two pieces no they're both in the church and they're essentially brothers fighting and they're both communion of the Mysteries and they're both United in the Mysteries but they cannot reconcile because of Pride ultimately there's a tremendous amount of pride and that's why they can't reconcile and they're insisting on their will um and everybody knows my position on the legitimacy of the recognition of the schismatics doesn't there is no legitimacy so I'm not implying uh that you know I'm judging everybody but there is certainly uh when we have something with our brother and we walk away from our brother and we don't have Community with our brother we're also at fault like we we can't just blame the other person we need to First blame ourselves what did we do wrong where do we eror what have we done to to alienate our brothers because there the local churches of Constantinople in Russia split between themselves or not actually split ultimately and in terms of one left the church we haven't arrived at that level no one is implying that knowledge that one of them has left the church now the church is no longer existing as a you know the Orthodox churches are no longer a part of the body of Christ there's so that so there could be a division a temporary division of Orthodox Christians in the church and the church means the body of Christ and it means the grace of God in the Mysteries and it means the unity in Christ in the faith that still exists on some level and it's getting weaker in some places but we haven't arrived at that so that's how it answered I don't know what else what else did you ask me [Music] um yeah well a full Breaking communion and an anathema obviously is after a council and now you're talking about people who have who have departed from the faith and the council is issued an anathema we're not at that stage obviously thank God how are orders like where when one takes an oath treated around the Villages in Greece my parents keeps pushing a philanthropic order after services and I'm not sure how I feel about it um there is the in American Greek Orthodoxy there's and it it exists in in the parishes in Greece but it's not nearly as big the um philos the love of the poor and uh I'm not sure if they take Oaths or not you shouldn't be taking Oaths we don't take Oaths as Orthodox Christians we just say yes or no so yeah if they're taking Oaths it sounds a little weird uh is this something to do with um those two organizations that remind me of masonry what are they called AA this one of these things I wouldn't be I wouldn't get involved personally it was happa um brace Orthodoxy thank you again for your donation if you get a spiritual father who passes away can you get a new spiritual father of course of course what you gon you're gonna remain without him yeah you should try to work it out with the spiritual father before he reposes if you know that he's sick and he's going to Repose tell tell me where to go like who do you recommend I go to do the process Ed the Old Testament translations that are mostly based on the Jewish mastic but then changed parts to reflect the seent like the Virgin what is the Roman Catholic versin well I'm not well vered in what they're doing but in my to my knowledge they base themselves on the mtic and in fact in Catholicism with the Vulgate from St Jerome he's also partially basing himself on the mestic but not entirely he is also pulling from the suban to my knowledge uh but the Protestants are far more engaged with the mtic thinking that they're going back to the or Hebrew etc etc um so I don't I think they yeah there's a lot of translations a lot of differences and they're all they're all trying to you know find that sweet spot where they think that they can get the best of both worlds between the septu and the maretic but sounds like most people don't pay attention in the west to the Tuan whereas we that's all we have we would never it's unconscionable for us to go to Pate Jews who hate Christ and and get the scriptures from them I mean do do we need to say that father bless I have no Orthodox Church near speaking English why is it bad and what do I do no it's not bad watch the interview I did with the godchildren of Father a from Rose go watch it and watch when I ask the question what do you do if they don't know English I ask the same question you're asking it's about halfway through okay go watch that I think it's a good answer Christian Catholic media asks where do the church fathers of scripture teach about three divorces or three marriages after divorce did you know that Orthodox Church doesn't Embrace that that's a slander Orthodox Church doesn't have three marriages there's one marriage and the second and third are not the same service at all and they're penitential so that's the first thing second thing did you know that the pope of Rome agreed to it because it happened before the Schism and there was a council in the 9th century nine I want to say 950 I don't remember the date right now in which the legates were present and accepted the council in which these pastoral decisions were taken how to deal with people who are uh basically walking away from marriage and what do you deal with them how do you deal with them in terms of their repentance and their salvation so look up your history and you'll see that it's a prism reality where we didn't innovate anything goes back into the eth and Ninth centuries and uh it's a it's a pastoral measure so that people don't become fornicating Lous because then they're definitely lost and they're lost forever the church loves them is trying to help them and and on the path of repentance the second marriage is a penitential right it's not marriage in the proper sense right it's not marriage in what the gospel talks about marriage so you know if you're GNA if you're going to blame us for that then you got to blame the Pope that accepted the council in 950 or whatever it is and U and have a little self- knowledge because you ever heard of pornocracy that's what the papacy was in the n9th century and there was it several periods in which the papacy was run by blackmail from outside of the papacy people were getting and becoming popes and they were being blackmailed because they were fornicators and these things happened all throughout the Western history there's several times when there was this kind of crisis in the highest Echelon of the papacy so we should have a little self- knowledge and uh and not come in come in swinging Father Peter what is the EO position on St Augustine's writing depends what writing we don't we don't have a blanket position on everything he wrote obviously I know he's canonized but Roman Catholics seem to have an extreme liking towards his work and they often use it to support the filio yes well obviously where he is not in the patristic consensus he's not Orthodox he's not looked to for guidance so in so far as he supports the idea of the filio that's not gonna be embraced by the church he was never called to task for it in the West in in North India during his life so therefore you know when he was glorified or accepted as a saint in the west and then eventually in the East uh blessed Augustine and Saints attest to this it was in spite of his errors not because of his errors and so whatever is not of the Patricia consensus like his teaching uh his teaching with regard to Grace freedom and these other issues which Saints you know John Cassian rejected and church doesn't Express the church's patristic consensus you just ignore it you just move on you don't you don't have to become an enemy of Augustine or reject him or say he you don't have to say anything a church hasn't said the church has never said he's not accepted among the saints for the other things he did Saints are not infallible no one is infallible human beings are infallible Saints can make mistakes Saints can make errors and they have that's not we don't have a that kind of idea of sanctity where it's like this uh robot right it's not it's not how we understand it so all right so keep I'm going to keep going a little bit faster now because the questions keep coming I think we need to stop the questions and we're gonna wrap it up in about 15 minutes recently there have been a lot of Orthodox rock metal bands really I've never heard of any I'm out of touch wow that are influenced by Protestant music worship such as holy name is it okay for orthodox Christians to support this do you let me just ask you is there any saint that said rock metal bands great thing let's get behind it if you can find one saint that thought that that music was inspired by God could communicate the gospel is really consistent with the Orthodox ethos then maybe we can have a discussion I don't know of any so the answer seems pretty straightforward to me our monopos sites I mean you just if you don't follow the Saints don't do it like follow the Saints show me the Saints in our day any day any saint just that's where we begin I want to imitate the Saints because they're Christ not they but Christ who lives in them Christ in our day showing us through the Saints how to live and I think all the rest is like you know patience and pedagogy but certainly not imitation of saints are monophysites allowed to commune in antiochian parishes what do you think they're monophysites of course not God have mercy do they do it yeah is are they allowed by the church by the Cannons by the Saints no it's a huge problem why are they doing that they need to repent and become Orthodox that's what the Saints have taught we don't have any other teaching anybody who's teaching anything something else is not following the holy fathers father bless I haven't seen anything in Bitcoin like Bitcoin in prophecies yet many Orthodox believe it's the only Safety Net in the Beast system any thoughts yeah I have I have nothing to say on that because I've never seen any saint or any elder or anybody tell me that's it Bitcoin get Bitcoin you're good to go now it may be very good I don't know but it's not certainly not been revealed to me uh on that level and I'm not an expert in Bitcoin I don't even have enough money to make any you know my the money I got so little why why would I care right so you gota have money these kind of this always cracks me up like people come on invest in gold invest in silver okay you gotta have money to do that don't you so what's the point why you know I'm mean we're at the mercy of God let's just I'm at the mercy got I have a little bit of money of course to pay the basics you know my family and their needs but that's it so I don't know the whole Bitcoin slash gold silver you know sa savior route I'm a bit skeptical do it if if you think it's going to work go for it I mean there's but there's not going to be like some Orthodox position on bitcoin or something it's not gonna happen is there a date set for the mount athlos pilgrimage deadline for donation it's very great opportunity thank you Father look uh we have 60 days or 58 days now left of this campaign when the campaign's done whoever joined us for those perks will get the perks and we'll set a date for the pilgrimage there's a opportunity to go to Georgia with my brother he's very well versed in Georgia lived there got a he he a house there and spends time there knows everybody and loves the country so that's an amazing trip as well uh I've uh spent 20 years in Greece not far from mon AOS probably been 50 times in mon AOS so I'm in a position that I can help a lot if people want to go to Athos and so we're going to offer that for the sake of the documentary we're going to offer that with that donation and it's going to be a joy for me but it probably is not going to be made apparent until we're done with the campaign and we're not going to go probably until November is my guess but I really don't know the dates yet God willing right always relying on God are those damned for hell are those damned to hell for belief in the filio so what is hell what is hell that's what you got to answer do you you choose to go to hell right does God send anybody to hell no God sends no one to hell what's hell hell is the state of the Demons what's the state of demons Pride arrogance refusal of love so I I don't know the status of anybody I'm not given that Insight maybe if I make more progress God will give me some there'll be some reason pastorally to have some insight into the state of people that goes to very very holy people I don't have any insight into people where they're goingon to be so I can't tell you who's going to hell for sure I know the way to Salvation though and I know that filio is an innovation a heresy and that the church taught that if you embrace it you fall away in fact in council with the Pope present the legates of the Pope rather and he accepted that John thei at the eth eal council in 879 they anathematized anyone who would add to the Creed of course the Phil was an addition to the Creed and they all knew that and they all anathematized anyone who would add to the Creed anatha means you're outside of Salvation in other words the church in other words Christ in other words the Mysteries those things are all identical right not identical but they're all uh expressing the same reality the same spiritual mystery so that's the church talking in council with again I want to stress the leg Gates of the Pope who then accepted the council the church has always spoken with this language to make sure that people understand the boundaries of Salvation and that they reject Innovations and heresies and and not because it has consequences what are the consequences when you accept something that's a lie and a distortion about the person of Christ that means you are inhibited to have communion with the person of Christ like if I if if somebody comes to me let's just take it on a human level I'm in a community I got a friend over here and a friend over here my friend comes over and says a lie about my other friend the other and now now I'm like oh that person's this this and this and doesn't want me now I have a Breakin communion I don't trust anymore and I don't know that person I've been LED astray as to who that person is now I don't have this communion that I had before or at least the idea of communion right maybe I wasn't very zealous in love for that person so I didn't have it deeply but at least I had you know Oneness of mind on who who she was and who I am and we had a relationship that's what heresy does heresy is a a lie of the devil that gets between me and God and and Separates Me from a communion with God it makes makes a distortion our relationship it leads me astray and it has consequences otherwise why would they anathematize someone who teaches it obviously has consequences we are in the realm now today of everything is relative nobody cares about anything and Catholicism post Vatican 2 is super LAX and relative to the point where it's like undoing all previous decisions it's clearly not the gospel and same yesterday today and forever clearly not the Church of yesterday same yesterday today and forever we have major Innovations from Vatican 2 going forward in practice and theoretically even in Vatican 2 so my point here is that from the decisions of the council from church history from our own experiences it points to the reality of these things that they do have consequences who is going to hell or not I cannot tell you whether uh what the church said about the consequences for these actions I can tell you what the final outcome will be only the gods but you can't say I'm following the holy fathers and then adopt the filio you can't say I'm I'm a part of the Church of Christ and then adopt the filio these things are not are not and I want to be in the Church of Christ I think you do too don't you you want to be saved because that's where salvation was given and that's where we know to go we know to be in the Church of Christ so but that's it I know what he's revealed to me I know what the Saints have given to me I'm not going to play God uh beyond that like I mean I'm not going to play God at all but I'm not going to go beyond those that Revelation and that tradition and act like I know the state of humanity and what's goingon to happen to each one of us because that seem to be implied like who's going to go to hell I don't know who's goingon to go hell but if you if you believe in PHA you can't be an Orthodox Christian and that's the church so not a good idea like don't do that go look at the ethical Council go look at what the decisions were those were Universal decisions accepted in the entire church by the church in Rome until after the Schism when they riged and changed their decision I mean that's just to me it's just so obvious like staming right for the for the for the Post Schism Vatican that's just daming like what what do you say to that I've never heard anybody give a good explanation nobody they're allergic to it they don't the apologists never talk about it they never even talk about the athal council no one not uh what's his name TR horn not uh whatever I can't remember the names right now I'm too tired father why must I be married if I want to be a priest in the orite church because that's the way it's always been that's the way we understand you're going to work out your salvation you need to be in a community you need to be in a Rel Rel ship you need to be in obedience right so you there's two options for that you can't be a priest that's teaching obedience when you're when you're not in a relationship of obedience right you go to a monastery you live a monastic life you're in a community you're in a family that you have a father and then you work out your salvation you make progress that's that's where you make progress that's that's how you make progress or you're in a family you've got a wife and children you submit yourself many times not like obedience to wife but in many times you're fential and you're obedient in the sense of you're denying your will right and in that context it's salvific and you work yourself God set that up for your salvation alone alone you're in big trouble big trouble who's gonna tell you to do deny your will how are you going to deny your will alone you're G to look who's going to tell you your this that and the other thing and put you in your place how are you going to serve people when you're alone I mean there's no very grave except grave exceptions of people who weren't either married or in a monastery who made progress and very exceptional right and they were basically living violent in the sense of spiritual lives violent lives against the passions and they were fulfilling that which was the monastic life or the married life but they are they are very exceptional and so that's that's just the path of Salvation leads through and in those relationships in those contexts and working our our ourself out and then the church has never embraced until very recently and it's a big dis big big problem celibate priest in parishes we want married priests in parishes we want a married priest who understands all the people in the parish that can understand that and live that as an example of that M celibate people don't exist outside the monasteries in the Orthodox Church that's a very recent Innovation couple hundred years I mean we were just looking at the acts of the councils of the of the AAL Council and it's very interesting like they say clearly that's something that only happens in the West in the or in the Orthodox East you're either a monk and you're become a bishop or you're a married priest there's no like room for somebody who is um in this in between State that's what it seems like to me uh is the basic tradition in Orthodoxy because they don't see it as profitable spiritually again there are exceptions to the rule but that's the rule Father Peter in a related question to earlier can I get a new Godfather if my original Godfather Falls away from the faith absolutely absolutely the person walks away from the faith he walks away from you as as your godfather and your and your guide can you share any good info about St GRE of Nissa I'm not sure what you're asking for his life his teachings uh I have not read extensively say Gregory of Nissa it's not been a something that I've been really it's been a lot of time I've read St basil and St John gastam and others but St Gregory have not sat down and read a lot of so um read read his life of Moses that of course that's his greatest one of his greatest texts so the uh the writings on Moses I think that would be a great place to start and of course he was the brother of uh St basil and um yeah one of the greatest theologians of the 4th Century father how can an orthodox Layman first of all thank you for the donation hilan and it's always appreciated when people donate because it helps us to pay the bills how can an orthodox layman in America Advance spiritually and go deep without a spiritual father very very difficultly I don't I don't think that person should remain that way if he's If he if he remains that way and he's complicit then he's definitely not going to make progress if he's forced that and can't find spiritual father and he's being patient that's another thing God will help but the minute he says I don't need a spiritual father he's dead because that's self-will and pride and he's not going to make progress is a parish priest and the sacramental life sufficient for me how important is the spiritual father for us it's essential it's essential it's essential it's everywhere how are you going to make progress if you don't have a guide where in the life of the church life of the world do we make progress without a guide in serious things like we always have guides that teach us something on some level right if we want to become a master Craftsman a master teacher we go to people who've done that already and in the church that's always been the case right and then this whole question of obedience confession all of that that's Central to making progress spiritually um you say well I can't find a spiritual father keep looking you are you are it is it is um essential for you to keep keep struggling and keep looking and praying until then God will help you but go to confession often to to a priest uh seek guidance often from spiritual fathers or priests or or monastics but beg God for a GU spiritual guide even if it's somebody on the other side of the country that you're only going to see twice a year you need that reference you need that obedience you need that guidance even in big picture stuff that reference is essential how can you in the future look to anyone else and say listen to me if you didn't sit at the feet and listen to the person and how do you follow the Saints if you don't have a spiritual father how do you follow the holy fathers if you don't have a spiritual father I don't see it I don't see it happening you've got to seek him out and rely on him uh and many times it doesn't have to be someone who is some great renowned spiritual father I mean there was who was I Elder um be theodoros spiritual father was rather simple uh comparatively he wasn't a great Theologian or anything but he he was a simple Pious priest and he did obedience to him so you know obedience is one of the greatest and most important spiritual Feats that you can do it's the most important thing the Lord was obedient unto death that's the example he gave us how are you going to make progress if you're not obedient under a spiritual father how are you going to make progress if you're alone in the world and you do your will not you know 24 hours a day you do whatever you want to do and you don't have to say Let It Be Blessed you're not you're not going to make progress It's like 99% of the time it's gonna be very exceptional and we're not those exceptions believe me we are weak Christians today don't assume a lot assum I mean all the Saints have said this elder Elder said it father Sarah marose said it all the saints in America said basically stay low to the ground don't have big ideas about who you are and and and seek out humil humility and simp and simple and humble and obedient that's that's who we need to be that's where the spiritual life begins and thrives last question of the night father bless the book of The Way of the pilgrim has many different authors which version do you recommend they're not different authors they're different translators or different Publishers it's not important I don't think that important but uh just just get an orthodox Source get an orthodox Source St St Anthony great St Anthony's Monastery here has a has a great version take that one St Anthony's Monastery by that version all right folks we're done with hilarion and all the others 72 questions question s tonight 72 I think we broke a record okay we got this question but I'm violating the Justin's uh rule book here and I've just hit that question although I should have said good night what if you feel like you're being called to Anis but instead chose to marry is that a sin no of course not no wait a minute how do we put this you're being called of aism but you chose to marry well what do you mean called manism you got to go try it out go try it out go seek a spiritual father in one of the monasteries and try to discern God's will that's what you should do if you are called and you have a deep sense of I need to be a monastic and you just bury that because you want to have sexual relations or something that's problem you might come back to haunt you you got to go see about that go spend some time in a monastery I think if you feel truly called or drawn to the monastic life you should go check it out all right all right I got to answer this because it's a 14-year-old Julian Zapata hey Julian so let's see what you got to say hello I'm a 14-year-old father and I was raised in Evangelical Christianity I feel deep binding to Holy Orthodoxy how can I tell my parents and my family well it's never easy it's not going to be easy I think you should slowly reveal to them some of the treasures of Orthodoxy that you have found that you think might be of interest to them things that they find things that'll be easy for them to accept slowly work it in and I think eventually if you do that long enough they're going to start to see oh our son is interested in Orthodoxy I don't know who your parents are and how they're going to react so it's really hard for me to tell you how to deal with it but uh uh I think you need to you if your parents if you think your parents are eventually going to accept and EMB you and allow you to become Orthodox be baptized and chrismated then I would slowly start the process and see how it goes and just pray fervently and take a step at a time and introduce things and say you know hey did you know that if you go to the Holy Land like all the holy sites pretty much are Orthodox I mean not all of them but a lot of them and the holy seler where our Lord's tomb is that's an Orthodox Church there and they've had it forever until like 2000 years and you know you say stuff that are just really basic stuff but blows people's minds in America because they don't pay attention they don't know history they don't they don't you know introduce these things that hopefully will make a little click in their head and they'll start to go oh what really that's amazing you know and that's how I would approach it and then eventually after a while hopefully you'll be able to say you know I'm really interested in Orthodoxy I want to become Orthodox and maybe you can even lead them into into Orthodoxy I've had I've seen that happen again and again that younger children and their teens lead their parents into Orthodoxy it's not unheard of so trust the Lord pray I mean hopefully you're going to a local Orthodox church if you can connect with the local Orthodox Church connect with the priest and get some guidance but I don't know if that's possible I don't know what your parents uh stance is all right I think thank you very much again once again from Norway they've Norwegians or at least one particular Norwegian has has shamed us all with their generosity God bless you Embrace Orthodoxy I think I'm gonna call it last call last call we're gonna we're gonna wrap it up it's over three hours and usually we stop at three hours so God bless it and you and um keep us in your prayers we'll see you again as of Tuesday God willing we'll be back um please this is my heartfelt plea to all of you if you were benefited tonight you're benefited by all the lectures we're doing do me a favor and go over to the Indiegogo page go to that campaign maybe we can put the the page uh link on the on the screen or or in the in the chat go to the Indiegogo Christian's page even if it's $5 I it doesn't matter the amount I don't care about the amount God doesn't care about the amount whatever you can and want to do but if everybody gives something for the sake of the mission to our brothers and sisters to bring light to this dark world that's what this is this effort is by by holy wisdom films it's it's an effort for the sake and love of the Brethren and the love of Christ if everybody can go over there and give $5 I don't care $10 whatever it is there's a spiritual principle at work that the Lord is moved as it were St pis says obliged to do something to help us right when he sees that we're doing something we're sacrificing on one level for the sake of our neighbor for the sake of Christ he's obliged according to St P's expression to intervene and to help us so every single move in that way and sacrificing for others in your life generally but in particular with this this campaign that we're doing is really important to us and to a lot of people uh your your participation your donation is really valued so please consider doing that I don't usually do those kind of appeals but this is for sake of of this project which is uh a new new Endeavor and really good project that I think is gonna help a lot of people so there you go I did it God bless everybody good night and we will see you soon good weekend for [Music] my God [Music] [Music] is what is a Christian gag Mar I kind of do this for a living my name is John Hees and this is our restaurant and in this restaurant we throw this Georgian Supra it's a dinner and it elicits all these toasts and ideas and emotions and inevitably the question comes up what is a Christian an evangelist a missionary a martyr A Healer a saint what is the church a denomination of building an invisible body what's Christianity a religion a way of life a revolutionary political movement there's a cultural moment happening right now where the old Christianity has died in many people's hearts and yet if you drive around town you see that it exists why is it so different from one place to the next yeah what you see is not a single Christianity but christianities you see a divided Faith divided by politics by belief by whatever are you driving by a museum or a social club or something else what's inside all those buildings is there something for you there where is God and if you knew where he was would you want to go is there a Christianity that's grow KN or Dare I ask more true than others we're going to interview people from all over the world and as we do I want to go on a journey with you guys and figure it out our goal is to investigate how people through the Millennia and right now how they see Christianity let's figure out what's going on with all of these christianities [Music]