Blessed in Memory Archbishop Averky A Corner of Holy Russia The day of the Pentecost

Blessed in Memory Archbishop Averky

A Corner of Holy Russia

The day of the Pentecost, or the day of the Trinity, as it is known among our people, is the feast day of Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, NY.

A  great  number  of  worshipers  always  gathers  at the monastery on this holiday usually  several  hundred  from  all  over North America, in recent years, many have traveled from Canada as well as California, and frequently from  South  America  and  Europe.  Not  unheard  of also are visitors from Australia and New Zealand. Their impressions from what they see and hear at the  monastery,  beginning  with the divine services according to the ustav [monastic  rule] and from their contact with the daily life of the brethren and  contact  with  them,  inspired  these  visitors  to grant Holy Trinity Monastery an expressive epithen: "A Corner of Holy Russia," a name that has spread throughout the Russian diaspora.

Of  course, this is high praise for the monastery, which must encourage the brethren not to pride themselves, but to try with all their might to become worthy  of  the  designation.  This label also clearly shows what believing Russians scattered throughout the whole world see as the main value of Holy Trinity Monastery.

Here they see the spirit, tongue and traditions of old Russian monasteries, which  at  one time adorned our homeland, Holy Russia. Holy Russia is not a dream,  not  a fiction, as some enemies of our Orthodox fatherland purport, and   even   some   "Ivans-who-forgot-their-family,"   along  with  hostile foreigners.  Holy Russia was, she lived and continues to exist in the souls of many Russians who did not abandon their Russian names, nor anything holy from  their  Russian  past.  This  is  not  sinful  "nationalism"  or "mere politics,"  alien  to  the Church and to religious life, as some false wise men today teach, rejecting the right of the Russian Church to exist outside the  borders of our fatherland, enslaved now by brutal atheists. Morbid and truly  sinful nationalism, often called "chauvinism," was always profoundly alien  to  the soul of every true Russian Orthodox person. Love for Russia, for the Russian people, for our centuries-old history is closely bound with love  for  the  true Christian faith, Holy Orthodoxy, which bred the Russian people  and  gave  them the truly great Orthodox culture, which the finest, most  lofty-minded  individuals  throughout the world venerate. The Russian person,  ever  since the days of the Illuminator, Holy Grand Duke Vladimir, Equal-to-the-Apostles, so deeply absorbed the Orthodox faith into his heart that  for him "Orthodoxy" and "Russianness" became virtually synonymous. It was  the  careless,  overt rush towards the West, which had long ago fallen away  from  Orthodoxy,  that caused the fatal crack in the consciousness of the Russian person, and finally led to the bloody disaster which befell the Russian Land.

The  scattering  of  the Russian people throughout the world, of course, is providential.  Only  now  has  the West begun to become acquainted with the holy  Orthodox  faith and the Church from Russian ïmigrïs who have not lost their  faith and did not abandon their Russian Church in distant lands. And here  we  see  with great joy the acceptance of Orthodoxy by foreigners and those  of  other  religions.  Yet  here  also  is  a  great danger which is important to remember and guard against.

The main good deed of the Orthodox Christian faith is humility. So in order to become truly Orthodox, in spirit, and not just formally, Orthodoxy must be accepted with humility, not with a feeling of one's own "goodness," not by puffing up one's worth with egotism, one's own profound sinfulness and with the earnest desire to learn, so that one could become Orthodox not only in name, but in spirit. For this, one must immerse oneself in the true spirit of Orthodoxy un-modernized, un-reformed, true Orthodox.

This is difficult for those people of other nations who accept Orthodoxy, since they were born, educated and lived their entire lives in an entirely different environment, possessing another spirit more or less alien to Orthodoxy. This is why for a foreigner converting to Orthodoxy, it is very important not only to refrain from derogating the thousand-year history of Russian Orthodox culture with its language and daily life, but on the contrary, to study it and draw nearer to it.

For remaining locked with one's own national culture, and remaining aloof from Orthodoxy culture and daily life, he cannot learn about Orthodoxy and cannot become truly Orthodox in spirit, which is the most important thing, because Orthodoxy is not simply a set of bare dogmatic truths, but spirit and life, as the Lord Jesus Christ Himself taught about His Divine teachings (John 6:63). Here it is very important to note what a powerful positive effect Russian culture can have: many foreigners who become interested in Russian culture and study it approached Orthodoxy and themselves often became Orthodox and very zealously, even more than many Russians today.

And the reverse is true: the Russian Orthodox Christian who loses his "Russianness" often loses his Orthodoxy, easily betraying it and taking on another religion, or losing his faith altogether, which we have often come to see abroad. Those who have lost their identity in other countries, who lost their Russian "face," melding with their environment, either abandon the Orthodox Church completely or preserve only a purely formal adherence to it, becoming more or less alien to the Holy Orthodox faith, its spirit, its centuries-old norms, customs and traditions.

It is very characteristic also that foreigners who convert to Orthodoxy and study Russian Orthodox culture with condescension, with the feeling that they, non-Russians, can dispense with it, often end up straying, inventing their own "Orthodoxy" and creating "sects" in which nothing Orthodox remains except the name. Such instances are well known to us.

As  a  result  of  all  of the above, it is exceedingly important for us to preserve  our  Holy  Trinity  Monastery,  specifically as a "corner of Holy Russia,"  for if it ceases to be that, eventually nothing of Orthodoxy will be left either, and it will truly be as "salt that has lost its savor." May this never be!

But the danger is great! The elder brethren who still remember our old Holy Russia  and  keep  the  spirit of Russian Orthodox culture to one degree or another are growing old and weak and are departing for the other world, and there  are few to replace them, too few for the great internal and external mission  which  Holy Trinity Monastery selflessly performs, seeking not its own  interests and benefits, seeking only the victory of the true faith and of  the  Church in today's godless world?it strives for the triumph of Holy Orthodoxy,  the  only  thing our monks selflessly and wholeheartedly strive for.

Now  on  this,  our  great  feast  day, we turn to all the Russian Orthodox people  for whom our holy Orthodox faith is dear with the fervent appeal to join  the  ranks  of  our clerical warriors fighting for holy Orthodoxy, to fill  the  ranks  of  our  monastic brethren, who possess true zeal for the glory  of  God, for Christ our Savior and the true faith in Christ and good will;  selflessly,  "not  seeking their own," to serve our Holy Church, the true  Orthodox  Church,  in the midst of this horrifying spiritual darkness which is enveloping the entire modern world.

From Iz poucheniya na prazdnik Svyatoy Troitsy [Sermons on the Feast Day of the Holy Trinity](1975)

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We have learned that the organization we subscribe to, whose members come from various legal and law enforcement backgrounds amongst other areas of society, are committed to the faith even though they may hold different theologies. Yet, in their monitoring of electronic communications of various persons or people, they do not always make haste to bring perpetrators to justice until after enough evidence has been gained in order to build a solid case. We do not always know what information they have gained, but we do know the organization, whom we've been asked not to name, has had a 97% success rate in bringing to justice and obtaining a conviction against individuals, people, and sometimes even religious organizations of a persona that gives the appearance of both secular and religious bearing but who abuse and misuse technology. The organization views those who abuse and misuse the internet and other technologies as nothing more than a form of "domestic terrorism" - - - - and, it would seem to appear that the courts are in agreement!

Those kinds of people, organizations, etc. who misuse and abuse communication technologies are no different than those who attempt to use coercive measures, and in some instance, even blackmail for the same idea is involved... to cause havoc and wreckage, to destroy the spirit and activity of those who struggle in the faith out of pain of heart for the Orthodox Church which is TRUTH. The degree that some have been known to go to, as seen by other jurisdictions, is to take advantage of questionably mentally challenged or those who have a lack of education and understanding to get them to make statements, even outright lies, in writing, in order to destroy.

Yes, our Metropolitan Archbishop, +Joseph Thaddeus, SSJt., Ph.D. strongly defends the Seals of the Confessional for such leads to true Repentance in thought, word and deed whereby the penitent is required to make amends, where possible, to seek forgiveness of those harmed by his actions whether real or imagined, and to give his forgiveness to those who have harmed him before taking the Holy Body and Blood in the Eucharist. The reality of this understanding is bound in and with the findings for which cause he, himself, had been character assassinated by his detractors who claim the courts prevented him from breaking the Seals of the Confessional which is not the truth at all.... Click here to see what another bishop's findings are...

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