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Topic of the Week: 

The Real Reasons for War:
“There’s a war on today, a holy war… “

“But we are responsible for not letting the enemies of the Church corrupt everything. Though I’ve even heard priests say: ‘Don’t get involved in that. It’s none of your business!’ If they had reached such a non-striving condition through prayer I would kiss their feet. But no! They’re indifferent because they want to please everyone and live in comfort.

Indifference is unacceptable even for laymen, and all the more so for the clergy. An honest, spiritual man doesn’t do anything with indifference. “Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully,” says the Prophet Jeremiah (Jer 48:10).

 

There’s a war on today, a holy war. I must be on the front lines. There are so many Marxists, so many Masons, so many Satanists and assorted others! So many possessed, anarchists and seduced ones! I see what awaits us, and it’s painful for me. The bitter taste of human pain is in my mouth.”

–Saint Paisios the Athonite

Adult/Family:

“…we love the Truth above all else and the Truth is a Person who we are incorporated into in the Church, as members of the body of Truth, Christ. The hierarchy is maintained: first, the soul, eternal/spiritual life, the heavenly homeland, and only afterwards the body, civil life, and our earthly homeland.

This hierarchy must be maintained if we are to see and understand the underlying, real reasons for sin and war…

Like an onion, there are the external and immediately apparent reasons for a war. But then, layer after layer, one has to go deeper to the core reasons for war. The real reasons.

Most [people] remain on the surface. Most accept what they’re told. Most follow what is convenient. Most remain victims of propaganda of one nature or another and therefore serve the agenda. Not the Lord, the Truth but the enemy, the liar.

What causes the cauldron of sin to boil over? How does the enemy get “rights” to man to temptation? All of us participate in the lead up to the war through our own apostasy, sins, ignorance and indifference to Truth and to our neighbor. We all help to create the ground upon which blood is shed.

When one looks at the political machinations alone, and puts the blame there, this reveals not only a lack of understanding of human nature, sin and The Fall, but also of one’s own spiritual state and their responsibility for the state of things. The leaders we have, we deserve. The leaders we have and who lead us into war are an extension of our own selves….” Fr. Peter Heers

“When I told to the Ecumenical Patriarch that all of this is happening because of geopolitical reasons, he said “No, this is not a geopolitical issue.” Well, what do you mean it isn’t? It is so obvious! So, you should understand that many times when God wants to solve some problems that are impossible for the humans to solve them, He is allowing events like this to happen.

These are so called “Christ’s interventions“… In which other way can these issues in Ukraine be resolved? This is how.” – Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou

Listen to the entire presentation The Real Reasons for War by Fr. Peter Heers and learn about the spiritual laws in Christ, the real freedom in Christ and the Royal Path in Christ.

Preschool/Elementary:

“We just pray with a compassionate heart for the peace of the world and for all. We do not take sides… If we pray for those who are more wrong than right, well, we perform the commandment to love even enemies. And if we pray for those who are more right than wrong, we do well. Therefore, we cannot go wrong if we pray that God save all and grant peace to the world.”

Archimandrite Zacharias Zacharou taken from The Real Reasons for War

Middle/High School:

Q: What should we keep in mind and do in the current political situation?

A (Archimandrate Zacharias Zacharou):

We do not know everything about the conflicts of this world, nor is it necessary to know.

We just pray with a compassionate heart for the peace of the world and for all. We do not take sides, because each side will be responsible for crimes, and we do not want to share in these crimes and be condemned…

If we pray for those who are more wrong than right, well, we perform the commandment to love even enemies. And if we pray for those who are more right than wrong, we do well.

Therefore, we cannot go wrong if we pray that God save all and grant peace to the world.

Especially for us, priests and monks, it is very important to not be political at all, because we offer sacrifice to God, the Holy Liturgy, for the whole world; and if we are for some and against others, our sacrifice is annulled.

I think that when there is a war, the best is not to be judgmental, but to have compassion and pray that the Lord may spare all from suffering.

If my Liturgy is to have any value, no one should be missing from my heart when I stand before the altar of God and say to Him, “Thine own of Thine own, we offer unto Thee, according to all and for all.”

Excerpted from the presentation by Fr. Peter Heers, The Real Reasons for War

“Today they’re trying to destroy faith, and for the edifice of faith to fall they quietly pull out one stone, then another. But we’re all responsible for the destruction; not just those who destroy it but we who see how faith is being undermined and make no effort to strengthen it.

As a result the seducers are emboldened to create even greater difficulties for us, and their rage against the Church and the monastic life increases.”

“Today’s situation can be resisted only spiritually, not by worldly means… In our day it’s a true witness to speak up for one’s people, for the state is waging war against divine law. Its laws are directed against the Law of God.”

– Saint Paisios the Athonite

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