“Then Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.’”

These words were spoken by Peter in his sermon on the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles. They began to praise God for His wonderful works in unknown languages, so the foreigners who had come to Jerusalem heard them speaking in their own languages. Interestingly, if we notice where the pilgrims of the different nationalities came from – Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Cappadocia, Pontus – we find out that it was the territory of present-day Turkey, which is now fully Islamized. For example, some of the Church Fathers, namely St Basil, St Gregory of Nyssa and St Gregory of Nazianzus, lived and worked in Cappadocia. Other nationalities mentioned here are Egyptians, Libyans, Romans, Cretans, Arabs, even to the territory of present-day Iran and Iraq. Today, these territories are occupied by Islam. Christianity was destroyed there by force.

Dear American Christians and people of good will,

the presidential elections in previous years do not compare with this historic moment! Whether there had been this or that candidate running for presidency, both of them represented the program of the behind-the-scenes elite which pursued gradual elimination of moral and spiritual values as well as of orthodox Christianity. The US embraced the program of “reduction”– autogenocide – through satanization not only of the Christian nations but of the entire world. Obama declared homosexuality a foreign policy priority. Thus the US turned into the spiritual Babylon, the prostitute sitting on the beast (Rev 17:1-6). Because of homosexual perversion fire fell from heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah as a punishment. God made these two cities an example to all humanity (cf. Jude 7; 2Pe 2:6).

John Kennedy was the last US President who really cared for the moral good of America. However, he was slyly murdered by the backroom elite which consequently took the power fully into its own hands. Democracy and freedom are only its masks.

There are different forms of the cross. Today we have one cross, tomorrow we will have another. Through the cross our life becomes fruitful, otherwise we would die of apathy or vanity. Many times we do not give thanks for our cross but rather avoid it; however, if we begin to give thanks, the Lord will gradually fill us with joy and we will be happy that we could deny ourselves instead of groaning or being in fear. We will be happy that we can do the will of God, and His will shall penetrate us at last.

+ Elijah
Patriarch of the Byzantine Catholic Patriarchate

+ Elijah
Patriarch of the Byzantine Catholic Patriarchate

Jesus said these words on the Mount of Olives on the fortieth day after His Resurrection, when ascending into His glory before the eyes of the apostles and disciples. Jesus emphasized that the apostles needed to receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit. They had already received Him on the Day of Christ’s Resurrection but not in fullness.

Jesus also told the apostles to stay in the city of Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit descended on them in fullness (cf. Lk 24:49). “…until you are endued with power from on high.”

Almost all of you, dear believers, have received the fullness of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit enlightens our mind and strengthens our will, that we may be true witnesses of our Lord Jesus Christ!

“For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit

not many days from now. You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit

has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem,

and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

It is necessary for the Orthodox priests to resolve to devote at least one and a half days a week to God and their souls in prayer and reflection on God’s Word. This would lead to the spiritual resurrection of all Russia and Ukraine.

An Orthodox priest has his own family. It would be enough if these married priests spent less than two days in prayer and fellowship. After a certain period of time, they could discuss together in fellowship the problem of mutual unity on the basis of the fact that they will first begin to perceive their outward sins which arouse indignation in the faithful and cause them to leave the Church, be it e.g. love of money, overbearing manner and clerical pride, or their ill-behaved children which cause outrage… Finally, they would come to the conclusion: indeed, we must stop being schizophrenics at last, we must stop preaching one way and living another way, and then our family will really be a model, a living Gospel for the whole parish.

The Emmaus disciples said to Jesus: “Lord, stay with us, the day is almost over.” The day of our life is almost over too, and only one thing is needed: that the Lord may open our eyes as He opened the eyes of the disciples of Emmaus, that we may see Him both in ourselves and in our brethren. If I then see my brother’s fault which repeats itself, I will not judge him in my thoughts but I will see Jesus whom he hurts and the fact that he hurt Jesus will remind me of how many times I had hurt my Lord. May at that moment – instead of me judging my brother – an angel wound my heart and fill it with compassion and love for Jesus whom everyone boycotts and scorns. May each of us realize: I have received more light from God than others and yet I hurt Jesus even more than they do – and realizing this, I will be with Jesus again, I will come down to the prison of my heart and offer Him my tears of sorrow to drink, and at the same time I will also see Jesus in my brother who was blinded by the old self at the moment.

We should see Christ in our neighbour. In the parable of the Last Judgment, Jesus says the same to those who will be saved and to those who will be condemned with only a slight difference: “…whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine” or “whatever you did not do”. And then He says: “you did for Me” or “you did not do for Me”. Jesus is in my neighbour, especially in my brother – he is baptized, has received Christ, wants to follow Him with a sincere heart, and even wants to sacrifice his life for His sake, and yet there is a barrier – spiritual prison. My brother does not see Christ in himself and neither do I, and what is more, I do not see Christ in me either, so there is double blindness – the two of us do not see.

We strive to fight against sin and repent, so Christ abides in us through faith. But where and how does He abide in us? He is not on the throne of our heart to reign. There is our ego there. He is like a beggar somewhere in the corner and not only that. He is literally in prison. Our ego, our sin keeps Him in prison so that He cannot live in us. He is in prison and we have not come to Him. When did I realize at least once that Jesus is in me?

“And behold, a leper came and worshipped Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing,

You can make me clean.” Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying,

“I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.”

This event happened after Jesus finished His Sermon on the Mount of Beatitudes, where He presented simple life principles leading to eternal life. To lead us to the essence, Jesus completes here what Moses had not expressed explicitly in the Law of God. Referring to the commandment “You shall not kill!”, Jesus points out the root and says that we cannot even nourish hatred in our heart. Referring to the commandment “You shall not commit adultery!”, Jesus warns that even a lustful look is a manifestation of adultery. Concerning forgiveness, He emphasizes: “God will not forgive you if you do not forgive your neighbour” etc. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus speaks about an extremely important principle, which He explains in the parable of two builders. One of them built a house quickly but without foundations. The other built the foundation on the rock. When a storm came, it turned out that only a house built on the rock of Christ’s teaching shall stand. However, to build on the rock it is not enough to be theologically educated, even if this theology is truly Catholic. An academic Christian will not stand; one must be a practising Christian who not only hears the word of God (not modern heresies) but also puts it into practice.

16 September 2016

Government representatives of the Visegrad Four

Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland

The EU in its beginnings emerged as the European Economic Community (EEC), based on the principle of economic cooperation. But soon it was transformed into a community of a politico-ideological nature which without a single shot deprived 27 states of independence, autonomy and freedom. These States are no longer free to determine their internal and foreign policy but under the threat of sanctions must follow the ideological line dictated by the European Commission. The Lisbon Treaty was and is a fraud and a crime against citizens of 27 states. During the negotiations about the Lisbon Treaty, the Parliaments of the individual States were presented an unreadable several hundred page document which referred to another thousand pages. Members of Parliaments did not even know what they signed and what the claims were arising from the Treaty in relation to their citizens. Today, however, after several years of the EU’s existence under the Lisbon Treaty, we see the fruit thereof.

The EU has been transformed into a totalitarian monster which assumes the right to dictate the political, economic, ideological and even religious direction of individual EU states. EU leadership bullies and discriminates against individual states in terms of their legal, cultural, constitutional and religious tradition.

Das Byzantinisch katholische Patriarchat ermutigt Christen, sich in einem unaufhörlichen Gebet an Gott zu wenden. Er wird euch Weisheit und Mut geben, um gegen die dämonischen Mächte der Finsternis zu kämpfen. Er wird eure Nation durch euren Glauben retten. Setzt daher eine Gebetswache ein! Jeder soll ein ganzes Jahr lang täglich das Gebet in Zeit der heiligen Stunde von 20 bis 21 Uhr übernehmen. 23 Menschen werden dann die restlichen 23 Stunden des Tages besetzen und so wird eine Gebetswache, die eine Woche lang beten soll. Danach beten drei Wochen lang drei andere Gebetswachen, ebenfalls jeweils eine Woche lang. Dieser Rhythmus wiederholt sich das ganze Jahr hindurch. Die Wachwechsel findet am Sonntagabend um 21 Uhr statt.

Stellt eine Liste mit 23 Personen für die jeweiligen 23 Stunden der Gebetswachen während des Tages auf und beginnt am Sonntagabend mit dem Gebet des Glaubens. Nach dem Ende der ersten Woche macht man eine Pause für drei Wochen und in der vierten Woche fängt man wieder an. Man tut dies das ganze Jahr über. Gott verspricht euch die Errettung eurer Nation.

Question: What does my old self see? It does not see Christ in myself or in my neighbour or brother. It does not see and does not want to see my mistakes because the old self hates the truth and humiliation. Therefore it is necessary to practise humiliation and it need not even be artificial, I just need to stop and admit the truth. And it hurts. Besides, the old self refuses to admit that the gifts are from the Lord but adopts them as its own and seeks its own glory rather than the glory of God. So it is a theft. It is unwillingness to admit the reality, the truth.

What does the old self see in my neighbour? It sees someone else’s gifts from the perspective of envy, jealousy and a kind of competitiveness, and it does not even want to admit that my neighbour does have these gifts. It puts the speck in my brother’s eye under the microscope.

The first step in evangelization is to receive Jesus as one’s Saviour and Lord, to receive the Mother of God and the Holy Spirit, and to renounce heresies and the occult. But then there is the second stage. The second stage of mission, which is vital, is to build a true Church – the true Body of Christ – rather than a mere institution. The Church is the true Body of Christ, and the necessary condition is unity. The present-day Church, unfortunately, is like a rotten stinking corpse for the time being; it is not the light to the world but darkness. If we have sorrow and grief in our hearts over the Church, God will show us the key to the deepest mission.