Endurance and Moving Forward
A message by Fr. Vladimir of Znamenskoye
Note: This was translated from a recording and there are some unclear bits towards the beginning
Father, bless.
Artem, may I ask you something? I would like to talk today about questions related to…
If we have involved ourselves in this, then we are dealing with an Orthodox church envoy — each of us, I think. We see that he could not do anything for anyone, could not help teach, could not understand church theology.
The question is not about the halo that he sees, but that he asked people who brought him nowhere, like to Christ. He knew and believed that the Lord exists. Everything in our life happens, in my opinion, because the Lord gave him life, he learned… He simply could not hold him back at a certain moment.
Mr. Siryaev spoke beautifully, probably for eight years now. The country, apparently, is putting something forward for the international community, but a miracle happened.
What I can say is that we are really the same — scattered. Right now we are on the border, living in such a scattered, relaxed state. Many of us live in this relaxed condition. We cannot do things well. Many are constantly sick — it is like a professional death.
When we read about the holy apostles and see how they fasted and prayed, it seems like a fairy tale. It seems impossible. We cannot understand how they prayed like that or fasted like that.
To be honest, with every year you see fewer and fewer such people who could worthily attend services, pray, and walk in the church with dignity.
If we do not pull ourselves together, we remain in this relaxed state.
How do we get out of this state of slackness? Right now the whole world is in such a state — what we call “relaxed.”
No one is forcing us. No one is making us move mountains with our prayers, no one is forcing us to feed the hungry or visit those in prison. None of that is required.
Our position today is simply to live and be normal.
And that, in principle, is enough.
What does “a normal person” mean? Not to run around, not to sit idle, not to envy, not to get irritated, to try to respond when help is needed.
We all understand what “a little bit” means. We just need to try to be normal people — and that’s it. In principle, that is enough.
And one more thing: when we know the road and it starts raining, we don’t have the most mysterious moment, but we still have to get home. What do we do? We simply endure it. We see the rain and endure. That is also not very pleasant, but we have no other choice.
We must endure this life that is given to us. We must endure our loved ones. We must bear the cross that is given to us.
If we look around honestly, each person has his own problems. You think: “I have nothing, she has nothing, but they have problems…”
We really live in our own house. Right now there are many sick heads, many who see everything.
A certain righteous monk in the 1650s, a very wise man, said: “We live and fulfill all the laws. But the generations after us will fulfill only half. And those who come after them will fulfill almost nothing — it will be terrible. But there will come times when if people simply remove these vices from themselves, it will be considered greater than what others did in former times.”
I don’t know exactly whether these are the last times or not. I hope we and our children will still have time to live.
Nevertheless, we must bear our cross of life without grumbling, thank God for everything. The most important thing we must do is to live our life worthily — to endure everything that is sent to us with humility. The main thing is humility. Without humility, pride will not be defeated.
Therefore, if we learn to endure and bear our cross without grumbling, to cultivate humility in ourselves — to force ourselves to put our opinion in its proper place — then the Lord will take care of everything else.
I want to tell you: even though the fast has ended, it does not mean we should all relax. We didn’t run around much even during the fast, to be honest. This fast was not as strict as Great Lent, but it was still a strict fast.
Any fast carries responsibility because we are Christians and we fast.
After the end of the fast, of course, we will settle some things, but the time has not come to relax. We must fight, keep the spirit burning.
Struggle, receive Communion, confess as often as possible. Fight with your passions — everyone knows what they need to fight.
Try to really be good people. That is the most important thing.
Today we celebrate the Day of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul. What can we say about this? It was a bright end to their lives. They died on the same day. Paul was beheaded because he was a Roman citizen and could not be crucified. Peter, on the contrary, was crucified, but he asked to be crucified upside down.
On this day they were sentenced to death and executed. And now we celebrate this day. We constantly talk about Peter — he walked on water, he pulled out fish, he defended Christ… Although he was a simple fisherman, nothing special about him outwardly. Paul was not even one of the original twelve disciples, yet he received such a martyric death.
Their whole life after meeting Christ was dedicated to the preaching of the Gospel — a bright flame.
The main thing for us is to walk this path, to carry our cross as they carried theirs — worthily, humbly, and to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.