The following is an epistle from Grigoriou Monastery on Mt. Athos that has been circulated amongst Greek believers after the passing of the “same-sex marriage” law in Greece on February 15, 2024.
“The princes of men gathered against the Lord and against His Christ” (Matins on Great Saturday).
In the Greek parliament, Christ is again being crucified.
He Who rules the entire universe endures revilement from lawless judges, with the exception of a few, who deserve praise.
The “anointed of the Lord”, our baptized people, is under attack. The powers of darkness from without and within the country are co-conspirators in this initiative. “The dragon was wroth” against those who “have testimony of Jesus Christ” (Rev. 12:17). Those who do not enter into compromise with the orders of the globalists are entering into a great temptation. This is the beginning of tribulations.
The Church, the Synod, the clergy, and the people have said their word, and raised their voices to heaven: “This is a crime!” But the ears of the rulers did not hear it.
O evil day! The fall of Constantinople and the Asia Minor catastrophe pale before it.1 But there is also the eye of justice.
Serious consequences are falling upon our shoulders and the shoulders of our children. The aged, the young, and the yet unborn are all experiencing them. Especially innocent children, for whom the most shameful “blood tax”2 is being prepared.
All this theomachy that has been legalized has put down roots as supposed “social progress”. Fornication, abortion, and no-fault divorce. Now “same-sex marriage” will speed up “progress”. We are falling lower and lower. We are sinking into man-centeredness, into idol worship. All for the sake of ease, and with ease. Ionesco with his song, “Rhinoceroses” was absolutely right. In Paris, one after another were becoming rhinoceroses. Only one opposed it, saying, “I’ll remain a man.”
We knew and survived the calamity of soviet godlessness. Now we are experiencing the horrors of “white demonism” (St. Nikolai [Velimirovich]).
But we shall be courageous. Christ said, I have overcome the world (Jn. 16:33). The Church will live throughout the ages.
We are left with only one option: to revoke this law in practice. We will strengthen our children in virtues and chastity. And this will be a great deed. We will remain with Christ. Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we will call upon the name of the Lord (Ps. 19:8). Our strength is prayer. The Church must hide in the “desert”, no matter what this prophetic desert may be. In any case, it is far from consent to sinful laws and lawless legislators. We will not be afraid of poverty, or social and psychological isolation. We are accompanied by the Light of the Resurrection. In similar instances our holy fathers were victorious through their courage. They preferred the labor of virtues, and when necessary, exile, sorrow, and deprivation—whether it came to heretical dogmas or morals that contradicted the Gospels. In Babylon the three youths preferred endurance in the furnace over the good life.
Under Julian the Apostate, the Patriarch of Constantinople preferred boiled wheat instead the food that had been offered to idols, which was being forced upon Christians at the market. It is a symbol of voluntary poverty for Christ’s sake, so that our conscience would remain pure, and not subject to the influence of temptations.
Victory belongs to the Sacrificial Lamb. In the end, Christ Crucified, and those who will be of Christ, crucified together with Him, will be victorious. He expects us to follow Him. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing (2 Cor. 6:17), so that He would remain in our lives.
Soon the Lenten Triodion period will begin, and Great Lent is approaching. The life of repentance is not folklore and not an appearance of piety. It is the departure from all iniquity, manifested in deed and pain of heart. For the Resurrection awaits us!
Grigoriou Monastery, Holy Mount Athos
February 16, 2024
Translated from the Russian version by OrthoChristian.com
ΑΚΤΙΝΕΣ
2/23/2024
1. Two events that Greeks consider the most grievous day in their Christian history: the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453, and the exile of the Greek population from Asia Minor that began in 1922.
2. Here is meant the so-called devshirme—a practice in the Ottoman Empire, when Christian boys were forcefully taken from their families and given over to the Sultan’s complete disposal. Many of them ended up in harems. This is a reference to the possibility presented by the new law of the legal adoption of children by same-sex couples.
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