Silence

“I do not believe that God has given us this trial to not purpose. I know that the day will come when we will clearly understand why this persecution with all it's sufferings has been bestowed upon us -- for everything that Our Lord does is for our good. And yet, even as I write these words I feel the oppressive weight in my heart of those last stammering words of Kichijiro in the morning of his departure: "Why has Deus Sama imposed this suffering on us?" and then the resentment in those eyes that he turned upon me. "Father", he had said "what evil have we done?"

I suppose I should simply cast from my mind these meaningless words of the coward; yet why does his plaintive voice pierce my breast with tall the pain of a sharp needle? Why has Our Lord imposed this torture and this persecution on poor Japanese peasants? No, Kichijiro was trying to express something different, something even more sickening. The silence of God. Already twenty years have passed since the persecution broke out; the black soil of Japan has been filled with the lament of so many Christians; the red blood of priests has flowed profusely; the walls of churches have fallen down; and in the face of this terrible and merciless sacrifice offered up to Him, God has remained silent.”

-Shusaku Endo, Silence

Fr. David Jones - Sunday Sermon

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Industrial Society and Its Future

One of the greatest books ever written.   It's amazing how much he got right as the growing grasp of technology chokes our souls to death.  What a brilliant mind.  If only he went the route of St. Seraphim Rose instead of turning to bombs.

“The conservatives are fools: They whine about the decay of traditional values, yet they enthusiastically support technological progress and economic growth. Apparently it never occurs to them that you can't make rapid, drastic changes in the technology and the economy of a society without causing rapid changes in all other aspects of the society as well, and that such rapid changes inevitably break down traditional values.” 

"“73. ...There is no law that says we have to go to work every day and follow our employer’s orders. Legally there is nothing to prevent us from going to live in the wild like primitive people or from going into business for ourselves. But in practice there is very little wild country left, and there is room in the economy for only a limited number of small business owners. Hence most of us can survive only as someone else’s employee.” 

"The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race."

From Buddhism to Lutheranism to Orthodoxy

Fr. Chiril is a German. Though he was born and grew up in Germany, he has lived at Radu Voda Monastery in Bucharest for many years. He fell in love with Orthodoxy and Romania and decided to remain there forever, not as a layman but as a monk of one of the most famous monasteries in the capital.