The Romanian People and Its Saints Today – Fr. Theologos

What are the challenges facing the Romanian people today? What is their position in the contemporary world? What is the relationship between the Romanian saints and their people?

We will try to answer these questions, as well as other similar ones, in this video.

Enjoy!

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and forever and unto the ages of ages. Amen. Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us! Amen.

Brethren, the Sunday of the Romanian Saints is a special Sunday, and this not only because I am Romanian – yes, of course, also for this reason – but especially because we honor and set forth as examples the local saints, the saints of our people. Today, however, I will not speak so much about the Romanian saints with the core of the saints from the prisons, and why is that? First, because we are trying, with God’s help, to post every week a video with or about them and, beyond this, many books have been written on the subject – grab them and read, brethren!

I will speak a little about the Romanian people and family. This is very important, especially today when atheistic progressivism, or at least something that leads to atheism, teaches our children to hate their family, their country, and their people. Brethren, a man without roots is uprooted and lonely, and the wind blows him wherever it wants. You know very well that there is an attempt to promote non-values, anti-values, and abstract values, so that the young person may declare himself a European, or a globalized and globalizing person who tramples on any traditional values that humanity has proven to be valuable over thousands and thousands of years. Brethren, the topic of family and nation is not something that appeared just yesterday or the day before, like Artificial Intelligence, so that we should discuss it as something new and weigh its advantages and disadvantages.

However, we do need to say a few things about the family. Why? Because in societies far from God, which also influence our society, the family is almost destroyed as a cell of love and safety. The family is an institution thousands of years old, which has been proven as the basic cell of society, the environment in which the child learns from those more experienced than him how to behave, so as to mature as a spiritual personality. Do you understand? So that he may reach his goal: to eternal personal perfection – that is, the loving God.

Today, the traditional family is being attacked so that the young person becomes a failure in the flesh, unbalanced, gullible, a person with a very, very limited span of attention and analysis, and dependent on anything that is “cool” today – I am even ashamed to speak in these terms – even if that thing has been proven harmful. It only needs to be fashionable, and then we are supposed to believe it. Brethren, it is not so! Brethren, sexual distortions – I am ashamed even to mention them – have been proven harmful in the millennia-old history of our society and, in fact, of planetary society. We must state this with great compassion toward those who sin in this way and in general. Why must we have compassion for them? Because they destroy their souls; we must have compassion for these people and say this very clearly, and we must not allow the spread of this great scourge, just as we must not allow the spread of a contagious phenomenon – a contagious disease – which human experience has shown, throughout history, to be a destructive phenomenon. Especially in the case of the fleshly sins, it is a phenomenon that destroys souls. Do you understand? It’s a soul-destroying disease. We have so many examples in history, it is well known, brethren, what we are talking about.

Postmodernism seeks to destroy the family and the nation, because these hold our collective experience, and a person who is connected to the collective experience of his people, to the teaching of faith within a nation, is a very strong person. Do you understand? Brethren, I love my people very much because the Romanian people embody a successful tradition of faith, and this is evident in the host of saints our people have given to the world. You must know that there are very many Romanian saints who are very great and whom nobody knows. Brethren, believe me that I know what I am saying. Brethren, a person’s success does not consist in their advancement in technology or art, but in their purification from passions, in their closeness to the purely immaterial God, that is, in holiness. Let me repeat: a person’s success consists in his holiness. From this point of view, progress in technology or art can even be obstacles in the progress toward holiness. Do you understand? You see, brethren, that in the communist prisons there were people ranging from peasants, whom we truly respect very much, to atomic scientists and ministers whom we also respect very much. Brethren, no one succeeded there, no one succeeded in prison except only through Christ. There is no other way, brethren! Do you understand?

Since we are talking about history, all history shows us the failure of humanity’s desperate attempt to find another path to success outside of Christ. It is not possible. No one among men has conquered death. No one has brought love and peace except only Christ. No one has brought true unity through true love except only Christ God. The true nation is, in fact, the unity between the living, the unity between the dead, the unity between the living and the dead in the midst of the Divine Liturgy. For the Divine Liturgy is the service of sacrifice par excellence, the service of love par excellence. The Divine Liturgy is the service of offerings as an expression of love, and without this there is no unity. Do you understand?

Unity does not appear when I say “I love you, how can you help ME,” but when I say “I love you, how can I help YOU?” Without the Church there is no true nation because there is no true love. There is only a pseudo-unity based on common interests or on common passions, of which the most harmful is pride, of course. It is extremely harmful to use national identity to justify our hatred and contempt for other people, whoever they may be. We must at all times oppose the wrong ideologies that destroy our people, destroy our loved ones, but we do NOT fight because we hate those in front of us; we fight because we love those behind us. Do you understand? For this reason, know, brethren, that in fact the combat strength of an army corps is directly proportional to the spirituality of that army. Brethren, the army and, by extension, Western society were destroyed to a significant degree after the war in Afghanistan because of sins and drugs, which are now more or less legalized in the West.

Brethren, the Western army was not struck so hard because of armed battles, but because of the sins that have become public and are now being validated in the West. Of course, I am not saying that it is good for someone to be at war, and of course I am not judging individuals; I am speaking generally, that if someone is killed for his people, then he dies as a hero. But if he dodges his duty or has foreign interests, being dependent on grave sins, on passions, then a dog’s death awaits him. God knows each person and He is not mocked! Do you understand?

Brethren, we must never fall away from the spiritual life, because throughout our history we have had nothing except the Good God. When we were with God, we were invincible. When we turned away from God, we committed suicide as a people. In fact, you should know that no one – no human being – has ever had anything else in history besides God; however, some carry the weight of history on their shoulders, and this drags them down: they take pride in empires, in technical genius, in artistic or military genius, and this isolates them, pushes them into nationalism as a form of idolatry, and drains the vitality of their people.

Brethren, a nation is like the hollow of a palm in which the flame of faith burns, and if there is no true faith within the nation, this is a great problem, because the nation withers and goes out. You can see today what this amorphous soup has become, in which people move from one place to another, and attempts are made at a globalization, or, let us say, Europeanization, by promoting values without roots in history and without a future in eternity – that is, non-values, because value is the measure by which a person is helped to reach perfection in their eternal life.

Brethren, if an entity does not help a person to perfect themselves spiritually for eternity, then that entity, thing, idea, or whatever it may be, has no value, even if that thing cost a great deal or if that idea was stated by someone very famous on social media channels. Values are revealed over time and validated by the spiritual people of the nation, that is, by the Church. Good people, we must oppose non-values, meaning the things that distance us from God, from loving perfection! In order to oppose, we must also act on the spiritual level – that is, we must pray – but we must also act on the practical, social level. Do you understand?

Brethren, let me tell you something: whoever has the courage to act if they know that their action is truly in the will of God, becomes a hero. Whoever has the courage to die, if they know that their death is in the will of God, becomes an example. Over time, this example acquires the aura of holiness. And you should know that on the basis of examples and especially of the saints, those who come after us have the courage to act. Do you understand?

If someone promotes an ideology foreign to God and to our people, let us not accept it, let us not buy their products. We must act. Brethren, we absolutely must promote the values of our people, we absolutely must promote our saints who, in the 20th century, are great and many. Based on these saints you can see who are those that are hostile to us and where we should be heading. Brethren, those who are hostile to our values, that is, to the saints and to the national figures, are the ones who are hostile to us, the many. Brethren, if they want to cover the best among us with the cloak of slander and oblivion, do you think they love us or will love us? Let’s be realistic!

We must pray to have courage because through courage we are sanctified. However, brethren, do not expect God to give you some “courage pills,” rather, God will give us opportunities in which our courage will grow if we have faith in God, of course. Faith can be defined in this context as a supra-rational knowledge that is based on the assurance of the heart that if God helped others who did good deeds, then He will help us as well. Also, if in the past God helped us, He will help us from now on as well. All these things are based, as you can see, on the notion of community, of a people, of shared experience. Do you understand?

One’s people are essential because the nation is, as I was saying, a hollow of the hand in which the flame of faith burns. A brother helped by another brother is strong like a fortified citadel – but we must take care that this be done on the ground of virtue and not of passion, because on the ground of passion there is fanaticism. You see that the Romanian saints from the prisons escaped from passions through the fire of torments and do not provoke fanaticism and embitterment because they did not have fanaticism in their behavior. Read “Return to Christ” by Ioan Ianolide, which is the best book out of all that was written about the Romanian saints in prison; or, if you’d prefer something not quite as deep, but much more encyclopedic, buy “The Saints of the Prisons” – published at Paltin Monastery. The book is based on many other books that contain accounts of the saints and confessors of the prisons or about them. And there you will see that there is no passion, brethren. There is spirituality. Yes!

For example, there were several prisoners who saw the Mother of God in prison, the most famous case being that of St. Valeriu Gafencu, to whom the Mother of God said that the victory will belong to Christ; and even if today the sons of darkness are bolder than the sons of light, and even if it will seem to us that there is no longer any faith on earth, we must know that nevertheless deliverance will come, but as through fire and through devastation, because the world still has to suffer on account of the sinful pleasures in which it is mired. We, however, brethren, must have faith and courage! Do you understand?

Brethren, one of our main problems as a people, if not our main problem, is the fact that we have great values within our people, yet we look elsewhere. We are inhibited by the pseudo-values from outside the country’s borders, by the mirage of foreign wealth of all kinds, a mirage that has been intentionally instilled in us through all media channels. Brethren, let us no longer be so full of complexes and let us no longer look with envy at a foreign value system which is in fact very toxic behind the waves of excitement which provokes us and which has now led to the collapse of Western imperialism.

Brethren, do not yield to group pressure, do not yield to toxic social circles, because all these things lead to our collapse after a few years in which it seems to us that the whole world is ours. And the downfall will be great. The collapse will be great. The collapse comes from the belief that everything is permitted, it comes from the ideology of inclusion that no longer knows good and evil, but only the imposition of tyranny of libertinism based on the pretext of distorted love, that is, sensual love of people. Do you understand?

If a person is no longer taught what good and evil are, if a person no longer knows what truth is, the true good and the true evil, this means that civilization can no longer advance and it disintegrates, becomes distorted, turns to dust. If God does not exist as the absolute, Almighty, and loving Good, then anything is possible because man is at the mercy of his passions. Brethren, we need a personal God and persons who are closer to Him so that we can move forward and not fall into the torments of our passions, into the torments caused by the distortions and addictions that consume our entire existence. Brethren, it is destructive to believe that everything is permitted because in this way, without realizing it, we believe that if everything is permitted then everything is beneficial. It is not beneficial, brethren! Not at all! We must ask those who are more experienced than we are, those who are more spiritual than we are, we must ask spiritual fathers what is beneficial out of what is permitted and we must read the lives of the saints so that we learn what is necessary, because the devil cruelly exploits our lack of experience and will cause us great temptations in life.

We must love all people spiritually. Yes, of course, certainly, they are people, like us, but that implies, naturally, that we do not agree with behaviors that are harmful to society, and what is harmful to society we know from the experience of society over thousands of years. Understand? One thing is the sin that we do not accept, and another thing is the sinner whom we must love. This is the role of one’s people, of family, and especially of the Church: to pass on tradition, experience, and love, so that we may draw closer to God. The Church frees us from passions and teaches us to be humble and to have patience in order to cooperate with others in unity, and not to place so much trust in what we think we are learning on the internet. Do you understand? It seems to us that everything we learn on the internet is good. It’s not! Because the internet today teaches us individualism, competition, and a lack of time for ourselves, and, more broadly, for other people, it teaches us the art of waging war against others under the guise of sensory stimulation. Because it is “cool.”

Since we are speaking of war, today you must know that there is a fierce hybrid war against our people. First of all, it is an informational, ideological war. You must know that today no country can be conquered unless it is first conquered from an ideological point of view. As I was saying, an acute feeling of fear towards “them” is being instilled in you – where “they” are like a gray, abstract cloud that knows everything and has all the power and is somewhere up above, beyond everyone and everything, ruling the planet. Brethren, it is not quite like that. They are not all-powerful, and they do not know everything. Let us not forget that Romania is the tenth country in Europe by population, out of the 44 countries on the continent. Five of the countries ahead of it are transcontinental countries. Romania is a large country. Beyond that, we, Romanians, have a very strong diaspora – it may be one of the strongest in Europe.

Brethren, we must not have inferiority complexes or be afraid. Let us not believe that everything that is Romanian is bad and everything that is foreign is good. I have already told you that the teaching of faith, that the holy tradition of the Romanian people, is a successful one, brethren! Take heart! Let us not forget that at this time, Romanian Orthodoxy is the only point of balance in Orthodoxy. I do not know if you are aware, but at this time there is a schism between the Greeks and the Russians – yet glory to God that it is only an administrative schism and not something dogmatic. However, this schism is very great. The Romanian Orthodox Church is pretty much the only hope in this very, very delicate situation, brethren.

Be careful not to attack the Church. May the Good God forbid! Do you understand? Why? Because the Church brings us salvation, brings us deliverance from sin, deliverance from torment. Beyond that, the only ones who are listened to abroad, the only Orthodox Church that can successfully extend its therapeutic activity beyond the country’s borders is the Romanian Orthodox Church, brethren. The Romanian Orthodox Church, the Romanians. The Greeks, poor them, are finished; only 2–3% of their population goes to church. They were finished off by the comfort of the Western mirage and the scandals from the beginning of the 21st century, but let us not go into details. As for the Slavs, we won’t even talk – things are obvious in the current geopolitical context. I am not saying this is good, brethren. The Georgians have a holy patriarch, but nobody listens to the Georgians outside the borders of their country.

Brethren, a family, a community, a geographic area, a continent, can be reborn only from a spiritual point of view – that is, IF it will be reborn, of course. The responsibility of all of us, is very great, you should know. However, take heart! St. Paisios of Mount Athos prophesied that just as Byzantium built the Holy Mountain, so too the Holy Mountain will rebuild Byzantium. And he said this to a very important man – the Director for Southeast Europe of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Saint Paisios knew what he was talking about. This, however, will not come about magically – a constant spiritual program is needed every day. We need noble behavior and spirituality. Brethren, let us not have the very bad habit of airing our dirty laundry in public. Romanians are notorious for attacking one another, especially abroad and in front of foreigners. Brethren, let it not be so. It’s not good. Whoever acts like this will not succeed. If you do not love one another, there is no one to love you, you should know this – regardless of what first impressions may suggest. Be patient with one another and let things pass, brethren, like water under the bridge! Let us not open our mouths when we are angry and let us not harbor dark thoughts toward our fellow human beings and toward our people.

I do not know if you notice, but the peoples who manipulate you so that you no longer like your country, Romania, are peoples who love their own country very much. They do this to you because they know what power unity has even on a social level – all the more so on a spiritual level where true love exists. We must not hate others, but we must have the discernment and courage necessary to stand in the truth. We form alliances, but always because we love our people, and we must never forget that we do not hate any person, but we hate sin. We do not make alliances to satisfy our passions, our sin, but because we love our people. In order to make this distinction and have the balance of love, we must possess the necessary spiritual stature, that is, we must confess regularly and we must pray often, with the awareness that others also depend on us – especially if the good God has placed us in positions of responsibility, brethren. Do not think that we will succeed if we do not have a spiritual stature. We will not succeed, brethren!

Let us not believe that money or connections or social status will solve the problem if we have spiritual problems. They will NOT solve it. Believe me that it is as I say, I know this very well. The entire experience of our people and the entire experience of the Church show that everything depends on spirituality, on our connection with Christ. Do you understand? I’m telling you this because money, fame, power, and social status attract us and, even more so, we are taught by a society that is far from God, and which has failed in the flesh, to desire these things, all these passions. In fact, a second component of the hybrid war in which we find ourselves is precisely this: the economic war, the war of wealth, in which the need for money of the simple person is exploited and, on the other hand, especially the desire for money of the person far from God, far from spirituality, of the person who is necessarily a slave to matter, that is, to money.

Brethren, today man is made to work almost continuously, on the one hand through a system of taxes and dues, and on the other hand through the creation of all kinds of pseudo‑needs: to be fashionable, to have the latest model of who‑knows‑what gadget, to be accepted in society, and so on. All this is achieved through the informational war I mentioned above, which does not allow people, and especially young people, to think, to have time for contemplation and reflection, to see who they are, where they come from, and where they should be heading. Do you understand? You see that there is always one topic or more with which we are continuously bombarded, so that we no longer have time to think about ourselves: there was the pandemic, then the war, climate change, and many, many more. Brethren, let us set these aside for a while and put prayer and love in the family first, love between persons because the purpose of those who bombard you with news is not to inform people. Their purpose is to indoctrinate people, to create consensus and to subject them to passions so that they will remain dependent in the future, to vote now and in the future for their products and their ideology, and to continue to be consumers of the various products that are being promoted. Whatever these products may be. Do you understand? They could even be an ideological product.

Today we can see an increasingly aggressive ideologization of companies that in the past limited themselves only to their commercial or economic activity. Brethren, this ideologization is very important – either in a positive sense, if the companies in question are responsible and help people become more spiritual and draw closer to God’s loving perfection, or in a negative or even very negative sense, as is unfortunately evident, when companies begin to openly promote all kinds of sinful ideologies. Brethren, let us not buy products that lead to sin or from companies that openly support sinful ideologies. We must oppose this. It is not good, brethren. I have said this before.

Do not say that ideology does not concern you, because if it is a sinful ideology then it becomes aggressive and very bitter and becomes tyrannical, like the enemy, the devil who is behind it, of course. Do you understand? And if we have the tyranny of the devil, then we will all suffer: both those who promote it and the others on whom it is imposed. Let us not forget that the path of such a sinful ideology begins with begging for tolerance, then moves to a demand for acceptance, and after it has grown in acceptance, finally turns into tyranny that imposes a certain way of thinking on all of us. Why? Because the sinful person will never, ever, find peace. Never. Because peace, brethren, is found only in God, far from any passions, addictions, and sinful ideologies, of course.

Brethren, to see who truly rules you, who imposes ideologies on you, look at whom you are not allowed to criticize. Those are the ones who rule you. Do you understand? However, we must have discernment so that we are not extremists and do not hate people. We must not hate people, brethren! We must be very careful about the unity among us, because if they separate you, they destroy you. In fact, this is another main component of the hybrid war to which we are subjected. Those who want to help are constantly slandered, and those who can do something because of their position are made to fight among themselves, so that they no longer deal with the advancement of the nation, as they are able, but instead to continually respond to accusations.

I remember that at one point I entered the carpentry workshop of a monastery to take photographs, and there were several Greek workers there who, while working, were listening to the radio. Because it is not spiritual to listen to the radio on the Holy Mountain in the presence of monks, and because, on the other hand, I did not want to tell the people directly to turn off the radio, I took a more indirect approach and asked the Greeks, “What’s on the radio?” and they answered, “Well… the news bulletin about strikes!” I was amazed and indeed I started to listen a bit, and indeed, brethren, it was saying one after another:

“This evening at such-and-such time in Thessaloniki, march on such-and-such boulevard;”

“Tomorrow morning at such-and-such time in Athens, rally in such-and-such square – meat rolls, soda, and raincoat for free, especially if the weather is bad;”

“Tomorrow again, such-and-such sector of industry is going on strike for wage increases.”

Yes, brethren! They were so much pushed to fight among themselves that the news bulletin had reached the point of having a constant section for strikes, just like the weather report or the sports news. Do you understand? God forbid! Brethren, we need a lot of discernment, so that we do not respond to provocations and do not destroy our country with our own hands! But on the other hand, we must firmly oppose sin in a spiritual and civilized way when it is necessary, and we must not have inferiority complexes, brethren. Pay close attention! This discernment I am speaking about can be found in our nation, in the saints of our nation, in our examples. Discernment tells us that we must make a distinction between the personal level and the communal level. If on a personal level we must turn the other cheek whenever we can, on a communal level, that is, when our children and our family are threatened, when the future of our nation is threatened, then we must act with calm and lucidity. Let me give you two examples from our nation – the first on a personal level.

When Fr. Ioan Iovan was a prisoner, he was tortured to the utmost by the guards and at one point, after the torturers had left him more dead than alive, one of them kicked him in the back. At that moment, Father Ioan said, with his whole being: “May the Lord, our God and Savior Jesus Christ forgive you, my son, all your sins, including this one!” And he blessed the guard. This is true nobility and this is the true Christian spirit that we too must put into practice as much as we can on a personal level. To turn the other cheek 70 times 7. However we can. Of course, we must pray for this, brethren, because a serious spiritual stature is needed for someone to do such a thing.

At the community level the example is very simple for me, since I am from Transylvania and, as I see it, quite clear. When Avram Iancu gathered all the Moți at Țebea and Iancu was up on the little hill and saw them all standing there, in great number and weighed down by the sin of others, he said only this to the Moți: “Well, ready? Well, let’s go!” Have you understood me? We must oppose the ideologies, brethren. It takes determination, faith, and courage in our Lord Jesus Christ to oppose sin, because only in this way will we reach holiness and eternal happiness.

May God help us! I thank you for having the courage to stay with me thus far. Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us! Amen.

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