“What does the priesthood mean? It means to be an enduring witness to human suffering and to take it upon your own shoulders. To be the one who warms the leper at his own breast, the one who gives life to the miserable through the breath from his own mouth. To be a strong comfort to every unfortunate one, even when you yourself are overwhelmed with weakness. To be a ray of shining light to unhappy hearts when your own eyes long ago ceased to see any light. To carry mountains of others’ sufferings on your shoulders, while your own being screams out with the weight of its own suffering. Your flesh will rebel and say, ‘This heroism is absurd, impossible! Where is such a man, where is the priest you describe so that I may put my own suffering on his shoulders?’ Yes, nevertheless, he does exist! From time to time there awakens within us the priest of Christ who, like the Good Samaritan, will kneel down by the side of the man fallen among thieves and, putting him upon his own donkey, will bring him to the Church of Christ for healing. And he will forget himself and comfort you, O man of suffering!”
Father George Calciu

Here is the supernatural part of it.
Confessing before Father Paisie Olaru

The power of his inner prayer was crushing the stone of my hardened heart.

What a bitter taste caused by his refusal and my wounded ego alike. I decided to give it one more try. This time, he justified his refusal by saying: “I am a terrible person, so stubborn, and very proud.”

I understood that he kept showing me the mirror of my inner life. I decided to give up. This thought came to my mind which said: “Stop troubling this man of God. Stop wasting his prayer time. Kiss his hand, ask for his blessing, and go.” No sooner had I finished thinking it, that Father Paisie surprised me again, by saying: “Now, my dear son, now I can hear your confession.”
[…]
At one point, he stopped, as if irritated, upset by my silence but also in order to discreetly hide the gifts that were dwelling in him, and told me: “First you troubled me for one hour to listen to your confession – now say what you have to say.” I replied: “Father, you told me everything. I have nothing more to say.”

Then he called me like my mother used to call me as a child; then he told me the names of my parents, colleagues, relatives, friends, teachers; their names, ages, professions, significant details about them and many other details regarding everyone’s life. Hundreds and hundreds of names. Which made me think that the most terrible institutions, whose specific job was to record the smallest detail in one’s personal file were mere jokes compared to the overwhelming amount of information that Fr. Paisie gave me that day.

The Priest’s Life: Between Gethsemane and Golgotha
Enjoy …not much of a show though.

Father, Grassroots films is run by two kids living the ascetic life in a halfway house in Brooklyn. This is their vocation. Its amazing stuff. Fr. Neuhaus is in the Human Experience and his quote about being human and being able to question gave me shutters.

$20 Supporting these young men living the ascetic life is real stewardship.

If you ask me the some Orthodox Philanthropist should fund these kids to travel the country and do a documentary on the faces of American Orthodoxy. Now imagine if you took all that money wasted on that bogus EP Riverboat cruise and instead funded these guys to get the message out.

Heck, sends these kids to Constantinople and give them total freedom to do a documentary. I bet the result would be amazing

The creativity is breathtaking. We, the Church, could be speaking to this. We will too.

Here is the trailer:

I loved the trailer so much I sent away for the DVD. I received it this week and was not disappointed. I think this film would be great to show in an Orthodox parish during Lent. It raises the big questions that kids need to hear.

The $20 spent buying the DVD from these guys is money well spent. I encourage you to support them in their work

FISHERS OF MEN TRAILER

You can also watch the entire short film in two parts on youtube: Part 1, Part 2.

Glad tidings.

Macedonia74: You need to be aware that the “feeling of utter fear that hits you once in a while” does not come from your own mind; it is the arrow of the enemy meant to undermine and discourage you. Years back I had to fight similar persistent feelings. I spoke as if I were talking to an invisible enemy: “Why do you care? You are not going to provide for me, or take care of me; just go away, depart from me!”. We are children of the living God and if hardship comes our way we should have the mind of the righteous Job “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” I have some friends who are struggling to provide for their one year old child. They had to borrow from several people in the last four months in order to pay their bills and the rent. His wife got angry with him, and became easily irritable. It wasn’t easy… I was impressed by the fact that throughout the whole ordeal he said: “the Lord is good, He will take care of us”. He has recently found a better job and hopefully they will be able to pay back what they owe.

Here’s how to handle the fear. You can stand at the edge of a pool in the dark of night filled with roiling black water, hear the swishing of the waves, feel the damp cold vapor lifting off it — but you don’t have to jump in. It’s called practicing dispassion. Fear does not have to overtake you. Faith is the antidote to fear, but faith comes by hearing the word of God. Pray, read the scripture. God will speak to you, and that spoken word will become your assurance. Heed it by not jumping into the pool, by refusing to be overtaken by the fear even as feel its dark, clammy vapor.

Heeding is your job. The Lord, because He is merciful, will take care of the rest.

And yes, the only place you learn this is in the school of real life.

I believe it is 30 for Bishops as well. St. Athanasius’ consecration was opposed by many in Alexandria because it was thought he was younger than 30 although it is really unclear how old he was.

Having said this, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the discussion. As somone who is purusing the “cloth” – and I am still purusing since no one has said, “please stop” YET – I would like to convey my agreement with the maturity argument. I’m still a farily immature dude at 36. I “started life” very late. But now that I find myself a married man of close to ten years with a newborn, and out of work, I can tell you that the feeling of utter fear that hits once in a while makes me work on my faith as there is really no other avenue for help. Wondering where the formula is going to come from if I don’t get a job soon, or what will happen to the kid and wife If I get run over by a truck or get sick makes a man 1) Finally start to ponder about his death, which is actually good for a deacon/priest and everyone 2.) Rely on God even more and impliment this in your life, which is also good for while you’re implimenting you’re actually being an example to your family. In essence, you’re learning to become a pastor.

No offense to our learned institutions, but you will never learn this at St. Vladimir’s or the St. Stephen’s Course.

Thanks George. I was thinking last night about another problem we need to confront in addition to those that we see among today’s celibate clergy. The Church needs to confront the ever increasing problem of clergy divorce. Divorce among married clergy is as much a problem as lack of virtue among celibate clergy. I think its safe to say that divorce among Orthodox clergy is on the rise and is a problem very few are talking about.