The Orthodox Network - Linking Us Closer to the Church

I am pleased by the efforts of our National Senior ACRY to reach out to the members of our ACRY and Diocesan family through the print and  digital media of the Orthodox Network.

The very word network implies a linking or bonding together of  ideas, efforts and people into a coherent whole. In  being part of a network,  we strengthen one another and build new relationships.

In particular the Orthodox Network, has a great potential to help foster a deeper familial and spiritual relationship within the National ACRY,  the diocese and  the larger family of  Holy Orthodoxy.  It is my hope and prayer that this  print and digital network  will help strengthen our commitment to growth in the spiritual life and in our active participation in the Life of the Church which has been given to us by our Lord as a Spiritual Hospital.  

The grave difficulty we face today is  that our Orthodox Christian Faith  is much more than a religion, it is a Way of Life.   It is difficult to be an Orthodox Christian today because our culture does not support our faith . As a result, we  who struggle to be faithful Orthodox Christians feel torn between two worlds:  the spiritual  and the so called  real world.  When we are true to our Orthodox Faith, we can often experience isolation and loneliness when we must chose Christ over the ways of the world.

This struggle is not something new, as we remember that our Lord during His Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane  prayed  for His disciples who were in the world, but not of the world.  This reference is the key to understanding what our position as Orthodox Christians ought to be regarding this struggle.  We are to be in the world but not of  the world.   Indeed we must live in the world  and are called to interact with it because God made it and it is essentially holy. By living our faith to its fullest, we are called in our own way to reclaim the holiness of the world for God. We are called to interact in the world in a positive way, but must never become secular and give in to immorality and  the ways of the world. We must also never bow to the altar of political correctness.

Our struggle as parents, grandparents, godparents, teachers, readers, sub-deacons, deacons,  priests, bishops, patriarchs and  everyday  Christians is to strike up  a proper balance between the spiritual and material worlds, and prioritize our lives. There is not  one of us who can’t say that our schedules are crazy, and  on occasion, we are on the edge of sanity at the end of the day.  In the course of everyday life,  all of us, and especially those young families with school age children, find ourselves  running non-stop to  meet all of our seemingly non-stop  work, school, social and extracurricular obligations. With the dawn of the information age and the many technological advances that we have at our disposal, instead of life being easier, this technology has made our lives more difficult by enabling us to accomplish more in less time.

This struggle taking place day after day, can and does make us physically and spiritually ill.   The danger of our over-scheduled lives is that our soul, which longs for communion with God and spiritual endeavors is starved.   We then experience guilt when our spiritual lives suffer, as often we are too busy and tired to pray and can’t make it as often as we should to Church services. As a result we can become restless, bored, depressed and anxious. 

In experiencing this tension, our natural response is to relieve ourselves of this stress. We do so by planning relaxing activities and  vacations which are very  necessary. Yet, even when we engage in these activities, we often do not find satisfaction.  The reason is that our souls are thirsting  for the living waters of Godliness, which are found in the life of  the Church. Our souls, being created in the image and likeness of God, will never be satisfied until they experience the deep communion with God that Adam and Eve knew  in Paradise before the Fall.   We live with the consequences of the Fall, that of sickness, struggle, pain, suffering and death, which were not something that Adam and Eve were intended to experience.  The  spiritual unrest  we so often experience is the result of  our soul’s inner desire to attain spiritual equilibrium.  It is the mission of the Church to teach us how to restore that balance and heal our wounded souls and ailing bodies.

The Church, being a spiritual hospital, is the place where we can find treatment for the spiritual, emotional and physical consequences of our over-stressed lives in today’s fast-paced world.  If we wish to find relief from our ailments, it is essential that we understand the nature of the Church as being a therapeutic center, and the various spiritual disciplines of the Orthodox Tradition as being spiritual medicine. When viewed in this manner, we gain a great appreciation for the meaning and power of fasting, praying and participating in the sacramental and liturgical life of the Church.  For example, instead of viewing fasting as an annoyance or inconvenience, when understood as part of a therapeutic regiment, fasting can then become a means of restoring balance by teaching us how to say no to food and by extension, un-necessary activities and obligations.  The Divine Liturgy and other services of the Church when understood as helping us Lay Aside All Earthly Cares,(the stress of daily life)  and building up our spiritual stamina, take on much greater meaning. The ultimate Medicine of Immortality  the Holy Eucharist which, when received after being spiritually prepared, brings us into a deeper relationship with Our Lord, enabling us to echo the words of St. Paul, It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives within me.

The ultimate challenge, then, is for all of us to recognize that we are spiritually, physically and emotionally ill, and turn to the Church for help.  In order to begin the healing process we must seek out a physician,  who is none other than  our parish priest, for a spiritual examination (Holy Confession). Having become aware of and confessed our spiritual struggles, we can then receive guidance from our Father Confessor on how to more effectively integrate the spiritual disciplines (medicines) of prayer, fasting and participation in the sacramental life of the Church, into our daily lives. 

Once we  understand  the true nature of the Church and Her ability to help us navigate the stormy seas of daily life,  we can see how important it is for us to stay close to the Church, to support it and  to immerse ourselves in her life.  To do so, we need to reach out to like-minded Orthodox Christians for support.  When we realize that we are not alone in our struggle,  we  can find the strength to be true to our Orthodox Faith   

May we as members of the ACRY do all that we can to support one another and especially our youth and young families. I encourage you to utilize the  Orthodox Network  to do just that.  Read the articles that are posted, send in your prayer requests, and remember in your own prayers those who’ve asked for your prayers.

Linked together in the  bond of love, united in our common faith and  life within the Church,  may we move Forever Forward and Heavenward.        

Very Rev. Peter Paproski,                                                                                    

National Senior ACRY Spiritual Advisor