12/11/2018
Metropolitan Luke (Kovalenko) of Zaporozhye and Melitopol
The attempt to completely cancel a whole portion of society is fraught with the danger of a huge schism in society in the future. And this will be yet another component on the path to the deterioration and self-destruction of the Ukrainian nation.
Metropolitan Luke (Kovalenko)
God has not abandoned us; He has chosen us. If He allows us to suffer for Christ, it is a sign of His love for us and of His great mercy, which is not given to everyone.
I ask everyone not to dance to someone’s pipe, not to be pharisees, to not give our enemies yet another excuse to mock our Mother-Church.
Using Ukraine as an example, the Phanar is implementing a strategy of union that may later be applied on a broader level.
To avoid being a stumbling block to anyone, we need to learn meekness and humility.
What options do the clergy and laity of our Church have after its ban?
Our only “guilt” lies in our desire to follow God’s Law and our refusal to compromise with the world, to call evil good.
On my own behalf and on behalf of the flock entrusted to me by God, in response to this appeal, I would like to emphasize once again that the unity of the Church of God can only be achieved by the return to Her fold of those who have strayed from the Truth and taken the path of falsehood.
Love knows no differences, and people can only be divided into two categories: those who want to be human and strive to have not only the image but also the likeness of God; and those who do everything possible to destroy all that is human in themselves.
When the apostles gazed at Christ ascending to Heaven, their souls desired to follow after their Teacher as soon as possible. But God willed otherwise.
St. Luke of Crimea possessed the fear of God and a courageous, brave soul. He never compromised with his conscience.
No matter how hard it is for us, no matter how we are persecuted, or how we suffer, we must place all our hope not in the princes of this world, for in them there is no salvation, but in the merciful God.
Now is a similar time. Also people who call themselves journalists, with the help of the media call white black, call for the destruction of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, slander it.
The hardest thing is to preserve love in ourselves to the very death.
Apostle Peter teaches us that we should consider God’s tarrying as our salvation.
I am sure only of one thing—the fate of our world depends on our faith and repentance.
Or perhaps for the same reason, we should burn the books of Kant, Hegel, Shelling, Fichte, and forget about the poetry of Goethe and Shiller?
No matter how she hid herself, God glorified her all the more. The venerable one had left, you could say, for the edge of the earth in order to hide herself from human glory, but there a monastery formed around her.
All the representatives of the UCCRO who went as a united group to the USA to deceive the American people by claiming that there are no persecutions against the Church in Ukraine know very well that they are lying.
I call upon the faithful children of our diocese to increase their prayer to God, that He might strengthen all of us and give wisdom to those in whose power it is to put an end to this madness.
Those who believe in the Gospel know that the Lord takes care not only of the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, but also for man.
Having an infinite number of choices as to how to deal with fallen mankind, the Lord became man and saved us through His own suffering.
Metropolitan Luke of Zaporozhye and Melitopol
No matter what lofty gifts a person may have been worthy of, no matter what heights of theology he has reached, no matter what ascetical labors he has performed, if all of this has not brought him to love, then all his labors were in vain.
Today as I took a bite of a peach, I stopped in amazement. How could such a taste and smell have been created! This is exquisite! Exquisite, just like everything the Creator has created.
We ourselves would never have the resolve to take on these sorrows, but God’s love and mercy give them to us by His Providence for the salvation of our souls.
The holy fathers call marriage a remainder of paradise on earth.
The cause and root of all divisions is in hell.
On the one hand, illnesses are understood in the Church as a punishment for sin. On the other hand, we know that there are no uncrucified people in heaven.
St. Luke is well known to medical people as an ingenious doctor, surgeon, and scientist. But the Church glorifies this man not for his medical achievements, but for his uncompromising following after God’s will.
I decide everything, here and now. And whether good or evil, hate or love will rule this day in the world depends upon me, upon each one of us.
All of human civilization is founded upon this thirst.
But now take a look with your heart at St. Matrona’s manner of life. She was blind from birth, lost the ability to walk from a paralysis in childhood, was always ill, and of course, she suffered greatly.
What evil has our Church done to these people? Who have they offended? What harm have they done to the state?
We do not choose the time we are to be born in this world, but we do choose how we will spend our time in the world. We choose how to leave this world—either holding on to Christ’s hand, or hooked onto the devil’s tail.
The unapproachable divine Light came to us Himself in that form and manner, so that we would be able to not only see Him with the inner eyes of our souls, but also partake of Him in spirit.
Each of us participates in the grandiose universal battle between good and evil. Each of us is a warrior for divine righteousness and truth.
Today in our country we see a stable growth in psychiatric illnesses. The main cause provoking these illnesses is the media.
A lie is the most sought-after fashion designer. That a person is arrayed in false clothing will in no way make it possible for him to enter the gates of Eternity.
What will darkness’s reaction be to the light? We can see this clearly in the Gospel.
Orthodox communities will always remain with their priests who are true to the Gospel truths and canons of the Church, under any, even the most non-advantageous conditions.
We are coming to the time when judgment has begun with God’s Church. The Lord has allowed satan to sift the Church’s members through a sieve.
The Mother of God love us and prays for us. But what can she do when the people are like those Jews who made themselves an idol while Moses was speaking with God on Mount Sinai?
Right now, a war of worlds is afoot.
The words of St. John the Forerunner sound more relevant to us today than ever: Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand! This world with its false glamour and glory passes.
If Christians spent as much time in front of their icons as they spend in front of television screens and computer monitors now, then perhaps the war would have already come to an end a long time ago.
How can we tell the difference between deceitful workers and true pastors? False apostles from servants of Christ? Outwardly they look the same. But inwardly they are completely different.
Holy Scripture teaches us that all creation groans and is torments now, with hope and yearning awaiting the deification of the sons of God. Its hope is that together with people they might enter the Kingdom of eternal beauty and joy.
Some may say “But we don’t see those torments or those joys that the Lord has prepared for us in the other world.” That’s just it—we don’t see or believe. But Holy Scripture and Tradition tell us about this with full assurance.
Our body will be renewed, but the soul will remain the same as it was when it left its earthly body. Death is when all around there is light, joy, and peace, but inside is darkness, stench, and godlessness. From this we can conclude that whether we go to dormition or to death depends on how we live this brief, temporary earthly life.
By joining our human spirit with this eternally living and life-creating Divine power, we receive eternity and immortality. But so that this might come to pass, we must remove from ourselves what does not allow Divine Light to live in us.
It’s not enough to don a ryassa and a panagia; you also have to have the Spirit of Christ’s love and mercy. You have to have faith in God and not in something temporary, even if it lasts a long time. And you have to at least have a conscience, even the most elementary concept of human decency.
The stronger our faith, the deeper the strength of our patience, and vice versa.
And that is just how we with our tongues weave ourselves eternal torment.
How important this is now, in particular, in these sorrowful days, to have such consolation in our hearts.
The godly labor that the martyrs and passion-bearers performed is closest to us when sorrows and calamities come to the world.
Everything that the devil is doing today in this world is a war on love—because he is absolute evil, and God is absolute love.
If you don’t know what to do, do what the statutes say, the law. We have our Church canons, we have the statutes.
Moral persecutions of the Church have never ended because vice has always reigned in this world. We are weak, and we often don’t know how to act in one or another situation. Where can we get courage? Of course, first and foremost in the Church sacraments. Live with Christ, and He will surely help you.
First of all, I want to thank you for becoming an instrument of God’s providence, thanks to which Christ grants our Ukrainian flock crowns of confession, and perhaps martyrdom.
Rating: 9.7|Votes: 28
Summing up, I like would to stress that you should always take an active position, especially in matters of paramount importance, which is exactly what the question of the defense of our faith is.
Rating: 9.4|Votes: 46
The apotheosis of this lawlessness was the formation of the so-called “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” on the basis of structures that had fallen away from the Mother Church, whose autocephaly the Patriarchate of Constantinople single-handedly established by issuing a tomos.
Rating: 9.4|Votes: 178
Whereas His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine chose to return his invitation unanswered to Constantinople, giving us an example of meekness and humility, Met. Luke offers us an example of fiery, righteous zeal—both examples that are good and necessary in the Church.
