Orthodox Reflections

This Memorial Day we will hear the high-sounding phrases we have heard in the past, that we are stopping the normal routine of life to honor all the US soldiers who have died fighting in wars. However, when one looks at how the peoples of the States will actually be spending the Memorial Day holiday, the honoring of fallen soldiers is about the furthest thing from the minds of very many of them.

https://orthodoxreflections.com/memorial-day-declares-the-folk-religion-of-the-us-is-pleasure-and-mammon/

Americans in general, and Orthodox Christians in particular, want the Ukraine War to end. President Trump campaigned heavily on the issue of ending the war, promising a swift halt to the fighting followed by a lasting peace. The Russians have been trying to negotiate an end to this conflict since before it even began (see the Minsk I & II agreements which NATO never allowed Ukraine to honor). The Russians have quantifiable, limited aims that they have made clear will be achieved either on the battlefield or at the negotiating table, with a preference for the latter.

The willingness to negotiate an end to the conflict on Russia’s part exposes Barbara’s “Holy War” comment for the lie it is. Americans associate “Holy War” with either a crusade or a Jihad. The term smacks of an all-out, existential conflict that only one side is going to survive. It would be characterized by the desire, blessed by a deity, to completely destroy or, at the very least, completely conqueror the opponent. Kiev is still standing, even after massive drone strikes carried out in retaliation for Ukraine literally attempting to assassinate Russian President Putin. In five days between May 20-25 2025, Ukrainians fired the largest barrage of drones and missiles recorded so far during the conflict into Russian territory. Including at the Russian President’s helicopter. Russian sources have said they believe the reason for the massive attack was to derail peace negotiations. The Russian retaliation came on May 24 and 25, lasting for more than six hours and causing extensive damage. https://orthodoxreflections.com/no-more-rocor-coffee-for-sister-vassa/

I heard a joke recently. A Greek lady is attending the presidential inauguration with her mother. The mother leans over to the woman and says, “Do you see that man on the stage?” “The president?” “Yes,” the old yiayia says. “His brother is a doctor.”

Recently some of us at Orthodox Reflections collaborated on an article about the sin of usury. Hilber Nelson commented:

Pointing out the sin of usury is one thing, as this article does well. And readers will most likely nod ‘in principle’. But without providing practical advice on usury-free living, getting Orthodox clergy charged with running their 501C(3)s, and everyday laity running their households to honestly confess their own complicit avarice, this article is about as productive as telling the alcoholic to just stop drinking. So, I hope the author is writing a second article of practical advice, and soon.

Fair point. It’s one thing to point out the textual fact that both the Bible and the Greek Orthodox tradition condemn moneylending in its entirety. But our entire economy is just a network of usury schemes. Practically, what do we do? https://orthodoxreflections.com/how-involved-can-orthodox-christians-be-in-moneylending-and-modern-finance/

For the past few years, Americans have sadly gotten accustomed to our tax dollars being spent to persecute canonical Orthodox Christians in Ukraine. Since 2022, the Ukrainian government has used Russia’s “special military operation” as an excuse to intensify its persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which it has forcibly rebranded as the “Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.” Hundreds of church buildings have been seized by police officers and so-called “raiders” acting on the Zelensky Administration’s orders. Bishops have been imprisoned. Priests have been dragged out into the streets and beaten nearly to death. Liturgies and funerals have been disrupted by mobs. Monks are being evicted from their monasteries, with these historic properties being handed over to the schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU).

https://orthodoxreflections.com/justice-for-all-international-submits-complaint-to-the-un-over-persecution-of-orthodox-christians-in-estonia/

Americans are being bombarded with all kinds of data about new treatments, new scientific advances. Government and society are moving at breakneck speed to popularize genetic treatment options that a few years ago were the stuff of science fiction. Yet, the average voter, the average patient, the average college educated professional cannot even identify a picture of human chromosomes.

Neither can the average priest, the average lawmaker, the average philosopher, or the average Theologian. Science is beginning to alter what it means to be human, and most people are just along for the ride. The experts are in charge, with little to no meaningful oversight. Showing that picture is my way of helping to wake people up to how little they know about where we are, and where we are headed. https://orthodoxreflections.com/an-orthodox-cytogeneticist-explores-scientific-threats-to-human-health-and-dna/

This Ecumenical Council dismisses that theological disputes may be resolved unilaterally by the popes. They must be solved by all the bishops coming together in a holy synod. Sure enough, Vigilius eventually submitted to his brother bishops.

By the way, Constantinople II was only following the Apostolic Canons: “But neither let him (who is the first) do anything without the consent of all; for so there will be unanimity, and God will be glorified through the Lord in the Holy Spirit.”

So, when the Patriarchs of the East resisted Rome in 1054, they were not rejecting the papacy. On the contrary: they were defending papal primacy as it was understood by the Fathers of the Church, including and especially the holy orthodox Popes of Rome. https://orthodoxreflections.com/when-the-popes-were-orthodox/

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
As the reader might already be aware, Abp. Elpidophoros of the Greek Archdiocese has approved a “Food-sensitive” Eucharist for those suffering from gluten intolerance. To understand the context of this move (very effectively discussed in the article below from Ben Dixon), please keep three key societal trends in mind. First, unexpectedly from the standpoint of the ruling elite, the secularization of society has stopped, and is in danger of reversal. As confirmed by Pew Research, Americans are no longer leaving churches en masse. Americans are not ready to give up on God, or religion. Which is not surprising. Humans are designed to live in faith-based communities. The experiment in mass secularization is ending. Even the New York Times has noticed: https://orthodoxreflections.com/the-latest-attack-on-orthodoxy-by-archbishop-elpidophoros/

Something almost universally taken for granted in American Orthodoxy is the inherent good of frequent communion. This wasn’t commonly practiced for many centuries. Yiayia might complain, but with the monastic resurgence in the 1800s and the “neo-patristic” revival in the 1900s, almost everyone assumes that more is better. You get Jesus in His actuality in the Eucharist with all the health and salvation that comes with it, so why would you not receive as frequently as possible? It’s the central, most definitive act of the Church. It’s in the Eucharist that we become deified. https://orthodoxreflections.com/maybe-frequent-communion-was-a-mistake/

The first step towards any future abolition of this system is to recognize what usury really is. In the Biblical tradition, usury means any form of interest charged on a loan, not just excessively high rates as we consider it today. There are multiple prohibitions against usury recorded in the Old Testament. Exodus 22:25 forbade oppressing one’s neighbor with usury. Deuteronomy 23:20-21 said you could not charge your brother usury. Ezekiel 18:7-8; 13 makes it clear that the righteous do not lend at usury; and that usurers “shall not live.” Leviticus 25:35-36 says if your brother is poor do not charge him usury. The final Old Testament word on the issue came from the Psalmist, who charged the godly to aid their neighbors, not lending to them at interest. The strongest rejection of loans at interest came from Christ in Luke 6:35, where He says “Lend, hoping for nothing in return.”

God’s hostility to usury in the Old Testament inspired Christian theologians from the fourth century on to define lending for gain as a sin. St. Jerome declared usury to be the same as murder because it consumed the life of the borrower. Canon law and secular law held usury to be malum in se, an evil in itself that must be outlawed because God condemned it. St. Basil in his volume On Social Justice provides his own Patristic condemnation of usury https://orthodoxreflections.com/make-usury-a-sin-again/

So why are Zionists in a panic? Because they really are in a panic, even though at first glance it looks like everything is going their way. How can that be, if Zionism is electorally secure, owning both parties in a two-party system? Because while how Americans vote does not matter to them (at least right now), it matters greatly to Zionists whether or not Americans obey. Obedience in key sectors of American society is eroding rapidly, which is the real cause of current Zionist panic attacks. https://orthodoxreflections.com/the-techno-zionist-threat-to-american-freedom/

Besides the sing-alongs we did on repeat, there were always a lot of “special songs” performed by various church members. None of them was actually anything special. We sang all of them at Revival meetings throughout the year, not just on Easter. Sometimes we’d have a Passion Play telling the story of the crucifixion. That depended on the feelings of the “Minster of Music” at the time. Some liked putting on plays, some didn’t. One year we had a 45 minute video of Bible scholars talking about the Resurrection and its impact. Another time, the pastor used a cross as a prop to explain how Jesus died of asphyxiation. His performance included him simulating the sounds of strangling to death through his microphone. Many of the ladies were bawling by the end. So were most of the terrified kids. https://orthodoxreflections.com/growing-up-disappointed-in-easter/

We could go on and on posting pictures of the old, the young, the men, the women – all coming to Church under conditions Americans cannot even begin to imagine. For Holy Week services, and for Pascha, they will all be back. Regardless of what is happening around them.

Their witness will do more to save souls than any online apologetics, any preaching from any pulpit, any book, any song, or any movie. Talk is cheap. Proclaiming the Risen Lord from the comfort of your sofa impresses no one. Inspires no one. What these Christians do, under extreme circumstances, tells the entire world, “Our God is real!” They don’t just talk the talk. They actually walk the walk.

Christians have always known that personal holiness was the most effective witness. The Christian martyrs dying in public executions drew more souls to Christ than anything else in the first few centuries of the Church. It isn’t what you say, but what you do that really shows what you believe. Which is why hypocrisy is so damaging to the Church. Does a villain in a cassock who abuses children really believe in a just and loving God? Does an obvious coward really believe that the Tomb is Empty and that Christ has conquered death?

Social science has noticed the phenomenon that people are impressed more by what they see than what they hear. Actions that concretely demonstrate belief are called “Credibility Enhancing Displays.” https://orthodoxreflections.com/recovering-credibility-from-the-shame-of-the-lost-pascha/

According to modern Evangelicals, early Christians being taught by the Apostles understood the Eucharist to be purely symbolic and even optional. Which is how, according to modern Evangelicals, early Christians would have understood the above text from the Apostle Paul, even though a literal reading of it gives a very different impression. Modern Evangelicals also contend that, even though the first Christians were converts from Judaism in which worship (Temple and Synagogue) was liturgical, the Early Church was non-liturgical.

By the time you reach the 4th Century, however, the institution claiming to be the Christian Church clearly had hierarchy, defined dogma, a monopoly on Biblical interpretation, and a liturgical service centered around the Eucharist as the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Somewhere in time between the 1st Century and the 4th, the entire Evangelical understanding of Apostolic teaching (especially as recorded in the New Testament) was completely lost and replaced by what modern Evangelicals call “pagan influences.” https://orthodoxreflections.com/the-fandom-menace-and-the-early-christian-church/

2019 is the same year that Zelensky came to power. Just months after his election, a group called the Ukraine Crisis Media Center, funded by USAID, warned Zelensky that any failure to promote the OCU and to combat the UOC “will inevitably lead to political instability.” The message to Zelensky was crystal clear – support the schismatic church and suppress the canonical church or face possible regime change, just like Yanukovych.

https://orthodoxreflections.com/the-national-security-war-on-orthodox-christian-unity/

Donald Trump is the last person most Americans would consider to be a Communist. However, consider these facts from history:

The first Soviet Bolshevik secret police bureau was the Cheka (Чрезвычайная комиссия —”Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution”). It was established December 20, after the October Revolution of 1917. It was the precursor to Soviet secret police agencies such as the GPU, NKVD, and KGB.

One of the first orders imposed by the Bolsheviks for enforcement by Cheka was a decree against anti-Semitism. On July 27, 1918, the Soviet dictatorship, under Vladimir Lenin, issued a directive making anti-Semitism a criminal offense.

https://orthodoxreflections.com/the-gulag-is-being-prepared-in-the-us-by-the-left-and-the-right/

Below the line is a personal reflection about the dark days of COVID and the impact on the Orthodox Church. We need to keep these memories alive for a variety of reasons. Many of the culprits behind COVID are still in power, and are trying to rewrite various aspects of COVID history to exculpate themselves. The Global Elite continues to push disease narratives, such as the current Avian flu (H5N1). First they culled millions of chickens (causing skyrocketing prices and shortages), now the USDA is discussing plans to introduce mRNA vaccines into our food supply to protect against the ‘deadly virus’.

https://orthodoxreflections.com/orthodoxy-off-the-rails-reflecting-on-covid-and-the-next-pandemic/

“Ramadan is a time of deep reflection, generosity, and uniting communities”, they say. What a lie. Islam is the most violent system of belief in human history.

U.S. Director of Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard testified that the Syrian leadership is “persecuting, arresting, and killing religious minorities like Christians in Syria.”

This is Biden’s doing, although it has been a U.S. intention to overthrow Assad for many years. Biden told the American people that this new government was going to serve ALL Syrians. He even sent them ‘humanitarian aid.’



https://orthodoxreflections.com/syrian-slaughter/

The hardened MAGA loyalists, particularly Protestant evangelicals, are convinced that President Trump is making the world a wonderful place, but the Zionist leanings of the Trump administration and its allies betray that conclusion. Just how strong are those leanings of Trump and his supporters? Some recent actions will show us.

https://orthodoxreflections.com/maga-make-antichrist-great-again/

Alex Braszko is a faithful Orthodox Christian and friend of this site. His beautiful daughter Lillian Grace Braszko is only 18, but is already facing the end of her life. Alex and his family are asking for the help of Orthodox Christians this Lent to contribute to an Orthodox chapel in her name. The family hopes to eventually make the chapel available for a locally established Orthodox Mission. The information below is from the family’s Give Send Go page. Please share this widely as Orthodox Christians should support their own. Please also consider donating to this cause for a family, and young lady, bravely facing this tragedy by trying to make something good come of it. Please donate here.



https://orthodoxreflections.com/please-help-lilys-legacy-memorial-chapel/

The Church has always recognized that evil must be resisted – even by force. This is not mere speculation on my part, as it has been normative for most of the Church’s history to enter the names of slain Orthodox warriors into the diptychs of their local church and commemorate them. During his tenure as bishop of Kazan, St. Hermogenes of Moscow wrote a letter to St. Job of Moscow asking the latter’s blessing to commemorate those slain for faith and fatherland against the Tartar in his See.3 Likewise, the Church commemorates Orthodox Warriors on August 29/September 11, serving the Office for Orthodox Warriors Slain on the Field of Battle for the Faith and the Fatherland.

https://orthodoxreflections.com/resistance-to-evil-by-force/