A quote from a homily by St. Nikolai Velimirovich on Orthodoxy in America
“The time may not be far off when there will be a united Orthodox Church in America, which will include all the present Eastern national Churches in this country, a Church with one central administrative authority. I see a tendency toward such an end in each of our now individual Churches. … And when by God’s Providence the time is ripe for the accomplishment of such a unity, I dare not doubt that the venerable heads of all our Orthodox Churches in Europe, Asia, and Africa, always led by the Holy Spirit, will give their blessing for the organization of a new and autonomous sister Church in America.”
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The topic of Holy Communion distributed with the metallic spoon (Lavitha)
Your Eminence, thank you for having this webinar to address some of our concerns at these crucial times.
Your Eminence, you mentioned that the Body and Blood of our Lord does not transmit any disease, but there may be a possibility that the metallic spoon by which the Communion is distributed can transmit the disease. I always believed that the Holy Eucharist sanctifies all things that it touches. Anything that surrounds the proskomithi is washed and dispensed near a tree or a flowerbed. At that moment when I heard about the metal being the culprit, this passage came to my mind.
Matt.23:16-22 Our Lord says:
“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.’ Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold?….For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift?”
Please, your Eminence, the clergy should not play up to the fears of the people, but be emphatic and proclaim the healing and saving grace of our Lord’s Body and Blood, since He is the Healer of our body and our sour, the supreme Physician.