This is from St eim the Syrian make me whole Lord and I will become whole oh only wise and merciful physician I beseech thy benevolence heal the wounds of my soul that I might I might understand my place in thy Eternal design St Ephraim the syan the Syriac tradition predates the
Byzantine and where the world was seen symbolically those of you who follow Jonathan pel make me whole Lord and I will become whole oh only wise and merciful physician I beseech thy benevolence heal the wounds of my soul that I might understand my place in thy Eternal
Design the healing of the wounds of the Soul brings forth a Clarity where we understand our place in God’s Eternal design so let me put that in Long in modern language so that I might understand who I am who God created me to be and what he put me on this Earth to
Do this is fundamental for development into strong manhood you got to know who you are and you got to know what you should be doing and then you got to do it make that your goal set that on set that as your path the wounds will be
Healed and you will find meaning and Beauty you’ll find your place in God’s Eternal design the world has structure the entire creation is structured has structure your soul has structure but this this structure is an ontological structure it’s a $35 theological word comes from the Greek antos being we were made to be
Alive we were made to live in Union with our creator the Creator reveals himself through the creation we are dust but also of the Breath of God and as the wounds heal as that which has been separated comes together then the purposes for our existence are revealed to us and what we
Are to put our hands to do starts getting done and in that is the full experience of manhood communion with God communion with other men and work that is productive meaningful and enduring now the culture says no that’s not the way it is and it says it in a
Lot of different ways and one of the worst ways because it holds a lot of men captive is through porn is through dissipated sexuality man takes his native creative prowess and what he does he pours it into the sexual desire and dissipates it away it heightens the sexual desire to a
Point where it becomes uncontrollable man starts in a whole cycle of masturbation and porn consumption and this and that and he loses his manhood he loses his manhood why because in it’s in violation of God’s Eternal design remember that the design is ontological it’s not a moralistic system that exists in the sky
Kind of like Newtonian physics that’s protestantism it has its origin in Catholicism and its origin fundamentally is a distorted spirituality and if you want to understand what that distorted spirituality is read doses the grand Inquisitor because he saw it three year 300 years ago it’s playing out now
That’s why we have the cultural problems that we do the cultural problems that we have today stem from the deficiencies of the Catholic revolt against the universal church and then expressed in protestantism today that’s why mainstream protestantism is collapsing it can’t address the problems of the culture the problems of the culture
Exist in Western Christianity not eastern western Christianity because of the insistence of Rome demanding Supremacy Over The Universal Church those things have cultural ramifications and those cultural ramifications are in Play Now understand that that’s why we’re here religion is the ground of culture if you want to understand that more read
A book read an essay it’s called civilization without religion question marked by Russell KK who ironically is a very good Catholic thinker he passed away but he lived here in Michigan read that essay and you begin to see that the cultural struggles and particularly as they are expressed in the heart of man
Amen okay amen because it’s the it’s the struggles that we all as men face that’s why we’re here have their grounding in religious dysfunction all right but that also means that they will have their healing in the right religion the right ordering the right self right understanding of of
Self you want to under I look at this room but I see this I speak a lot these days I go to different places and I always see the same thing I see young men coming into the Orthodox Faith why is that everybody’s asking I know the
Answer to that very simple it’s because the looking for the grounding of their own manhood and they’re finding it that they intuitively know they’re going to find it in Orthodoxy of course they are of course they are because Orthodoxy understands human anthropology in its fullness anthropology it’s another $35 theological word it comes
From anthropos man in the Greek it has the fullest and most complete understanding of what a man is male and female but our issue here and it’s the first issue but I see it in all men all across the country is that we don’t know what it is anymore to be a
Man but yet the Lord leads us into his holy Orthodox Church most of you have entered into the church through your own soul pain the soul pain that you experienced is actually a mercy why why is it a mercy because you know the the era in which a
Man comes of age which is 13 to 17 he thinks because he’s finally becoming aware to a world outside his family the larger world he thinks that the way he’s experiencing it for the first time is the way it’s always been we all think that this is why Boomers
That’s my generation you know yeah well we get hit a lot we get criticized a lot um I always say go a little easier on them go a little easier on them you know the problem with the Boomers is it’s a problem that you see almost with every
Generation that they can’t really step out of the awareness and the era in which they came of age I saw that with the generation older than mine I could see in talking to the priests that anyone who came of age before the 60s before the mid 60s saw
The world in a way completely different than I did they still had faith in in in the stability of the fundamental faith and the fundamental stability of culture but I’m post 60s I see the culture as fra fracturing and I don’t have any confidence that it it will it will
Maintain itself at all I’m on the other side of the 60s so if you’re pre-60s right you didn’t see that you just didn’t see that you could have seen that if you were to step out of your acquired frame of reference you could see that um but what I’ve learned is the older
You get the harder it is to do that you really have to listen you really have to listen and as you’re listening you got to listen to people people are younger than you and as you’re listening you got to you’ve got to self-evaluate and say
Oh is this just a cultural bias I hold or is the person not seeing it right could be either so the the ones who do the criticizing understand you’re going to have the same issue when the next Generation comes because it changes every seven years every seven years it
Changes from age 13 to 17 so when you’re 25 you’re going to realize that the people who are 17 are thinking differently than you are and this happens every sevene change why 7 years 13 13 to 20 okay those are the formative years where where where self-awareness about the world is
Acquired so the Boomers who retire in Naples where I live there’s a lot of them there you who kind of bought into the The Narrative that that okay if I’m good a good corporate Soldier I’m gonna end up with a nice retirement home well that’s absolutely true there a lot of
Them down there I’ve blessed their homes their condos you know and the condos are really nice man 20 floors up Overlook at the golf you know the sun sets in the west it’s gorgeous it’s gorgeous it’s close to Heaven it really is but I also see too that one once that goal is
Acquired the deepest boredom and frustration enter in you know one of the biggest problems in Naples with the retired people alcoholism because what they found out is what they found out is that they they bought into the narrative they were loyal to the narrative they achieved what the narrative promised but it
Didn’t fill the soul the ones who are spiritually aware what they do is they start volunteering they volunteer in the schools they volunteer in the hospitals they start giving of themselves and they find themselves the ones who don’t are kind of embittered by the fact that the Gates of Heaven did
Not open up at retirement what they do is they go to dinner parties cocktail parties and you have cocktail parties every single day and there’s social strata that’s that builds up I learned this living there the social strata right and it’s a big deal if you get
Invited to a cocktail party on a higher strata than the one that you’re in so it’s like a high school social thing man and it develops it’s in the community it’s all it’s in all the uh we have gated communities there and stuff like that it’s normal it’s not what it sounds
Like it’s normal everything’s gated um but that you get an invitation to a social Strat of that that’s higher than you’re the one you’re in presently and that’s a big deal and that’s also reveals unfortunately aity of spiritual awareness at the end of a lifetime that actually had a lot of productive work
Into it but not the right goal and you wonder I ask was it all worth it I don’t ask them that because they’re not ready to hear the question why provoke people unnecessarily there’s no point but I do get the question from them and I
Say you got to love your brother you got to serve your neighbor you want spiritual health that’s what you got to do now the advantage you guys have is this you’re young you’re young you don’t have to wait till you’re 6 5 to discover this I said for most of you
It’s Soul pain that brought you into the church and counted a blessing that that Soul pain was young that occurred to you younger because of the assumptions you had when you first came of age thinking that the way the world is is the way it’s always been well that’s not true
That’s not true if it was we could not have things such as that beautiful quote from St aam the Syrian who lives in a world in a symbolic World symos in Greek symos where two realities come together the symbol is the place where those two realities meet SE means to bring
Together Volos realities worlds symbos all right and they meet in the symbol contrast that with its opposite and you’ll hear something as I say the word in Greek dios hear it dios diabolical evil Theos means that which separates simos brings together Theos tears apart that’s what the devil
Does and he does it through the lie your father was a liar from the beginning Jesus says to the Pharisees and a lot of you guys because of the pain you found out you’re being fed a lie you’re being fed a lie the world was not like the marketers told you it was
You guys have been marketed to from the minute you were born I saw this with my daughter I didn’t realize how diabolical it was until she comes running up to me Daddy Daddy Britney Spears is on the gum machine I gave her some money to buy
Some gum she really wanted it and she comes about saying Britney Spears Britney Spears that’s she’s 5 years old and the DI iCal marketing Minds found some way to reach her behind my back I was so angry about that so angry I took her once we said oh let’s go we
Used to take walks with my little daughter she loved that because whenever we walked we go and buy something little treat okay and she goes Daddy Daddy Let’s Take a Walk I said okay and taking a walk meant we were going to go to the
Store and buy a treat well we’re in the store I actually think it was Subway sandwich right and they have the TVs there and I look up I go oh man because I wanted to protect my daughter from this that great scene where Madonna and Britney Spears kissed each other it was
All just a marketing thing but she’s sitting there watching it I saw her I looked up what what’s she looking at she’s looking at the screen and there’s those two kissing and I saw the confusion on her face the confusion daddy why are why are they kissing why are they kissing and I’m
Thinking it’s because the devil’s trying to destroy the CH The Souls of children that’s why they’re kissing so angry so angry at this because you want to preserve the innocence of your child right she’s a little girl man it’s not time time yet to learn about these things and yet here
Theos any way you know to go in and hurt their souls hurt their souls this is what you came out of that’s why you had the existential pain but God allowed the existential pain because this is what it caused you to do you were walking like
This and the pain caused you to look heavenward where is meaning where is Truth where is Beauty and the Very fact you were searching for that brought into your awareness that you were created for higher things that your soul thirsted for something that the culture could not
Offer and this is is universally true I already know this I talked to a lot of guys I talked to hundreds of guys I love these men I love these men and I know what they’re really searching for is real human contact so I’m kind of I’m
Kind of assertive you know I will just go and I will just hug a guy and I can feel I can feel he pulls back this is kind of a danger this is kind of a threat but I also know that that that that connection that masculine connection is also the agent of
Healing that’s what I know and they trust me enough not to push me away they trust I actually watch it really close and I can feel what the reaction is it’s not just arbitrary I wouldn’t do it unless I knew it needed to be done but once we have that feeling of
Masculine love which is one of the most beautiful things in the world then The Healing Begins so we’re talking about healing the father wound I’ll tell you what heals the wound what heals the wound is opening up to the love of another man I know what the
Sounds like I know what it sounds like because I know how we have been programmed father that sounds so gay I know this I know I know that we hold back from this because we have been intimidated by the voices in the dominant culture who demand that we Define masculine love in sexual
Terms but no I repudiate that the world I’m going to talk about this a little bit more this afternoon too love in its fundamental character is masculine which is to say fatherly and patriarchal and that’s because God as father and you as men have a different role to play in the world you
Are to become the Warriors you are to become the Defenders you are to become the builders you are to become the providers because that’s what God has ordained and you are to protect women father that sounds so sexist feminism and and it’s it’s opposite homosexualism
It’s an ideology it’s all it is it’s an ideology it has no ontological there’s that word again reality it has no ontological reality this is why you see men who adopt those ideologies always become a feminite they lose their masculine character and they they they asue masculine virtue like courage and
Self-discipline it’s all about feeling and if I don’t care about someone else’s feelings I at least can care about mine that’s a feminasty men build men put their own desires aside for the protection of others men sacrifice heal your wounds man heal them let them be healed so you can actualize this
Calling to be a man that is in all your souls and in every one of your souls and that you desire to fulfill tell me if that isn’t true tell me that that doesn’t r resonate in your souls I know it does and the reason I know it does is because that’s what
You’ve been made for that’s how we’re going to find our place in God’s Eternal design now I’m looking around at the room I want everybody look at me because I can see who it is I can see who it is that longs to experience this but you
Think you’re thinking I can see it on your face I’m not going to point you guys out who is doing this about four of you here are doing this I want everybody’s attention everybody’s attention cuz some of you are thinking oh I wish I was true and it’s for
Somebody else but it’s not for me that’s a lie of O the Avalos the devil that’s a lie that’s a lie you’re we were were all created for this guys every single one of us we were all created for this and don’t let anyone tell you any different
Now listen to the next part because it’s really important the insecurities you feel that you that that I can see I can see it I know who you are I can see it those insecurities can be healed they come from your experience they are not formed in your character
You believe you believe that you’re insufficient and deficient but you’re not you just need healing that’s all you need and the healing comes through receiving the masculine love of another man that’s where it comes from so this idea that it’s it’s for someone else but
It’s not for me even though I desire it that’s a lie from o the Avalos and the way the way he’s going to keep you trapped in that lie is if you refuse to enter into communion with your brother because it’s through the communion with your brother that the healing grace of God
Flows God’s healing Grace is not amorphous it doesn’t flow through the atmosphere like a cloud God’s healing Grace happens through the channel of Brotherly communion brother facing brother and between them there is an exchange of energy of meaning of purpose of real connection this grace is exchanged face
To face and the grace itself has structure it’s congruent with the way reality works it’s congruent with the very structure of your soul and the primary means by which you first experiences through language I really like you I tell guys that all the time I’ve learned this I’ve learned this
I had to come out of kind of the darkness myself to see this but I can tell when oh I got to connect with this guy I can tell when a guy wants to connect with me and I’ll just say I like you I’ll just say let’s
Talk sometimes times I’ll I’ll pull a guy aside and I said you need this I’ll give him a hug why because it’s in the communion it’s in the connection that the wounds begin to heal and I’m telling you man we’re all wounded we’re all wounded all right the world is really screwed
Up but that doesn’t mean that we have to be screwed up with it no we understand what it is we do our work and then we turn around and we go and bring that healing to other men and that is really rewarding and that’s what it means to
Love your neighbor to love your brother I built out this Brotherhood I work with Gary on it um and I built it out it sounds audacious but it really happened I built it out because God told me to and the reason he told me to is because I’m one of those
Guys who wounded and experienc the healing I’m not different than you are I put it another way you’re no different than I am We’re All in This Together guys but I was in Greece I was visiting a monastery with a friend of mine walked in one Monastery and they
Yend of the monastery came up to me and said in Greek he said this he said you will bring many young men in America into the Orthodox faith and Elder pisos he wasn’t a saint yet Elder pisos and the theot toos are going before you I said
Okay it went right through me but I knew it I said okay okay and I came back it started the St pel’s Brotherhood and what I’ve learned in the St pel’s Brotherhood is that I don’t really have to do that much work I mean Gary and I work on this a lot okay
But it grows itself it grows itself and I I’m beginning to see just as as it grows this need for Brotherhood and it’s through the Brotherhood that we find the healing and at first I was a little tentative about it honestly and I thought I had to make
The I came back from from St I go to mon AOS every year now because it’s kind of like a clarifying time for me I don’t spend much time there like five days but every time I come back I get insights deep insights and a lot of them
Have to do with the Brotherhood so I came back last year I haven’t got my insights from this year yet got back three year three weeks ago Kyle and a few others Matt some of the guys here went with me I brought 16 guys with 16 guys with me
Um but the Insight I got two years ago was you know God can speak to us but I can’t reproduce his voice but I can say it in mine kind of like an an apostle right it’s it’s the word of God through the word of man that’s really what it’s kind of
Like and then it was this quit apologizing for patriarchy you’re defending patriarchy in terms of critics stop doing that forget the critics this is what it came to me forget the critics just defend what is true State what is true because the truth will always resonate in the soul
Of the man who’s searching for it so stop apologizing for patriarchy stop framing the defense in a way that will appease the critics the critics are the ones that are deluded not us so state it the love of God is masculine which is to say it’s fatherly
And it’s replicated in the creation in the love between men so when you feel a draw towards a man you feel the desire to make connection with him or you sense he wants to make a connection with you drop the barriers drop the barriers and quit think thinking that it’s
Gay that is just cultural propaganda it’s a lie pardon my French it’s it comes from the depths of Hell stop it because this is what is impeding our communion with one another and it’s that communion that is the source of God’s healing in our life because the communion between man is the
Channel by which God’s healing flows it’s always face to face now I’m a lot more aggressive with this Than I Used to Be and I can see if someone wants to make a connection with me I open myself up and I allow it to happen sometimes I craft it so it will happen
But the result is always deep friendships deep meaningful friendships and the special Joy me is the healing of the man cuz I know they want to make connection with me because I know they want to be healed but they experience that healing they experience that healing and there’s no Greater Joy than
To see your brother healed so Guys open up to each other we started this last night Father Michael’s Father Michael’s exercise was really beautiful one and I’ve had five or six guys come up to me and tell me what that experience was they said just kind of
Opening up in front of another guys and it’s uncomfortable but it’s only uncomfortable because it’s new at the same time it’s Soul nourishing and that’s what every one of you guys who came up to me and talked about it said there’s something good in the soul something good in the soul well I’m
Telling you that as we continue with that and we continue talking and doing what we do at Retreats like this you are going to experience that measure of healing you will experience it be why why those of you who watch me on in our ASI courses and hear me on on you know
When I Father Michael does it too we give our talks on the Brotherhood you hear me saying this no one no one desires your healing more than our Lord and Savior Jesus J Christ no one does am that’s one of the reasons why the Brotherhood is flourishing we
Don’t marget we don’t do anything yet it keeps growing growing growing why because it’s the Lord himself who wants us to understand this and practice it because it’s the Lord himself who wants to see us healed you you you you and you and me it’s really absolutely astonishing once you begin to comprehend
This and once you begin to see the love that God has for us every day the sun rises every day the sun rises and the sun fills the bias spere with its light and its energy and the bias fear drinks it in every tree drinks in the light and
The warmth of the sun everything living even our bodies and the sun shows the great benevolence of God because it rises every single day and it floods the Earth with its life and it’s what gives the the Earth its life that’s God’s love towards us that’s his love love towards us and
His love is not an a feminine oh I feel so good it’s just like a warm shower uh-uh it’s not that kind of love it’s the kind of love that that that fills you with masculine life okay you’re not lying on the beach drinking in the Sun you’re like Hoover
Dam that’s marshalling that energy for greater good that’s what it’s like the greater good is the strengthening of your brother that’s what we started last night and the hope is it can happen the hope is that when we leave we leave stronger than when we first began when we first
Came now tell me guys tell me this isn’t this just the best isn’t this just what it’s about isn’t it it is so good you got to let this in you know the resonance it I know it resonates in your soul cuz I know what men are created before and I
Know how they work I’ve been doing this a long time I’ve learned a lot all right let that resonance which might just be real light right now but it’s resonance you like it okay let it get stronger start identifying with it put away all the debilitating lies that have held you back
I’m not going to say you’re lovable you are lovable okay but what good is that I tell my little well my daughter isn’t so little anymore she’s 27 years old but when she was little you know she used to crawl up on my lap and I love that that
Was the best I remember the last time she did it she was already like 12 years old she was getting tall right she looked at me she crawled up on my lap but it was like holding her like that was the very last time very last time
Okay but I still love her and she still loves me but I’m not going to do that with you okay cuz we’re men what I’m going to say is put away the LIE when someone comes to you another man comes to you right and wants to commune with
You wants to get to know you there’s an attraction there’s a draw you open your your heart and you let him pour his love into you and you pour your love into him be courageous be manly that’s how the healing comes guys that’s how the healing comes it comes
In contact in connection with another man okay now there’s always that little self- sensorship thing in me I know what this sounds like but I also recognize that that self censorship thing in me means I’m still kind of bound to the lies of the culture the dominant lies people who would dare dare
Define for us what manhood really is it’s crazy feminists academics a feat academics I’m sorry but that’s what’s happened they control the cultural conversation the cultural narrative I reject that I want you to reject it too but there’s always still that little hook watch out watch out because you’re
Going to be attacked for saying this yes I will be attacked for saying this but I’m going to say it anyway all right because the truth just needs to be spoken to be heard one and this is Sal and my one of my moral exemplars my whole life one word of Truth outweighs
The whole world and like soulen said who got it from doas who got it from Holy Scripture right that truth first enters the world through a word has to be spoken first so I’m going to speak it anyway and I hope that you hear it because it’s the word of
God and he who hears the word of God and keeps it will be free all right that’s it guys any questions discussions Father Michael you’ll be proud I’ve got three minutes before 45 minutes are up so we’re okay all right remarkable he speaking to the fact that I quit on
Time all right guys comments questions anything and then speak up because so I can hear he’s de father you said last night was uh one of the gentlemen mentioned about putting the story or leaving the story behind and then you touched on that and said it’s not only just leaving the story
Behind but it’s moving forward into the the story that God’s Crea for you everything that you’re talking about today so much connection with the word Christ being that word that truth that came into the world um you know the negative selft talk it’s it’s that story that we leave behind that’s when we’re
The author of it right so it’s already just tainted with that that terminal illness that we all suffer but there’s a security in it because we we’re the author we know the ending even even know we’re the villain in that story even though we’re the one that is
Self-limiting it or the voices of whoever it is but we’re the ones that Echo those voices right it might be some other character in that story but we’re the one that continues to put that voice into the story so it was that was really powerful when you mentioned that about
Leaving that behind but then with faith moving forward and kind of accepting what’s unknown but trting come from God right let him write the story go of that right having Tove yeah yeah I mean I’m glad you brought that up because when it was spoken last
Night it really struck me um the the story The False narrative the false narrative has to actually be be Rewritten to be the true narrative okay there is truth truth exists and and Truth is not just a function of narrative but narrative is the way that we
Interpret what has happened to us in a way to try and give it meaning right and if it’s if the narrative is is skewed we’re going to be skewed and um the only the only thing I would say about it is like it it’s not so much that we can throw away the
Narrative because our life is our life what has what what has happened has happened but it’s that we see it in Truth in full light so the narrative a lot of times has to be Rewritten has to be Rewritten but it has to be Rewritten
In a in ways that conform to reality as it really is and that can be a painful process but at the same time even though it’s a painful process it can be an exhilarating and liberating one that’s the thing and that exhilaration that Liberation can be experienced and felt
And you go forward on that and you talk to a wise counselor you don’t that’s my 45 minutes are up you don’t you don’t you don’t ask all of your friends okay you just ask people who can give you sound advice that’s what you do and you don’t spill it out on Facebook
Because if you spill it out on Facebook you’re going to have people who have absolutely no knowledge of anything giving you advice and why are you laying yourself naked before them it’s just guys it’s just stupid but people do it all the time you know I cringe sometimes
I’m hardly ever on Facebook maybe once every six months these days I’m hardly ever on social media anymore but I see what goes on I’m just kind of cringe but that’s what you want to do and so you talk to a good counselor and God through that person will give you insight
And insight and knowledge are very valuable because you begin to discover who you really are so thank you for that yes yeah father this is awesome and phenomenal um just a question um you know there’s obviously as you talked about our culture is crazy and like a lot of
There’s a big movement among men who don’t want to be crazy to to sort of fle go somewhere else you know move to a different Society move to a different culture um like that’s just not a reality for me and I imagine other people too can you
Offer any words of like hope or encouragement I have two young boys one is six and one is 10 and I just get terrified a lot about the how is and I’m an American I grew up in PA I live in Texas now and I don’t like how my own
American society is forming my two boys and the temptation to just move to Russia as it’s like you know I think there’s a priest who like fled and moved to Russia and he’s like encouraging other people to do that I don’t really want to do that like this is my country yeah
Um do you have any words of Hope or encouragement or like cuz like I’m going to I’m going to die here I don’t really care like I’m not going anywhere else but um like the temptation to just go to like Japan or somewhere that’s not as
Crazy is yeah at times I don’t know what your thoughts are on that well I mean I the Father Joseph glea is a friend of mine okay and and uh I can really understand the whole move to Russia thing but I’m not so sure I would do it
No I wouldn’t do a n I’m too old but if I were younger I’m not so sure if I would do it cuz I’m kind of a fighter I would rather punch the guy out and I I would I would I mean I don’t get into
Fist fights with people but I do get into verbal fights with them and I like to I like to demolish the enemy I really do and sometimes I succeed okay but Father Michael that what was that great line you know I came into this world kicking and screaming and covered in
Somebody else’s blood and if I have to go out the same [Laughter] way yeah listen when it comes to your boys you’re the dominant influence and I don’t mean in a formal way I mean in an ontological way you love those boys they got to know that Dad loves them they got
To feel it you got to be identified with them and they have to be identified with you they’ve got to see themselves in you because you actually come from them I mean they actually come from you um that’s what you got to do you’re not
Going to be able to you’re not going to be able to protect them from all the cultural Rock um with my daughter there was no sex drugs and rock and roll and I’m real grateful that that did not happen okay and I consider that a huge
Win now she’s not an Amish Orthodox or anything like that okay um you know there’s always the ideal and then there’s a reality I mean you’re never going to see her wear a head scarf or anything like that it’s not going to happen but she hasn’t been swallowed up
By the culture and I consider that a great win I’ve never was really hard on her and never made her go to church never did anything like that that I understand what happens to priest’s kids it’s a brutal thing that can happen to sometimes so I always sheltered her from
That big wall between the home and the church never put expectations on her that people were putting on me because of the you know church lady types and all that I just always kind of rejected that um so I think the reason she turned out okay was because she lived under the
Shelter of the love of my wife and I and that’s what I think you do with your boys and I think that what you what you hope for is what every father hopes for is that your your influence will have a lasting effect on him so even if he Strays he knows where
Home is and he knows if he does stray and become a prodal that he knows in his heart that the father will receive him like the prodical son you know that’s the part of the the parable that that nowadays would be in question a lot of
Sons don’t have a home that they can go to anymore and don’t have a father but you be that father and you be that father towards your son towards your son and everything’s going to work out in some way or another because it’s the love it’s the love that binds love
Covers a multitude of sins it says in Scripture and I hear you the culture is it’s it’s in a bad way but I’m going to say something but I’m not going to get into it because it’s going to derail the whole conversation but I’m say one point
I’m not I’m not one of these that are convinced the culture is going down the tubes I’m not Rod r and and and the Benedict option I I he might be right but I’m not not that convinced he is I think that what we’re going through
Now is a period I call the great reveal that’s my name for it I believe that all the corruption we’re seeing has to be revealed right because that’s what you know you you have to expose the demon to rob it of its power and this came to me
When Co was ending well actually when it kind of started and then but then we figured out that was a lot of it was just a lot of information misinformation and some part of scam and all that stuff don’t want to get into it but I thought
I’m why is this happening Lord why is this happening I think it’s because it’s it we we’ve entered an era it’s my name for it I call the great reveal and I believe that all the corruption has to be revealed we have to to see it I believe we’re going to be
Given a choice than to walk righteously and righteously means rightly ordered to walk in a rightly ordered way or to embrace the chaos and the sensuality and the sexual Anarchy and everything else that’s out there those two things are at War right now we’re going to have to
Decide how we’re going to live and that’s as a nation and that’s as a culture so is this all doomed to hell and do we all have to run off to the monastery you know and and and become a Craftsman or something like that uh that’s what rod D
Thinks I’m not so sure we’ll see we’ll see who’s right we’ll see who’s right so that’s what I think about where things are going I’m not as pessimistic as as a lot of people are and that’s all I’m going to say about that because otherwise we’re going to talk about that
For the rest of the afternoon yes Father and then Sean Sean you go first Sean you go first yeah so um in the church right you guys are my brothers my fathers um I try to open myself to you I don’t always succeed um I wondering father if you
Could give a little advice there are people in our lives I have a childhood friend who’s essentially still a pagan I have an academic friend who’s a very Pious Roman Catholic which goes up to a certain point and then stops I love these men they’re my friends at the same
Time there’s always this little distance that I feel because they’re not with us yet I hope they will be somay and and so on the one hand I guess the Dilemma you don’t want to hold back from a guy because of where he is like you’re not Orthodox you’re not good enough right
That’s not what but I also this is my community yeah you this is your family so how do how do is any advice on negotiating that yeah yeah um in fact I’m going to pass that on in my next talk but St John chrisom on brotherhood I’m going to pass out the
Essay um this is what St John chrism says that with among your brothers show affection show affection so our brothers among here you guys you got to you got to hug each other you got to kiss each other the forehead you got to do you got to show your affection okay it’s not
Enough just to feel it you got to show it but you only do that in the Brotherhood for those outside the Brotherhood and men that you love that you’re talking about you strive to live peaceably with them all other men you strive strive and he says as much as you
Are able to live peaceably with them that’s the division between the two so you’re nourished you’re nourished here in the Brotherhood by our communion with another one another and it strengthens us but you strengthen you take that strength into the world to live peaceably with other men that’s how it’s done
So even if you have an affection for you know your Roman Catholic friend the reality is you that can only go so far it can only go so far you can’t have the same depth and measure of of of communion that you have with your Orthodox Brothers it just doesn’t work
It’s ontological guys and the body of Christ is real it’s real it’s not just a sociological grouping it’s it’s it’s it’s a communion a deep fraternity between men is what it is and so you have to cultivate that here because if you cultivate that here your your life outside the Brotherhood you’ll
Be stronger but you won’t be able to to cultivate it out there even if there’s some people you really like and feel close to with them you live peaceably and if there’s a way you can help them when whenever you they need help you help them that’s where it
Goes okay yes father or Deacon okay a comment about moving to Russia I know a family that moved two years ago after the election now they are separated and they’re kid that was here in America he have been in sixth grade he’s in second grade there because he
Didn’t know the language he didn’t know the alphabet they tested him he’s in second grade they they moved to they moved to Russia okay so it’s not ideal it’s not easy no and you would have to learn the language get a job become and it’s a dictatorship
Not I would I mean if somebody came up to me and said I’m thinking about moving to Russia I had a a family that came to me and they were going to move to Bermuda and this was when Co started and they were convinced okay it’s the end
End of the world the Antichrist is coming and all that I was I was skeptical but they came to me and they said well we want to move to Bermuda I said why do you want to move to Bermuda there’s an Orthodox Church there I said yeah I know
But that church is Run by One Greek family you’ll never be accepted it in there right they were looking to escape the United States I this is just not going to work I know that church right it’s they’re not going to accept you and and then they said well
We’ll start our own church I said well if you start your own church you’re going to be the white man’s church I mean it’s got to be indigenous if you’re going to start Orthodoxy in Bermuda it’s got to be indigenous right otherwise it’s it’s the white man’s church it’s
Not going to happen so what should we do and I said just PL your feet here it’s spine here it’s a good place to live right got we got a couple of really good churches we got a kids your age plan it here and they did for a while then they
Picked up and moved again um if you’re going to do that move to Russia you better count the cost and if I were talking to somebody that was considering that I would drill him really hard to make sure that they weren’t being driven by idealistic motives
Because I’ll tell you if you’re going to move to Russia I’m not saying you should not some people they find it quite advantous but it’s a SLO man it’s a slog it’s it’s it’s hard work and and you better not have any romantic delusions about it because those romantic
Delusions aren’t going to be able to motiv to motivate you to complete that Journey yes Father I just wanted to add something to this CU we you know we talk about this stuff all the time and as far as my my thought is we are to be the salt of the
Earth planted here for a reason God put us here for a reason we gave us children we care about these children they look for us for guidance we have to be the examples for our children my Grands who aren’t Orthodox were amazing examples to me of a Pious life a life dedicated to
God it led me to the Orthodox Church your children they see you living the faith the way you know in your heart you should be living it they see you doing that they will adopt your faith because they you’re you’re like the image of God to them you you communicate very clearly
To them the faith and so as as Fathers as men we need need to just be doing the work of God that we know in our hearts we need to do so like in the Brotherhood we do the plge we we do morning prayers we do evening prayers every day we read
The Holy texts every day every week we Services of church we go to regular confession as our priest dictate for us we do obey the fast as our priest us to do they they know better what we need any of us do and we do that work and God
Shakes us into the kind of salted men that we will be in this country that if we do that we emerge There’s Hope for this country if we do not then you probably should be head to R some place yes I have a question uh because I
I do struggle with this in our culture but and you uh touched on it briefly but how do we Define patriarchy or how should we Define it because I struggle with that I worked in the entertainment industry for most of my life and the theater world is
Very much not in agreement with the faith world for the most part yeah and I’ve just always struggled with how do we Define patriarchy because all i’ I’ve struggled I’ve just been as you mentioned more trying to defend it from their point of view than really even
Understanding it from my own point of view well I I think the best especially given what culture is today um I think the answer to that is you live virtuously because if you live virtuously you cultivate the virtues in your own life you live within patriarchy because the virtues come flow from God
And God is father and the nature of his energy and his love is fatherly patriarchal Sean I know you studyed this stuff the literal Latin meaning of virtue is Manliness yeah that what the word yeah means manliness so you know you can fight it kind of I on a ideological level um I
Used to do that all the time it was kind of fun but I wasn’t gaining ground I mean everybody loved what I wrote but they already agreed with what I said I wasn’t wasn’t gaining ground so I kind of quit being a culture Warrior um you live it you live it we cultivate
Virtue in our own life and that’s also how we spread the gospel by the way but that’s how we’re healed that’s how we spread the gospel um and keep this in mind that the the volume the amplitude of the media which seems all encompassing okay a lot of it’s smoking
Mirrors you know pull yourself back from the media I have I used to be a real I mean real media freak but I’m not anymore I pulled myself away from that and and I keep my ear much closer to the ground and I see that most people are
Are are looking for what we have found I tell you there’s a revolution happening in this country and that Revolution ution is among young men older men too like me but mostly young men and it’s the move towards Orthodoxy and it’s happening below the radar and what is it
Going to be 20 years from now tell and this is what we’re part of this is what we’re part of forget forget the people who are screaming the loudest they’re yesterday’s news be part of what’s happening now no one’s going to see it the media is not going to see it but
When this I’ll make a prediction when this reaches a critical mass there is it’s a social movement on one level too but it reach Rees a critical mass of all his young men turning back to Christ and the Liberals find out they’re going to freak and then we get to fight and we’re
Going to win in the back yeah so um I think you’re talking about with men needing connection with other men like true connection yeah you know Brotherhood it’s so poignant and it’s so it’s so relevant and um you know I work around a lot of guys I’m in construction
I pretty much only work around guys you know um and I see that you know I see a lot of times men especially if you’re working one onone you with another guy you know a lot of times you you’re in team so I mean maybe there’s work in
Other jobs or you’re working more females I don’t know but um that’s not my experience but I see this desire for a bond you know what I mean for but there is that that like especially in the trades you know you got to be hard
You know I mean you thick skin you know and you don’t want to appear soft you know um I kind of just throw that away you know I try to kind of get you know get to know guys like really get to know them you know and um really form a connection because
I because I know that’s what they actually need you know a lot of these guys struggle with alcoholism you know with abuse all this kind of stuff I love what you’re saying i’ love what you’re saying you are hitting it absolutely correctly keep talking okay so like
And I don’t know I’m as I’m talking I guess I’m you love these guys don’t you you love them and you want to take care of them and you know you’ve got something to give them and you know you know that some of these guys you’re
Going to pull out of the primordial ooze and you’re going to set their feet on Solid Ground right exact I can see it in your heart and the thing is I’ve been some of the most like undesirable working circumstances you know 12T in a ditch forn concrete but I’ve had the
Most heart-to-heart conversations with men I’ve ever had because we’re being open with each other you’re a leader do you know that you’re a leader keep talking so I guess I was just I was just going to ask like what what are some practical ways to be open with other men
That probably aren’t Christian let alone Orthodox maybe they don’t have any actual experience with Brotherhood because you know that VI it as being a you know what I mean or being a whatever whatever words I hear all day long uhhuh but they need this because if not you know they’re they’re
Just going you know they’re just going to go down this road of depravity even more they’re going to Father Michael forgive me just as you say that one way of addressing that is what they call in in in in men’s work you know an abundance mindset rather than a victim if you open
Up and and you’re honest and you’re open and you’re vulner but you’re being ay about it or you’re complaining or you know I know a lot of the kind of bad M that goes on in Social Circles if you open yourself up like that you’re not going to have any
Effect and that’s when you’re going to get called a or what you need to step up you need to quit Ling you know children you’re waiting if you come at it from an abundance where you know you have something positive you you can pour into somebody else a word of
Encouragement actually the work we’re going to do tonight at the best address this exactly then you can open up in a way that’s that’s a little more intimate and honest and because you’re giving to them you’re creating a space where they can respond you’re not going to them out of
Neediness okay that’s an easy way to do it yeah like like so like something i’ you know I I’ve worked with this guy he’s for the past like two years he’s been trying to quit chewing you know and so every single time I see him put a dip
In I’m like what are you doing man what is that you know I’m trying to establish that I’m trying to build you know what I mean and that’s just so foreign to a lot of guys though you know I me like he actually cares what
I’m like I do because I love you you know and so many guys don’t know how to receive love that’s what a lot of it is you know don’t know actually how how to receive love from another man probably because they didn’t receive it from their father or whatever you know well
They were told it would be a if they did yeah there is that and father said in his talk also alas since the mid 1970s we’ve lived in a homo erotized culture and it’s just proceed this gay we don’t get close to each other which is why by the way Gentlemen The Practice
Exercise that we did last night of grabbing another man from behind yeah when was the last time any of us were physically close to another man like that you know really it it doesn’t happen so for all of you who have not signed up for Brazilian jiujitsu so you
Can roll around with some other guy on the map you know this is another reason to do that especially if You’ got a little hesitation you know about being physically close to another valy you’re just you know just touching somebody else something like that gives you a
Safe way to do that and to help break down some of that resistance it’s been two generations now since since it’s been there and it’s the problem father H is right we need to be open we need to be honest we need to be intimate with other
Men but you do not ero and you do not genital it that’s where most men’s thoughts go you’re too close G no has nothing to do with that and there’s ways of you know of presenting ourselves that are just above board and honest and platonic and genuinely caring about his
Welfare that’s what we do so let me say something that’s a little touchy it’s going to make everybody a little uncomfortable but I’m going to say because I know some guys struggle with it if those Desir are there right what’s what’s really what’s really being expressed I mean the genital ising of it
Right or the homoeroticism let’s say somebody’s imagination might go in that direction okay what you really desire what you’re really Desiring is real communion with other men that’s what you’re Desiring so don’t let those thoughts throw you okay just put them aside but don’t let those thoughts lock you out from
That intimacy that you desire you desire it because you need it desire is a need okay and and the desires have to be met but they have to be met righteously which is to say within the proper ordering of God’s creation we go back to
Sa ofr the Syrian they have to be met guys one of the reasons that we have the big problems that we do is because we lock ourselves off to that and remember what I said that it’s the opening up between the Brotherhood that’s the channel of the healing that’s the channel of the
Healing we carry our infirmities with us and we carry them locked up in a prison of our own making the problem was with that is that the infirmities then appear larger than they are and over time they don’t appear to be healable problems appear insurmountable problems are solved the
Soul is healed when you let your brother help you carry your cross and you carry his Joseph stand up I know this is going to be good I don’t know your name about culture right uh specifically in America I’m in the military what I’ve noticed is
Like a lot of guys around me will they see through the lie but there’s kind of this overbearing cultural that like keep quiet about it but sometimes like it kind ofs out they see through the lie and if you like sus that out a little bit like cautiously at first people give
A lot more and then you realize totally through the maybe not From perspective so it’s not a complete correct worldview of the work but then you give them Orthodoxy you introduce them to Orthodoxy and you say hey all this stuff’s crazy but you don’t just stay there and like ruminate
On how you know degenerate things are instead you say like yeah this is what’s correct this is what’s good and you like show them that you try to bring them to that and they don’t always take to it some guys I’ve found to kind of get stuck in like
Obsessing over how to generate things are uh which runs out of fuel really quick like it’s not very useful and it kind of becomes an excuse to not do anything but um I find those are kind of easy in to introduce people orxy because then they’re like okay this is messed up
And here’s like the beautiful structure of reality for but I’ve only been reacting negatively against the culture so experience you’d be very surprised you would be very surprised how many um how many fellow men are people who like Father H that it’s the smoking mirrors of the culture um I
Personally I had a coworker he’s a African American Baptist you know like that um you know Southern Baptist kind of person and um you know he’s he’s my coworker sits right next to me and he tells me you know oh my my son’s coming
Back oh he’s they them now and um he was going along with it because you know oh this is the culture oh this is just you know he he didn’t really you know he he was a little nervous about it but he didn’t want to say anything and you know
Get canceled or whatever it is I directed him just to a couple of Wikipedia articles about some of that stuff immediately he’s in Georgia now his son’s back to he him and um it’s only because and it’s just little five minute intervention and You’ be very surprised how many people really are
Underneath the surface there they they don’t want to put up with this just they don’t realize that there are other people around them who you know all you have to do is speak up and they’ll be open up start courage there are the 5 thousands out there who have not F the
Need to call that we don’t know about remember that from the okay you’re next yes thank you um I’m Deion Rochester but uh I just hear so much here about the importance of community I hear father Hans talking about these problems are that we have in
Our hearts are so huge to us and unsolvable but when we talk about them and I shared all my pain with everybody here in this room they weren’t so big and they were solvable and if we have Community is so key here it’s so key that we be together what you said to
Your coworker what you shared with your colleagues once we crack it open we when we’re together in this that’s where we that’s where we’re going to be able we can stay here in this country and not move to Russia we really need to be together and I I you
Know what Jonathan B says go to church you mean and as wonderful it is to do things online and the St pesos Brotherhood is thriving online and that’s a great thing but until we come to together what Father Michael and father Hans and and Paul have done here
To bring this together it needs to be keep going and so we need to have strong parishes we need to build like what father Han said we’re Builders we need to build strong parishes we need to be leaders in our parishes so that we can talk about all this stuff together and
Be together and the problems won’t seem so big the culture won’t seem so big and we’ll be like those quiet Christians in the Roman EMP that they all they B and they Chang the work you are the leader of your parishes I love what you
Said you you are to be leaders in your parishes um I promise you in the back and then we’ll go to you it’s a spiritual thing too like the the principality there’s like it’s this Li and there’s also spiritual stuff there so it helps to pray you pray about it for while give
You like just be with you and things will happen but it’s like notar always an intellectual thing that like there is like a lot of there’s a pretty big barrier of like spiritual resistance anything so if you’re discouraged just keep praying about it was there a question there did I miss it
No right just comment okay I promis the man in the back you oh yeah wait who is next okay all right well just kind of picking backing off of what what he was saying about being a leader in your community yeah and leader in your par I
Was wondering if you could speak at all on you know what St Paul says the the priesthood of all believers and then especially of of of men you know what is our role dayto day and really kind of being a priest you know to those around
Us you know I mean well in the church or just in general in in general yeah okay um I mean in the church this to support your priest I I also I wear two hats I’m also the spiritual adviser to antioc and Men in my dasis which under Bishop Sava is
Going to go National which means more work but I’m okay with that and this is what I say people always gasp I can’t believe he said that the strength of the church is the strength of its men the strength of the men is the strength of the church one thing that Orthodoxy is
It’s not a feminized faith and the way men are constituted that if the faith goes feminine which is happening in protestantism and in Catholicism because because the priest is homosexual IED there unfortunately um if an institution goes feminist it’ll become homosexualist if an institution becomes homosexualist it’ll go feminist okay so
What we have here is a cultural rot even though the ideology of Liberation that justifies it all institutions that exhibit one of those characteristics will exhibit the other and it will collapse why is that cuz the men check out real men check out go feminist the real men check out Go homosexualist the
Real men check out the problem is is that in the culture wars nowaday that’s understood and so the assault is on real men that’s what it is is the salt is on us cuz we buy into neither we don’t buy into the ideology what do we buy into we
Don’t buy into anything anything what we do is is look for the knowledge on how to live life authentically there’s no room for us in the culture doesn’t matter it’s still the truth so what we do is we live the truth the other stuff is going to fall it
Can’t sustain itself you know it’s the last gasp of the medieval synthesis is what it is it’s the last gasp of ordered Christian culture ideology ideology is just Christianity inverted ideology seeks to build the New Jerusalem by the labor of man rather than waiting for it from as a gift from
Heaven like Revelations tells us but I’m telling you this is going to collapse it’s already collapsing that’s why you have the rise of paganism we’re already here folks we’re already here and so this is where the cultural conservatives miss the boat okay because what has been lost
Can’t be rebuilt but the reason it can’t be rebuilt is because there were cracks in the foundation from the very beginning they have WI wied and now things are going to collapse it is going to collapse all right but at the same time what’s happening the ancient church is
Reemerging Orthodoxy is gaining a foothold in America who would have thought that would ever be possible when I was in high school I Spent My Summer was working in a a machine shop and there was one guy he celebrated Christmas on January 7th and I thought that was the weirdest thing
I’d ever heard why would you celebrate Christmas on January 7th only later did I realize that he was Orthodox I didn’t know what Orthodox he was right it was that foreign that was that foreign but no longer no longer so what do we do how do we
Live we take the teachings of the church on how men should live we start we we push aside the ideology we push it aside we’re not ideologues we don’t see a plan and try and conform ourselves to it what we do is we look into the heart and we cultivate
Virtue virtue why do we do that because that’s the way that the father say we’re supposed to live that’s why we’re of the ancient Church the ancient Church deals with reality as it is Orthodoxy is not an IDE ideology it’s not a religious ideology it’s instruction on how to live and it’s all
About the cultivation of virtue and becoming stronger men that’s what it is and in doing that in doing that that is what will transform the culture so so I take a real Long View here my my view is 20 30 years ahead so what I’m doing now and I want
You guys to really think about this what I’m doing now will lead to a much stronger church 20 or 30 years from now I’m not going to be here 20 or 30 years from now but you’ll be here and and some of you guys because I know a lot of you
And I know and I love I really love a lot of you and I respect a lot of you cuz I know your personal battles and what you’ve gone through to get here right but imagine what you’re going to be 20 years from now as you assume leadership in the
Church I think back I look at my own life and I say oh this guy’s moving a lot faster than I did why is that cuz I didn’t have a mentor I didn’t have a spiritual father I did not have anyone to teach me what
To do so it had to be all trial and error it worked in the long run it worked I mean I’m here right but it took a whole lot longer than it needed to but we learn and we strengthen the present generation you guys are going to strengthen the next but that next
Generation is going to learn even faster than you did so I take a i I take what I say a Long View um what I’m doing now will have its payout 20 years from now I’m fine with that I’m absolutely fine with that and the church strengthens so I’ll close with this
Cuz what is happening here and don’t let this go to your head because for to whom much is given much is required all right well what’s happening here in this room what’s happening at Montana what’s happening in other places will is something that is so deep and so
Good that it’s going to breathe life and strength into the church long term the strength of the church is the strength of its men if men are strong men seek virtue men don’t become russified don’t take on the feminist or homosexualist Spirit of the age which is calculated only to rob you
Of your masculine self-confidence and make you weak if you don’t do that but you seek virtue instead then it’s good I’ll conclude with this here’s my Outlook I used to be a culture Warrior I’m not a culture Warrior anymore what I’m doing and I’m doing this like 10
Years early 20 years early that’s okay do it with me we’re laying the foundation for the rebuilding of culture after the corrupt portions collapse that’s what we’re doing here okay and if you walk in in virtue you walk in virtue and you become strong God
Will protect you and you will be one of the leaders leading the Lost out of the darkness that’s what this is it’s nothing less than that so God bless you all
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