From the word spoken at Putna
on May 21 by Archimandrite Father Simeon (Symeon) Bruschweiller of
St. John the Baptist Monastery (Essex), a disciple of Father Sofronie
Sakharov:
 |
| Archimandrite Symeon with Mother Mariam(Zacca) and Father Touma(Bitar) in the Monastery of Saint John the Baptist. Douma. Lebanon. |
Almost
all of us are Westerners who found in the Orthodox Church the true faith and
the true life in God. Orthodoxy means "the correct faith", "the
correct Glorification" and this "correct faith" enlightened us
and lead us here today.
As I said, the
Church can be compared to a river flowing through centuries, but this river is
exposed to a lot of dangers. We could say that this river, this Church, can be
attacked either from the inside, or from the outside.
Today we celebrate another feast apart from Mid-Pentecost, the Feast of Saint Constantine and Saint Helen. Until Saint Constantine the Great, the Church was attacked from the outside by the Roman Empire. As you know, the early Christians were subjects of unmerciful persecutions. The greatness of Saint Constantine comes also from the fact that he was a Roman Emperor, that he stopped the persecutions against the Church and he even became a Christian. Since then, the Church stopped being attacked from the outside like before, but, as you know there were other outside attacks.