Author: Hieromonk Gabriel

The Benedict Option?

· Hieromonk Gabriel 4 Leave a Comment on %s
In a recent article I responded briefly and partially to the following question from a reader: What vision in your view could the Orthodox Church offer to people who are seeking life? …Many parish churches that are filled with pious families with the best of intentions occupy such a small fragment of parishioners’ lives that they stand little chance against the array of forces pulling us downwards. At what point would it…

The New Rituals of Techno-Utopia

· Hieromonk Gabriel
Perhaps my assertion that secular humanism is the embryonic form of the religion of the Antichrist, and that scientific materialism is essentially a tool to build that religion, struck some people as a bit extreme, perhaps even ludicrous. If so, then I would encourage you to take a look at a very interesting article in today’s Atlantic about the new rituals being created to accommodate modern sensibilities, i.e. mankind’s worship of man.…

Public Schools and Antichristianity

· Hieromonk Gabriel
Matthew Cochran has just published an extremely important article exposing the subversive indoctrination tactics being used in current sex education programs in public schools today. According to its publisher, the specific curriculum which he investigates is being used (as of 2017) by over 50 school districts across the country, including 11 of the largest 25. As Cochran details in his article (please read it), the program adopts a tone of innocuous impartiality…

The Shape of Things to Come

· Hieromonk Gabriel 5 Leave a Comment on %s
These “forerunners” of the Antichrist also direct that world-wide process which the Apostle St. Paul called “apostasy” (II Thess. 2:3). The essence of this process is Christian mankind’s ever greater departure from the genuine, uncorrupted teaching of the Gospel and the replacement of the Gospel commands with other ideals. The destructive nature of these ideals proposed to mankind by the Antichrist’s forerunners is that they sometimes seem acceptable for Christians, compatible with…

The Signs of the Times

· Hieromonk Gabriel
As we continue to celebrate Paschaltide, our enemy’s rage at his cosmic defeat and his hatred for Christians continue to become ever more palpable. The signs of the times are becoming ever more obvious. In California, a bill has been introduced in the state legislature that would ban books advocating the traditional Christian teachings on marriage, gender, and sexuality, as well criminalize therapy intended to help persons who are experiencing unwanted sexual…

Clinging to My God

· Hieromonk Gabriel
Today is the fifth and final Sunday of Great Lent. In a few short days Holy Week will begin. There is one more week remaining in the Great Fast, one more week in which to prepare ourselves to meet the awesome and saving events of the Lord’s Passion and Resurrection. All throughout Lent, the Church has provided us with a roadmap for our spiritual journey. We began the Fast with Forgiveness Sunday;…

The Reason Behind School Shootings

· Hieromonk Gabriel
The nearly unquestioned assumption about school shootings is that they are usually perpetrated by the mentally ill. This psychiatrist disagrees: The reason the mental health system fails to prevent mass shootings is that mental illness is rarely the cause of such violence. Even if all potential mass shooters did get psychiatric care, there is no reliable cure for angry young men who harbor violent fantasies. And the laws intended to stop the…

Casting Out Demons

· Hieromonk Gabriel
I recently finished reading Demons by Dostoevsky [warning: there are some significant spoilers ahead]. It is perhaps the darkest of all the novels of a writer who, in any of his writings, could certainly never be accused of shirking from the depravity of which the human heart is capable. Nearly everyone in the story comes to a bad end in one way or another, except for two of the least sympathetic characters…

The Problem with Battles

· Hieromonk Gabriel
Yesterday I suggested that the increased political activism we see around us is fundamentally religious in nature. As Paul Krugman pointed out, there is an intense longing welling up in our society for an end to injustice and atrocity. And to be absolutely clear, I believe that this longing is deep, sincere, and praiseworthy. The problem isn’t at all that so many people have a moral objection to the status quo. I…

Caesaropapism in the New York Times

· Hieromonk Gabriel
Several days ago, I wrote briefly about the increasingly prevalent attitude that meaningful action is a synonym for political action. I was thinking that it would be worth reflecting on this subject further, and then conveniently Paul Krugman decided yesterday to illustrate my point for me: A funny thing is happening on the American scene: a powerful upwelling of decency. Suddenly, it seems as if the worst lack all conviction, while the…