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Happy New Year to all frens on Gab and Fedi!!!

I hope everyone is enjoying a nice New Year’s dinner with friends and family.

For New Year’s Day, I would like to introduce Russian Orthodox priest Father Oleg Stenyev.

Archpriest Oleg Stenyev is one of many great Russian priests whose writings and speeches are not all translated into English. One may find many of his articles on some of the official sites such as OrthoChristian, but most of his best work is hidden to Western audiences.

One of my contacts is the spiritual son of a priest who translated one of Oleg Stenyev’s lectures into English. His speech was on the family, of the families of Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, and Ruth the Moabite. The Invidious YT link to the full discussion is linked as follows:

https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=Bh0zLCyur9M

As there is no official translation of Father Stenyev’s lecture, copying and pasting my friend’s priest’s translation carries an opsec risk. Here are some insightful quotations from the translation, slightly altered for opsec purposes:

On heretics/sectarians/unbelievers:

“The devil deliberately distorts the words of God; he wants to draw our ancestor Eve into some kind of useless discussion. Did God say, 'Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?' The same goes for [heretics] who ask Orthodox Christians provocative questions, not to hear the right answer but to confuse us, to throw us out of spiritual balance and draw us into useless discussion. [For example, sectarians] ask, "is it true that the Trinity is Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and St. Nicholas?" When an Orthodox Christian hears this, he begins to explain what the Trinity is and is drawn into a useless discussion with those who do not want to hear the right answer, but want to confuse a person in order to undermine his spiritual world. In this sense, the "ancient serpent" is the first sectarian and the first heretic who works against God, His laws and principles.”

On feminism:

“Saint John Chrysostom writes, 'Eve was created in order to converse with Adam.' Why did she find herself alone without Adam when she converses with the serpent? She violated the principle of conciliarity. That is, the great-mother Eve was the first feminist. She was the first emancipated woman who challenged the authority of her husband and as a result the serpent took advantage of this situation.”

On accusing others:

“Adam should have said, ‘Yes, I have eaten from the tree from which you forbade me to eat.’ If Adam had said this, the first man would have repented before God and the fallen human race would have been restored. Saint John Chrysostom writes, 'If you were the only man living on earth, for your sake alone the Son of God would have become incarnate on earth and ascended upon the cross to wash you with His Blood.' That is, in the eyes of God, every person is of the greatest value and the Lord always provides for our salvation. But instead of repenting, Adam shifts the blame onto another person and indirectly accuses God.”

On the foolishness of believing that sin has no consequence:

“Sin is never your or my personal business. Sin always has serious consequences for all our descendants. Exodus says, 'I am the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me' (Ex. 20:5), and God said to Abraham, 'But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again' (Genesis 15:16). We can learn a very important lesson from this. We must refrain from sins at least out of the desire that our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren will not end up without God’s blessing, with the consequences of our sins. Abraham, descending into Egypt, goes to Egypt where he and his people are sold into slavery.”

On bringing unbelieving family into the Church:

“In the Law of God it is said, 'A Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord, neither shall the tenth generation of them enter into the congregation of the Lord forever' (Deuteronomy 23:3). [However, Ruth] goes with [Naomi], and when they enter Bethlehem, this city, the whole city comes to a stir. They remembered how Elimelech [late husband of Naomi] left this city loaded with all kinds of wealth; and now Naomi walks on foot, according to tradition, barefoot, and leads a Moabite woman by the hand behind her, a woman named Ruth. There are no more children of Naomi, no husband, she lost all this living with them in the fields of Moab. But she gained one soul, the soul of Ruth, and she becomes the great-grandmother of King David...therefore, if modern Canaanite women, Moabites, non-churchgoers, maybe even atheists appear in your families, do not rush to create some kind of scandal, try to do everything to correct and convert them. Naomi did it; she converted Ruth.”

Icon is of Ruth and Naomi; Picture is of Father Oleg Stenyev
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