"Who would have imagined among us that the churches would have been closed here in the west. Look at how we responded. Look at our hearts. How did it impact on us. Through this experience we don't know how long our churches will remain open and we know now how easily the world around us can demand that our churches close. We must develop an inner life that is able and ready to face whatever comes. . ."
Fr. Spyridon Bailey is a priest of the Diocese of Great Britain and Western Europe of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, serving in England and Ireland, famous for his powerful sermons & messages, being the author of the best-seller "Orthodoxy and the Kingdom of Satan".
"The world tries to claim that the time of confessors and martyrs belongs to those first three centuries of the Christian church. It was during that Roman pagan period that Christians were martyred. We have images of the Colosseum and we’re reminded of those souls who were cast before lions and gladiators and lost their lives in this way. But historians tell us that in the 20th century more Christians were put to death in the USSR under the atheistic communists than in the entire first three centuries of the church. . ."
"Who would have imagined among us that the churches would have been closed here in the west. Look at how we responded. Look at our hearts. How did it impact on us. Those people who saw their churches closed in Russia had an inner life that enabled them to face it and to survive spiritually. Through this experience we don't know how long our churches will remain open and we know now how easily the world around us can demand that our churches close. We must develop an inner life that is able and ready to face whatever comes. We cannot take going to church, having the mysteries of the church available to us as something we take for granted. We must develop this inner life this spiritual life we must draw close to God now. While as in Egypt the harvest was full but a time of fasting would come, a time of barrenness in the land, so too when things are good, when we have freedom, let us use it to develop our closeness to God, so that if the world turns against us, if we are called to any kind of martyrdom, we too will be victors."
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