FATHER SAMPSON: ON ORTHODOXY, ECUMENISM AND MODERNISM
On the Orthodox Church and the Denominations.
This is the meaning of my life and our life, made sense of, conscious: only Christianity, only the gaining and the knowing of Christ, not the public image of Christ, not the Christ of the official Church, but the living Christ. Not the distorted, Catholic, Protestant Christ, but the real, living, Orthodox Christ. All the joy and the comfort of my interesting but very sorrowful life are contained in this. (Vol 1, P. 72).
Orthodoxy is such happiness, such riches! It alone teaches and provides all the paths to salvation. No Catholicism, no Protestantism, no other form of faith or denomination, gives that which the grace of the Holy Spirit gives through Holy Orthodoxy. (Vol 3, 1).
Metropolitan Nikodim of Leningrad dreamed of uniting the catholic church with the Orthodox Church, even though the catholic denomination did not need this and was not ready to unite with us. And all his efforts ended in nothing, because he did not have God’s blessing and that of the Church and the Patriarch. All he did was amaze the Pope and the Catholics. And the Lord took him away so sadly, showing the whole world that without the Church’s blessing, you cannot take decisions, you cannot do anything from yourself. (Vol 2, P. 398).
It is easier to pray emotionally than spiritually. That is why there are more Catholics than Orthodox in the world. They pray with organs, they create a mood. But we Orthodox are bearers of truth, we pray with the spirit...the only condition of prayer is a contrite and humble spirit. (Vol 2, P.113).
To unite Catholicism to our Universal Orthodox Catholic Church is impossible. Catholicism is a collection of heresies and all those who have tried to unite it are the stupidest of people, because they trusted in their own pride and the only result was nonsense. (Vol 2, P.121).
On Modernism.
Renovationism was not accepted by the people. That is why it only lasted for two years and they were themselves forced to repent. The renovationists themselves were made up of the worst of the clergy, corrupted, either by disbelief, or by their weak faith, or by horrible sins, or else by stealing the property of others. One of the renovationist ringleaders was the famous priest Boyarsky. He was well known for his great theological knowledge, he was a remarkable preacher. And then he fell into renovationism because of his great ego. And it all ended badly. Instead of repenting, he stole a silver frame from an icon of the Mother of God and replaced the diamonds and precious stones with bits of glass. And for that reason he ended up in prison and died there. The famous Boyarsky...
Belkov publicly defrocked himself. Vvedensky did not repent. He refused to repent even in front of the Patriarch! And as for Krasnitsky - he died in prison for some criminal act. You see all five of them, the founders of renovationism, they all perished. (Vol 1, P.47-8).
Question: They say that in the spring the Eighth Oecumenical Council will take place and afterwards it will be impossible
to go to church.
Answer: Let us beg for God’s Mercy that it will not be so. As it will be impious and the reforms will deprive us of
the holy churches, we will pray in the catacombs. (Vol 3, 1, P.255).
Look how strange it is: Nature submits itself to the Church calendar, not the civil calendar. Look at the frosts, those at the Nativity, Theophany and the Meeting in the Temple, - they all fall according to the Church calendar, but the civil calendar is thirteen days earlier, and then there are no frosts, don’t you see? This means that nature submits to the Lord God - the Creator. And the Holy Fathers of the First Oecumenical Council fixed the date of Easter. And events in the natural world fall according to Easter. Sometimes Easter is late - does that mean that there is a different calendar? When Easter is early - everything changes. It is striking. Everything is in harmony with the Church canons of the First Oecumenical Council, by which Easter was fixed...But the civil, new, Catholic, heretical calendars they understand that the crucifixion was after the Jewish Passover. The result is an invention... (Vol 2, P.200-201).
What a great saint of God Fr John of Kronstadt was! His obedience was given by God, he was a real pastor. He was a priest and a pastor and it was as if he was showing the gifts of the Holy Spirit to the people for the first time. There had not yet been such pastors among our priests. That is why he was lawfully canonized (by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia) and was listed as a saint of God. (Vol 2, P. 220).
General confession is a not a sacrament. We do not understand this simple fact even today. It is dangerous to do a general confession and then read the prayer of absolution for all, not letting people come individually to the priest (Vol 2, P. 106).
General confession has no validity. It does not absolve sins, but only reminds you of sins. (Vol 2, P.390).
General confession is the distortion of the sacrament (Vol 3, 2, P. 319).
General confession cannot be a sacrament, but is only an introduction to the sacrament itself, which can only be carried out personally over each person separately. (Vol 3, 2, P.476)
I would like people not to forget this: why is it forbidden to read the secret prayers aloud? Why is it very harmful for the priest and the bishop to start reading the secret prayers aloud. The question why the Holy Fathers forbade reading them aloud must be explained...it is completely unOrthodox and it must be feared.
If the secret prayers are read aloud, then we will see renovationism: old grannies and all sorts of youths will know the secret prayers. And there will be blasphemy. And then he who is serving the liturgy and declaiming the secret prayers will forget that is standing before God. He will admire himself, he is emptied. The sacrament is performed, of course, but he will go away, darkened in mind, with heaviness.
For example, this is what I have seen with Bishop ..., who should be avoided. Here he is reading away with his emotions, haughtily declaiming the secret prayers, admiring himself and using his nervous system to influence those around him. And apart from heaviness and emptiness, no-one gets anything out of it. This is why St Seraphim of Sarov never dared to read the secret prayers aloud. He would have robbed himself, wouldn’t he? And this is what they don’t understand...
This is an Orthodox opinion, not only that of serious people. This is the smell of phariseeism which now often comes amongst us. Look at our bishops, they often abuse this, failing to understand that they are punishing themselves, emptying themselves. (Vol 3, 2, P. 333-4).