St John Maximovitch on Marriage [1939 Belgrade ]

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Barbara
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St John Maximovitch on Marriage [1939 Belgrade ]

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Since yesterday was the Saint's monumental Feast Day - his 50th since repose in 1966 - I thought i would offer this little segment from his writings. It comes from the July 2010 "The Messenger", the bulletin of Holy Virgin Cathedral, San Francisco. I am putting this in Traditional Orthodox Churches because the Saint wrote it way before there was any cloud on the horizon of a takeover of Rocor by the Moscow Patriarchate.

The then-Archbishop of Shanghai minces no words describing the sorry situation of the Russian emigre community on the eve of World War II. This was probably taken from the famous report he made to the Synod of Bishops Council in 1939 on the state of the emigration :

"Marriage as something sacred has ceased to exist and has turned into an everyday transaction. There is no permanency in marriage among the young or old. It has become quite common to hear of a divorce only a few months after a marriage [ wow ! Even then ?? ].

"This occurs because the consciousness that marriage is holy has been lost. Not able to satisfy the demands of their lust by marriage in the Church [ the Saint is quite frank ! ], some ignore all Church and moral laws and do not bother to trouble themselves by asking the Church for a blessing. Many openly live together without the slightest concern about hiding their open dissipation. Some are joined together out of passion, others for the advantage gained from the marriage. It is especially pathetic that people have begun to look at such occurrence with indifference, not expressing any negative opinions about them."

We are almost 80 years after this eloquently written, sternly stated commentary. Imagine that it was that bad then ! What would the Saint say today, we wonder ?

I thought this would help to wake up those who may be in our neighborhoods or even families or circle of so-called friends who are 'living together' or not married by the Church but only some phony 'civil wedding'. It's so common now that no one blinks. However, it is as wrong today as it was when St John wrote this sorrowful observation about the low quality of morals prevailing probably in Europe and the Far East as well.

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