GOD'S 'OBSESSION' WITH LUST. DOES GOD EVEN CARE? (THE TRUTH ABOUT OUR BODIES AND THEIR PASSIONS) 

Pray for me a sinner Father. So many times I foolishly allow myself to believe the devil's lies that lust is good, only to give into such evil toys. I'm learning the value of Solomon's words, "a man of God falls seven times but get's up, but when the wicked man falls, he does not" I have had to throw away and get rid of such things so many times in my life only to become like a dog returning to it's vomit. God is teaching me to get up faster and move on. Pray for me a sinner as I do for you.

I'm a 26 year old man, this video was very helpful. It is getting so incredibly difficult to guard myself from lust in this hyper-sexualized society. Just walking around my city, there are girls that appear to be 16 in the face and yet 26 in the body, dressed in very revealing clothing. They are everywhere, it's completely become the norm. It is so frustrating to have to be on guard with my eyes and my thoughts all the time. I feel weird saying this, but it is true. These are beautiful girls, daughters of God. I don't want to look at them the way I do. I continue to pray and ask God and Our Lady to help guard me from impurity. Thank you father. Blessings in Christ.

Dear father Seraphim, my name is Emmanuel, I am 3/4 Greek and 1/4 Syrian . I was born in Alexandria Egypt and have been living in South Africa. I had the opportunity to visit and stay in few monasteries including Vatopedi in Mt Athos where I spent over a year trying to understand Orthodoxy and what it means to be a godfather to two Egyptian boys . I also had the blessings to visit St Sefronios St Sillouanos St John the Baptist monastery in Essex. I stayed in the monastery for two weeks and met f. Nikolas . The confession to him was one and the most Devine experience in my life. Now I must confess that you have completed that experience with the most important explanation for what I was really looking. I don't know how to thank you. I would like to visit you one day . I pray 🙏 for that

Thank you for your words. Although I am not an Orthodox Christian your teachings help me to deepen my faith and understanding.

Thank you brother. What a great message: truth and patience (humility). I´m catholic and watch your videos from Colombia, South America. May God bless you and may the mother of God guide you.

This is such a blessing. I was shamed as a teenager for lust and that continues til this day with guilt even in my marriage.

Thank you for this message father, it has helped me greatly and many others I'm sure. I pray and wish that women in the church would talk about their struggles with lust as much as men do. It makes it so much harder for those us who do as I sometimes feel as if I'm alone in my struggle. I think my biggest struggle is to go to confession about my own lust because I'm so intimated and afraid to share these sins with a man, even my priest. I've gone to confession about it only twice and everytime I have it's as if my lips are glued shut. Please pray for me, I pray for you all. God bless you all.

Fr. Seraphim, this was so uplifting. We all need repentance, but we also need a long-suffering spirit with ourselves just as Christ is long-suffering with us. Thank you so much for your words of wisdom.

I picked up my icons of Jesus The Good Shepherd, St Columba and The Heron, and St Brendan The Navigator from Mull Monastery today and started my icon wall. Thank you Father and God bless you all. I pray for you every day.

There is something about your descriptions of things that really resonates with me. I cant quite describe it. But thank you. Whenever watching your videos on subjects, it really eases my mind.

Thank you for this Father.

Dear Father!! God bless you!! Thank you for this video!!!

Lust and gluttony are the same. Longing for something or someone just out of reach. But He's not. He is at Holy Mass each day. He is in our daily prayers. He walks among us. He longs for us too. He hungers for us too. The difference is, in my humble opinion, He loves us unconditionally. He is Mercy. He is Forgiveness. Yes focus on God.

Life is getting very hard on me and my husband, please pray for us . Hanna & Rania

Amen Amen Amen Thank you Father 🙏🙏🙏🙏

Thank you brother, I needed this today. God Bless.

Thank you Dear Father for this message of the seriousness of our bodies, and also for your words of mercy and patience. A million times, thank you!

This was a timely message given with such clarity, love & understanding. Thank you Fr Seraphim. 👍

I must to prase You also on serbian: одличан сте беседник, јако лепо зборите и дајете веома корисне савете. Бог Вас благословио, поздрав из Београда!

Your words are very healing thank you

Thank you for this video their is a desire in me to change but their is so many things to unlearn

Father, bless! Thank you once again, Father, for these vital, timely words of truth.

Yes it s very hard,very tough outhere.You read about Saints Who died in order not to be defiled.but we live in a society that has blocked God out.but my solace is that God does know,the One Who is open to us with all His Life and Death,One Who waits for us to come to be healed.

This is so important, especially today. Your approach is the healing method. My spiritual father takes the same approach with me. As you say he has given my soul respite, or room to heal. By doing so God has revealed things to me I never would have known otherwise. My prayer life is growing little by little and thank God. So thank you Father for sharing this with us.

Thank you! and thank you for the broadcast today on Doxologia! I was happy to hear you speak Romanian because i told my romanian friends a lot about you. And they could finally hear you today ♥️🙏😍

I love your sermons Father they are always full of wisdom and timely. Father keep me in your prayers that i may have a stronger relationship with Christ. May God bless you and your monastery abundantly. Thank you for these wonderful words, i always learn something new.

Thank you for this timely and important talk. Unfortunately we live with the schizophrenic split between spirit and body, where spiritual traditions have largely seen the body as sinful, and Western culture now sees only bodies devoid of spirit. Lust is a problem, not because of natural desire, but because it turns people into mere objects to be used for the satisfaction of one’s desires. As a Buddhist monk I came across many years ago put it: never take what isn’t freely given.

Thank you father for such an important and strong message. All of us are struggling when we are young to understand and love and value our body. Our body is so important and loved by God because is the house of our souls. When God creat us He first made our body than the soul. Of course is important and we should value more.

Amen wow thanks so much again for these teaching so far from normal mainstream church ⛪️ God's love and blessings ❤️ glory to the farther son and holy spirit 🙏

Thank you ❤️

Thank you Father, so much for this video, you are in my prayers. I am 68 and no longer bothered by sexuality (food however...). I have come a long way from the lost days of my youth and would just like to say to all here that if you trust and pray, God will help you. Your very life journey will turn you away from lust because it is His will. Blessings, Julie 🙏

Thank you Fr. Seraphim Aldea. Please pray for me as I am starting from the bottom. That I will be patient with myself as I struggle to stand up again. May the Almighty loving God be generous and merciful enough to come into my life

Thank your father. Praying for your intentions and I value your generosity and honesty in teaching.May God Grant you His peace. Amen! Amen! Amen!

God bless you, Fr Serafim!

Awesome message thank you brother . The father detest sexual immorality and we all know this who believe . St Paul says “6 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17For the flesh craves what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are opposed to each other, so that you do not do what you want. In the same breath the knowledge of sin is not the knowledge of holiness, neither the knowledge of God. Beholding is obedience, and not yourself then Holy Spirit will be at work with you.

Again, thanks a lot for your words. Patience is the key for me in your video... to love our bodies and to love that we are for God who loves in Christ as nobody will love to.

Father when is the resurrection of the dead...are saints in heaven now...I have always pondered this question because when our lord said to the to the other man Crucified..today you will be with me in heaven...God Bless 🙌🙏

I thank you for this teaching, for it is a very nuanced take and has made me think deeply on this topic with a new perspective. I do think that self-patience is a double-edged sword, as it provides a rational comfort, but may also pacify and lead to less conviction over temptation to sin. Also, I will not call you father, for I have only one Father in heaven.

I wish I knew all of that about my body....thank you so much for helping me understand!

yes! I agree...thank you so much...

Amen

Thank you so Father

Thank you Father. This did help.

For reasons that I do not understand this became less of an issue when I experienced the unseen realm in dreams when I was working on my B.S. when I was at university. It drove me closer to Christ as well but I advice against searching after such experiences as they can be dangerous.

There is a certain obsession with sin among the Christian community. When I stepped out of that community and simply began to live, this so called “sin” melted away in a certain way. I began to hate myself less, judge people far less and simply love them instead of seeing this thing called “sin” in myself and others and in every prayer and service I attended. I began to feel like I could truly grow closer to the God of life. The sexual urge is a core part of human existence and if buried and buried for years will only become poisonous to someone’s peace and simplicity of life. I have seen this in the lives of my own Christian brothers and sisters. And in fact those who experienced their sexual life, who learned from it and what it means and is, experience life, what it means to be human, and how to use this powerful experience in a manner that is safe and good. Forgive me Fr. Serafim. I must say with sincerity I have not experienced lust through the experience of a monastic living on an island, and so with completely differing perspectives, I completely respect your perception of lust and will not dare to say mine is more true. It is simply the experience of another human, another grain of sand. Thank you for your videos father.

Pleas pleas father immediately construct or establish rehabilitation center around your area to stay one week or two weeks then back to their home for men and women who are suffering by many body sins it will help learn how escape or free their internal fighting .

Hey fellow Orthodox Brothers...

Va rog frumos si o traducere in română va rog as vrea sa va ascut ma iertați 😊

☦️☦️☦️

Im in the process of quiting several drugs and medications. Have come a long way and have a bit left.... I Dont feel that I’ve split apart after I found Christ. I have troumas sense I was a child and new troumas that have messed me upp real much. Im better now but I have a long way to go. Have repented and as I said Im on my way to turn from that. Dont masturbate.... so I think Chist helps me both through tough love and sometimes directly... have not that much problems with my body. Not In that sense.... Do you have any input or something on this? Thanx for this video! God bless you and the monistary your in! Much love from Sweden 🇸🇪💟☦️💟

Don’t separate physical life from spiritual life, especially sex. Sex is an incredibly spiritual experience. These are not two things, physical life and spiritual life are part of the same thing.

It's only after 20 years that realised how I've failed my body, how I've abused it and prostituted it. This realisation, along with how I've lived in the past and how I've not allowed God to lead me, has broken my heart. I also wish I had met someone back then who could have warned me about the harm I was doing to my body through my sin of lust. I was in hellish darkness without knowing it. But this darkness, which once paralysed me, has now caused me to have a contrite heart. My body is now completely God's. I am terribly afraid (in a healthy way) to take any false step that could lead back to lust. Lust eroded the very essence of love in my heart and I've realised that I have never even truly known how to love a woman. God is now teaching me how beautiful and powerful love can be. I will have patience with myself Fr. Thank you for sharing this.

O beloved father Seraphim - May you dwell in the heart. May you be free from suffering. May you be healed. May you know your wholeness. May you be happy and at peace. 🙏 ❤

Thank you for this video Father. I thank God that He already rescued me from lust at my conversion but your words are incredibly affirming of my own place in this journey. I have a peculiarly long memory and I recall the development of this sin in me since the age of 4 when I had sex with an older child. I remember that deep in my heart I did know I shouldn't, just as Adam and Eve knew. Unlike others I could have avoided... if only I knew then what I know now. God has mercy. One thing I want to say for the value such an insight may offer others with similar struggles. You said it well that we idolise our ego's "ideal" self. Well I found that this idol I dared not try to be, along with a degree of poor love from male role models, led to me projecting what I wanted to be as a man (the idol) into my already corrupted and chaotic sexuality. I eventually found myself engaged with men I pretended were that idol, literally worshipping it, in ways that only years before would have sickened me. And I did all this in order to explore myself ignoring the fact that my heart and even my flesh knew it was not working. The world always provided enough reason to doubt and question and excuse. But God was patient. He led me from atheism to Christianity over six long years. And to my surprise, as a man trying to commit to chastity in the absence of perspective, He lifted this burden of all burdens off my shoulders when I finally threw myself at the mercy of Jesus. Glory be to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever and to the ages of ages. Amen.

thank you for approaching this with such care, its more appreciated then i have words for.. God bless you and guide you!

This is such an important message for our youth.

Thank you so much Fr Seraphim for your message today. A very important message for our time. Being raised in the Catholic church it was a topic never discussed with young people except to say ' sex is a sin outside marriage' which was not helpful at all and just left us with feelings of guilt, confusion and unanswered questions. I grew up hating myself for my fallen state, never believing I had any hope of redemption because I didn't feel worthy of God's love. I've grown in faith and trust in the Lord in the last few years, thankfully I've developed a new and deeper relationship with God. I'm still a fallen human of course but I pray each day that I improve, with God's graces I'm fighting the good fight. I look at you as a spiritual father and I look forward to each evening getting back from work so I can listen to your messages. God bless you all there in Mull and all my brothers and sisters everywhere.

The way you framed this topic was illuminating and refreshing.

I am actually begging for help. I have brought it up to my priest but he said he has never heard of it. I am a habitual sinner. I fall into impurity still but I can say with honestly that when it begins I do not desire or will it. In fact I fear it coming on. What I mean is my body acts as though I have no control of it. The sin occurs because I help it along. I know I am responsible because of years of self abuse. I am being blunt because I am desperate for help. Am I guilty of grave sin as I fear it and pray against it and for days avoid thoughts and occasions even images in art. Then my body literally takes over. Can you give any help or advice. I know nothing impure enters heaven so I live in fear of this sin. I can control anger being judgemental unkind but in this case my body acts on its own. Please help!

It's one of my greatest challenges; I've always been lustful. Many women aproaches me now with the intent of sexual relationships as soon as the first date. I've been like that forever, and I think I attract people like that,because I probably look like I want that too. But since last year, I've been doing many changes in my life, and both physically and mentally, I've never felt better in my life But..for many days now, even aftee long days of labour and enjoying sport, loneliness is seeping through the cracks of my character. You words are encouraging Seraphim, like always.

Thank you, Father. I have been battling this sin for years, and I have been feeling hopeless lately. This is exactly the encouragement I needed to hear to keep fighting the good fight. May the Lord bless you and keep you and may His face shine upon you.

I can't believe this video just arrived on time... Thanks from a Catholic brother 😉👍

Dear Fr. Seraphim, as a lifelong male dancer in the United States, I very much appreciate your discussion with yourself here. I wish you didn't "dread" talking about this because it is of real concrete concern and needs to be openly discussed without Anxiety or Fear. I'm so glad you made the decision to go ahead and move forward with this and move the discussion on ahead. Since relatively NOTHING substantive is every discussed about this seriously, we have what we have: a convoluted uninformed mess. And that is so, so very dangerous. To All. As philosopher/essayist George Steiner wrote (I'm paraphrasing from memory): "Without placing your wares in the marketplace, barbarians have the opportunity to usurp your space" May God please watch over our dear children and ourselves as we gently educate and appropriately inform them with as much Intelligence, Compassion and Tact as we can. It is my personal belief that dancing should be incorporated as an ongoing part of one's overall education. It teaches regard for the fragility of one's body. Respect for the bodies of others. Healthy/sane (i.e. balanced) relationship between the sexes through more nuanced physical relating. It stands as an alternative physical practice -- particularly in the West -- to arrive at a constructive and civilizing attitude towards the body as it's being put to use for ennobling ends. And quite possibly, with these clear relationships to developing Conscience, it could be groundwork laid to commence understanding the body's relationship with and towards God. When I, a cradle Presbyterian, observed my first Orthodox services from the back of a Russian Orthodox cathedral on Easter weekend in 1986, I was dumbfounded. Here I saw people STANDING for HOURS. Here I witnessed a very elderly Russian woman dressed to the nines in white fur and diamonds join everyone else and go down to the floor. My dancing language helped me understand 'something' of what was going on. It certainly supported my immediate reaction: THIS ACTUALLY MEANS SOMETHING IMPORTANT TO THESE PEOPLE AND BECAUSE THEIR ENTIRE BODIES ARE COMPLETELY INCORPORATED, THAT MEANING IS PROFOUND. It was Good Friday, and I begged my friend who had brought me to his place of worship and healing to allow me to stay. I only left after the Paschal meal on Sunday afternoon. Yes, growing up in the West I was given two polar options of physical approach: make the body into an overwrought object of seductive desire or make it into an equally overwrought violent machine (i.e. for warfare and COMPETITIVE sport). In performing arts, there is the added temptation of becoming an 'living' aesthetic narcotic, sheer mindless entertainment being simply one evidence of that. Even, unchecked involvement in Beauty -- as I don't need to tell you -- can very quickly become a seriously erroneous spiritual trap. NONE of that ever was or is acceptable to me. Don't ask me how, as my surrounding culture showed no signs of support -- all those notions deeply offended my core sensibility from the start. All those notions are in affirmative supportive service to the worldly and it's commerce with the added injunction of "Do whatever it takes and by whatever means it takes" But do I do ANY OLD THING / MY THING, or do I do GOD'S THING? And where is God's wish for my body within the confusion of all that? My body, I've always known, is not a product to be trotted out and 'sold'. Embracing that stance has been difficult and the maneuvering in this world with it can be 'hair-raisingly' difficult My guiding, grounding principle has remained: YOU DO NOT HURT YOUR BODY --- WHICH INCLUDES NOT INDULGING IT --- YOU DO NOT HOLD THE AUTHORITY NOR DO YOU OWN THE RIGHT. As such, I cannot STARVE it -- a sin in my book -- although, differently, I can Fast it deliberately and consciously which often carries with it, the exquisite spiritual element of Joy. I have never to my recollection ever experienced an authentic separation between my mind and my body. The reason I loved dancing from an incredibly young age is that it intimately and chronically confirms that Unitive Truth. Any separation I assumed I experienced, was from an artificial propulsion from deliberate willfulness stepped up and out of control. Or -- in a way, more horribly -- as a manufactured defensive response to an attack from something/someone else. Without knowing anything further, I'll just leave this as a further point of pondering-for-me. My body is a symbol, a living symbol of my Being: if I ignorantly place my soul's being in danger then my body reveals an undeniable imprint of that act. I may not always have the eyes to actually see it, but I KNOW it deep in my marrow; it lodges there and believe me, when it does, "it hurts" with a conscience-stricken pain like nothing else. What I believe you reference here, within the limits of my experience, requires an ongoing tendered awareness for which I can perceive no end for the time I have to physically live upon this earth. It's not a hateful approach for me, it's a reciprocal approach towards God, recognizing the so-called limits of living my body In Christ, as remembering God in ongoing merciful love continues to recognize me. It would take at least one incredibly dense volume to discuss all this so I'll leave it at these fragmentary suggestions, "as is". May God bring you and each of us, Fr. Seraphim, increasing illumination on this most important and -- yes -- most mysterious enigma of our existence here. Yes, such as we are, we are Fallen and our bodies, as I see it and have seemed to have ever so slightly glimpsed it, certainly reside in that degraded state as well: we were once, through unimpeded engagement with God's Love, so much more than we now are . . . It is helpful for me to continually remember that though I live in and through this fleshly "monk's cell", God made the Original and therefore said 'habitat' belongs to Christ and not to me. [As an aside, the following book was quite interesting to me: www.amazon.com/Human-Body-Ascesis-Exercise/dp/B002PD9V00. It arrived in my life after much pondering on these questions. For such a tiny treatise it opened many doors for me in the specific terms of my own life's orientation and in backhandedly suggesting answers to some of the larger questions which you posit here. I was able to purchase it as a $5.00 used copy rather than the inflated price listed here. While obscure, to those sincerely interested, just be patient -- one will appear.]

Thank you father . Being in a state of Grace and away from sin is an experience every human being should have in their lives. The enemy attacks our Nous with images and thoughts about sex, so Nepsis and rejecting these thoughts is crucial. Atheists are so proud and hedonist, they only live for pleasure and have a distorted view of what living a normal life is. Kyrie Jesu Xriste, eleisum me.

That's exactly what I felt from the Orthodox priests in the past, hatred and condamnation which pushed me away from the church. I was baptised in the Orthodox church but I don't know if I still belong there. I know that faith doesn't equal church but I'm sure the church can help a great deal with your spiritual growth.

Fr. Seraphim...you have no idea...how timely this has come. Myself and another mother just shared to one another about our daughters. Please, please continue. Hope can be felt today.

Thank you for this brother. I also wish that I had met someone at a young age to respect the flesh of my body and not succumb to the passion of Lust. Even today as I have sinned and hurt my soul and body, I can't help but cry in despair and hate myself for sinning against my Lord and God. I want to beat this so badly and I keep falling back into these old habits that I've been struggling with for almost 15 years now. I now wonder if I can even live in this world anymore if I'm so weak and should I go to a monastery for wisdom. I pray for you everyday brother, please pray for me: a Macdonald of Clan Ranald.

Thank you Brother. Please send us the next video in this series ASAP.

Thank you for this very clear and needed message. As a retired RC priest, I would ask that you might speak of what is implied: continual prayer asking for help. I know you know that and speak of it often, but, too often, I find people trying to follow this themselves. We sometimes seem to forget what a necessary weapon prayer is and how little we can do on our own. We know it, but sometimes it needs to be vocalized: ask God to get involved because we can not do it ourselves. God bless you, Father, for all of your prayerful and thoughtful videos. God is even using them to help this old man, as well as many others! An unexpected vocation for a monk, perhaps, but a very valuable one as well.

Thank you for dealing with such a sensitive and difficult topic so well! So often (At least in the religious world outside Orthodoxy) We are told not to do these sinful things, but we are not given the why. It gives young people the impression that God decided that we can't do 'fun things' just cause. (I think there are even some study Bibles for teenagers that use that wording.) And that we will go to hell if we do. Obviously, sexual immorality is deadly serious, no doubt about that, but without a why, you have the modern world. The Body is one of those things that people outside Orthodoxy seem to get wrong. The body is treated (at best) as not important to Salvation, and (at worst) as opposed to salvation (Twisting Paul's use of the word flesh.) I don't know how the incarnation fits into that theology, but when it comes to bodily sins, it leaves a groundless prohibition. This also reflects in the attitude towards relics, sacraments, and eikons. Salvation becomes a spiritual matter, where the goal is to get your name entered into a cosmic spreadsheet, so (in a most ironic twist) you can enjoy happiness in heaven marketed in very material terms. What never made sense about that perspective is why are there all these bodily prohibitions? And if the material affects the spiritual, then why the hostility to sacraments, and holy things. If physical things can negatively affect your spirit, why can't physical things positively affect it?

This channel amd your wise words have been instrumental in the strengthening of my faith, thank you for what you do.

More people should see and hear this! What a wonderful talk. May God bless you! The Holy Spirit was speaking through you.

I love You more than I can say.I do care for You.and I loved most Your sincerity and Your vulnerability.I do understand Your pain.I m sorry the world stole our childhoods and our purity.I m hurting

Thank you so much for this video and for the tenderness in which you stress our need to be forgiving and patient with ourselves. God bless you as well.

Beautiful message brother. God bless you. Especially appreciate your speaking of the importance of our physical body which Christ took on to save, and yes our body will not be tossed out, but will be resurrected and transformed and will enter into the Kingdom of God. The tradition of the Greek Philosophers was always anti-matter and that has crept into some orthodox circles back to the time of the Apostles. But what God created was GOOD.

Love and peace. Tim

Thank you father for everything! Father ive struggled with lust for so long, like for years i couldnt stop i used to be addicted to it and did it multiple times a day. And now, Thank God! Really really Thank God! I just stopped (it wasnt instantly but it was rather quick, maybe a month or so and i stopped). I still get temptations but try to ignore them and pray to God to help me. Thank you fsther and God bless you!

Thank you father this video has been helpful

amen amen amen!! thank you Fr Seraphim!! a much needed discussion for sure!!

I have prayed about my own sins, I cried and thought about myself for years, and one day, this truth helped me. To have compassion and mercy for others while condemning yourself for the same offenses and sins can be hypocritical. Was I holding myself to a higher standard because I secretly felt that I was better than they were? In some measure, I did. This was very humbling, I think too highly of myself and too little of my brothers and sisters. We all need discipline, and we all need mercy. ❤

Beautiful teaching, reflection, very necessary & important topic. Thank you Father.

God bless 🙏

thank you for this immense insight father,your hardship has not been in vain you are helping us so very much

. HELLO, my dear One ❤ .

Thank you Father Seraphim for this message, as many of us in the modern world need it greatly. I am 34 and have just in the last year started to tame my lustful passions. It has been tough, but our Lord has strengthened me to quit watching pornography, stopping masterbation, and doing my best to keep my eyes from pulling me into the passions. It is hard to not look at all the beautiful women that I come across that are dressed scantily, but I know it is my heart that is the problem not the women of the world. I pray our Lord will have mercy on a wretched sinner like myself, and help me to view them as they are Gods beloved children who know not what they do in dressing in modern fashion. I pray God will help me find a God fearing orthodox woman to spend the rest of my life with, but in the mean time I will take up my cross and crucify my passions to the best of my ability. Please pray for me for my flesh is weak, but the Spirit of God strengthens me!

A great message of hope provided at an excellent time

Καλησπέρα

V-am auzit si la "doxologia" pe acest subiect si va multumesc pentru ca am nevoie de cuvantul acesta pt ca ma chinui sa imi asum trupul asta pe care il simt ca nefiind al meu, nu pot sa ma simt in simbioza cu el.

Thank you. I seem to ask high things from me (and by extension, others), and because of this I fail to even start moving. Because I already have the failure in front and I dread failure. Having less ambitious goals is tricky , too. God bless, and His name be praised! He loves us so much, even when we don't realize.

Dear Fr Seraphim, this talk was very immediate and very powerful. It spoke directly to me, who is also very much affected and feeling helpless to escape from the clutches of lusty thoughts, feelings and actions. Similar to yourself, I once discovered some pornography in my parents' room, I think I was about 11 years old, still a very innocent soul. I was utterly shocked to see pictures of people naked and, not only naked, but doing all sorts of unspeakable things to each other which to me seemed utterly disgusting at that time, the opposite of whatever I had till then considered proper and right human behaviour. Later on, I came to be told and persuaded that these actions were "normal" and that the sense of shame or guilt I felt was the thing that was "abnormal". And, of course, I was from then caught by the spirit of lust and have remained in its clutches ever since then. The thing that was great about this talk from you is that it very directly addressed this issue. We have heard moralising all of our lives that lust is bad, by exactly WHY is it bad? We are not harming anyone? We are simply doing something natural, aren't we? These are the obvious counter-arguments, which keep us paralysed. However, your explanation that our bodies are creations of God, imbued with spirit and holiness, and that God does not wish for us to defile these bodies, no one has said this before so clearly. For those of us fighting to be on the spiritual path, you have given us a great weapon that we can use in this fight. Thank you!

Thankyou. Very well said. I look forward to the next instalment. This subject is super important and when it's talked about with humility and honesty there is a Christian light that shines that pushes back the darkness.

Thank you so much Father !

I am a jealous god. When your engaged with sin you love your sin more than God. Nothing distracts his children more than lust of the flesh. Nothing so easily tears souls away from the path of richeousness than lust of the flesh. God wants you to love him more than sex and orgasm. It's a tough path. Very tough. Who can walk this path? I did not understand this for a long time. Its all about love and Jelousy. God wants to be your first thought and your last everyday. He wants to be your obsession.

MULTUMIM DIN TOATA INIMA PENTRU CONFERINTA ASCOR ALBA IULIA, CU ADEVARAT MARE MARE MARE SARBATOARE SA VA ASCULTAM! BINECUVINTATI SI IERTATI PARINTE SFINTITE SERAFIM!

God is calling me to be orthodox. I truly want to put god first before worldliness.

I am going to have to gladly disagree with you, beloved, from your intro. Having a conversation face to face vs in a media platform and getting the message thru to "that person" in a "given moment". Even though this recording was two weeks ago, the message can still be just as intimate for that person who was not called to hear it at the moment the recording was made, but rather at a time when God chooses for the person to hear. Just as God directs you to send certain messages at certain periods of time, He will reciprocate that to the listener whom God intends needs to hear the message at God"s appointed time for that individual. A person may be getting ready to need to hear your message on their schedule relative to the circumstances in their life and the timing doesn't match that in which the message was given. All I want to say is, keep doing what your doing by staying open to God and He will bring EVERYTHING together in its appointed time. Trust me...your messages are effective thru the media platform. Don't worry about that. I know from my personal experience that when I get notified from your channel, sometimes the message isn't for me at that moment. But like tonight, I'm facing an unusual dark time with the flesh and I happen to be going through my notification list, and God pointed out the one you posted 6 days ago. I saw it when you originally posted it but God was redirecting me to it for a later time. It was nothing I had planned, but I'm learning to stop "Planning " so much and to start letting go so God can direct me and speak to me. So here I am testifying to you that God"s timing for you to send messages out will also be the same for the listener. God has used you to reconfirm things He told me in my heart earlier today. Sometimes, a message needs to come in a variety of ways to the recipient for the recipient to better relate. The recipient may understand the message, but a particular experience might need to play a part on that recipient's moment in time for the message to be better relatable for the recipient .There may be a message God delivers to the heart of the recipient, but then God sends a messenger to deliver the same or similar message in a way tweaked differently so that the person who may for whatever reason interpreted a message a certain way may need to hear it again from a different angle of approach and thus adding more pieces to the puzzle to complete the "picture". It's like revisiting things you studied and you see certain key things that stand out that you missed before maybe because you lacked the experience to relate to it or for whatever reason, the mind did not retain it. God bless you, beloved. I will continue to pray for you. Romans 8:28 New International Version "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

... especially in the moments I needed Him most for my salvation. Amen.

First I put like and then I watch! 😄😇 Father bless, and please pray for me, my name's Alexandar.

I was just recently baptized. And this is a topic I am struggling with. Thank you for your words! As difficult as this must be for you, please know it is helping at least one person with their struggle.

Dear Father Seraphim, pray for my blindness towards my sins so I can be humbled and confess them in preparation for Pascha.