The Orthodox Spiritual Life (w/ Fr. Seraphim Aldea) 

Powerful stuff! Glad it was moving for you

That was some way to end the conversation! So profound!

And the Great Cave monastery, also, established at 362 AD

Fascinating stuff!

Bless You!!!

@Davin Sean It would have been more concise for me to say “continuously active monasteries” rather than just “active”. A number of ancient Buddhist religious sites, which predate many Christians sites, have been restored and are in use again for different purposes, and not many as actual monasteries, but these are recent in comparison to the Christian monasteries previously mentioned. So far, the information I’ve found about the “Hanging Monastery” and it being a continuously active monastery is vague. The oldest continuously active Buddhist monastery appears to be Tabo Chos-Khor Monastery. It’s a Tibetan monastery established in India around 996 CE.

@@davidbuckley3623 Christian come from Jewish religion, which is the oldest.

Glad you enjoyed it!

Romanian too here... The interview was awesome! God bless you all!

Same here! 🇷🇴 Thank God!!

@@Ana-eb4qz God bless you! Sarbatori fericite!

Romanian here too !

Wow, thanks so much for the encouraging feedback! God bless you too

God bless you father for seeing the beauty of God’s grace and wisdom in this person’s soul who does not belong to your Catholic faith. Most priests both Catholic and Orthodox do not have that kind of humility. I feel the same way, I feel overwhelmed by peoples humility and the divine wisdom that they are gifted with like this wonderful monk. It takes a lot of prayer and hard work to reach this level of spiritual maturity and wisdom with God’s grace of course. I would like to tell you about this book called True Life in God which is a compilation of messages given to this Greek Orthodox lady called Vassula Ryden by Jesus and the Blessed Mother. You can go to the website at tlig. org. May God bless you. ✝️😇

@@margokupelian344 I’ve met a lot of priest who carry this peace and humility. I haven’t met any orthodox priest.

Praise God for your baptism!

May The Lord Bless you fully and perpetually my brother. 🔥 🧡

My pleasure!

Glad you enjoyed it!

God bless you brother... Absolutely moving your story and testimony. For Orthodoxy is the true Church of Christ... The home for all searching protestants and Roman Catholics

@@evans3922 Thank you for the warmth of your response! It is truly heartwarming, encouraging and empowering. God bless you and yours!

Welcome Home!

I was a Pentecostal preacher and am now seriously considering orthodoxy.

My wife and I were Rhema grads, and I spent a few years as a pastor of a satellite church that my wife and I had spent our 20’s in. God revealed to us the Orthodox Church in 2014, and we were baptized and chrismated in 2019. It seems to us as though we have found the Faith that is big enough for the God of the Universe.

Wonderful!

Amen

Christ has not only soul but spirit, too

I wholeheartedly agree

@@pstathopulos Closeness is not usual in clouds. Seraphim's head is in clouds but the legs run the land

Our pleasure!

Oh yes! And He rose from the grave just to complete His work for us. He Truly is the Lover of mankind!

Amen

Truly

Like rejecting the warrior saints?

Think so? Think again. He openly supports globalism, liberalism, and LGBT. He also rejects numerous warrior saints. Not Orthodox as far as we’re concerned.

@@charlesmaximus9161 Where can I check to see if what you are claiming is true?

@@mvj1153 It's rubbish. The poster is an 'orthobro' and doesn't understand Orthodox Christian theology. Fr Aldea is sound and extremely well educated and experienced.

Amen

I’m so glad you enjoyed it! It was nice to focus less on apologetics/our differences and just get to learn from him about following Jesus

@@GospelSimplicity What I love about the interview is just talking to him and his love of christ. You see the purpose of monks and nuns in the church. Theu give themselves to G-d so turn they can help us get closer to him.

That's wonderful!

God bless you❤❤❤❤

Thanks!

So beautifully said

God bless you too!

God bless Serbia. Greeting from a serbian orthodox from Switzerland.

God bless from a Greek American Orthodox girl in NY

How interesting!

@@GospelSimplicity Yes, very unusual case! 🙂

Thanks!

Yes

Fr. Spyridon is an excellent resource

Amen!

Welcome to the channel! Glad to have you here. God bless!

Amen

Dear Fr. Barnabas, may God bless all of us. Please remember me and the Monastery in your prayers.

@@mullmonastery Of course, dear father. May God watch between us.

Indeed

Look at therealmedwhite 's video on this munk

It was my pleasure! Hope you enjoy it

Theosis. Theosis. Theosis. God help me do that which is "most needful"!

So glad to hear that!

My pleasure!

So glad you enjoyed it!

Thanks! It was something that bothered me in podcasts I listened to so I wanted to try to do it differently once I got the chance to interview people

Wow, thank you so much!!

Much love brother

So glad that you enjoyed it!

Sounds like someone I’d enjoy!

@@GospelSimplicity You totally would from what I have gotten to know of you on your channel. :)

Very true.

So glad you enjoyed it!

Glad you're enjoying it! I'll see what I can do!

That sounds like it would be a fun interview! Thanks for the recommendation!

Wow, thank you so much! Yes it is

!! Let's go to Mull Monastery on Pilgrimage

Thank you so much!

@@GospelSimplicity You're welcome. I want to show you some more Orthodox Channels / Priests that might help you : FR. PANAYIOTIS PAPAGEORGIOU, Ph.D. and Trisagion Films ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-LNO29Q4ppXk.html. Fr. David Smith ru-vid.com/show-UCS-09S_AEqBHebx1vDXM8RAvideos. And Fr. Seraphim ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-r4FaqRa1KFE.html&feature=emb_title

Wow, thank you so much!

Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for the recommendation!

@@GospelSimplicitycommenting to remind you of this great idea ♥️

Thank you so much for your kind words and for your prayers as well! God bless you both

He’s wonderful

It was my pleasure!

My pleasure!

Wow, thank you so much

@@GospelSimplicity ❤️🙏🏻

Amen!

Hope you enjoy it!

It's my pleasure!

I had so much fun with this one

He was a true delight to interview

Thank you so much! It was truly my pleasure

Absolutely LOVED talking with him. When the pandemic is over, I hope I can go see him

Amen

nice!

@@GospelSimplicity Also a great interview would be Hieromonk Gabriel

I’m so glad to hear that!

Glory to God! Orthodoxy is home !

Thank you so much! I’m glad you’re enjoying the channel

I’m so glad you enjoyed it!

Thanks! Yeah, his tone doesn't quite match the rest of the channel. Perhaps one day, but not yet

Jay Dyer is a terrible representative for Orthodoxy. Please don't have him on.

Jonathan Pageau would be a much better choice.

Plus one for Pageau! Very charitable, more knowledgeable than he lets on, and always very interesting!

@@user-ji3mn5fu8q Dude, I always see you going off on Jay in your comments. You seem to have a real bone to pick with him. Maybe check out the log in your own eye before obsessing over every speck in his?

I'm so glad that you're enjoying it!

I’m so glad you enjoyed it!

Matias, the real question is whether there is an authentic Christianity besides the Orthodox Christianity! The mystery of God is the mystery of the Uncreated Eternal Life Who is Ecstatic Love! Christianity isn't meant to be about a distant transaction between us and God! It is a transformational fullness of Life! It is about experiencing the fullness of Christ's mystery! Such an experience is really crucial in order to truly Know the Uncreated God! Only the Uncreated is Immortal and the cause of life and immortality! It follows that isolating anything created from its Creator causes the process of its erosion! That process is reversible which means redeemable only by communing with God's Uncreated energies! It's about Theosis in the Orthodox Theology! It's about a transcendental transformation by experiencing God's Uncreated energies. The protestant and roman catholic theology denies that the created may commune with the Uncreated God by denying God's Uncreated energies! However, our life cries out for fullness! We won't experience Life that is Life to the full, unless we experience the Eternal! Experiencing the Eternal is not about daydreaming! Experiencing the Eternal is about living for real by experiencing God Who is Life to the full! Of course, we could never commune with God's essence but we may commune with God's Uncreated energies by experiencing the Divine and human person of Christ! This way we may partake of His Life and live for real! His Life becomes our Life! He literally is our Resurrection! You are always welcomed to experience the mystery of God's Love in the Orthodox Church! May God's Life be your Life, so that you may experience Life that is Life to the full! God bless you and Live for real!

Your writing was wonderful and I really appreciate you sharing your story!

@@dimitrispeiraias thanks for your thoughtful answer. I wouldn't be into be baptized in the Catholic Church if it wouldn't be able for me to embrace distinctive Orthodox teachings. Speaking with Eastern Catholics I came to realize they believed Essece / Energy distinction too, and Theosis (As well as some great Lutherans like Dr. Cooper). Nevertheless I haven't seen the same opneness in orthodoxy about distinctive latin teachings. That sense of "breathing with two lungs" is so powerful to me than when I had to make a choice, the Roman Catholic Church won my heart, because I wasn't even told to chose. I really think His Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew was right when he said that our differences are not dogmatic. This, along with Pope JP II asking Eastern Catholics to please return to their traditions makes it clear, we are One, and not being able to sit togheter in the table to partake in the Eucharist is one if not the most sad thing in the world. Imagine your chlidren being so angry about each other that they can't even eat togheter. This is why I think Austin's work is so great, from his point of view. Baptism makes us brothers and sisters, we should fight to reunite the Church, and the first thing we need to do is love each other, listen to each other, and even being open to learn from each other. Austin with his videos teach us all that we both have a lot to learn, and of course, from protestants too, put Faith first, put Grace first, love Scripture, put Christ in the center at all times. Their focus on this things is wonderful, what if we could return to what the Orthodox Catholic Church once was? Learing from the best of each other, and striving to sainthood togheter, not looking at the brother's sin, but our first.

Matias, if Roman Catholicism is wrong about that certain dogma of distinction between Uncreated essence and Uncreated energies, then papal infallibility is profoundly a false doctrine! If papal infallibility is a false doctrine, then it is also a blasphemous dogma, given that infallibility is God's attribute! "It is impossible to recall peace without dissolving the cause of the schism-the primacy of the Pope exalting himself equal to God." (St Mark of Ephesus) There is a certain difference in the Orthodox view of Theology! Both Roman Catholicism and Protestantism have a theology based on the beliefs of one individual who is either the Pope or the protestant believer! In the Orthodox Church, we entirely trust in the living experience of the Whole Church! Infallibility is a gift that was bestowed on the oneness of the whole Church, because Church is the wholeness of a mystical body whose Head is the only infallible Son of man Who is the incarnated Son of God! For this very reason Orthodoxy is expressed by the whole body of the Church, which also includes the laymen! A true dogma is apprehended through the living experience of the One Holy Church, in accordance with the the criteria of universality, antiquity and consensus! Church is Jesus Christ's mystical body where He feed us on His own Flesh and we quench our thirst for life with His precious Blood! We could never join Him out of His mystical body which is the Church ! Of course as there is only one Lord so there is only one Church, the ancient one that was founded by Christ Himself and keeps the Orthodox faith!!! On the other hand, the presumption that the true faith could be infallibly apprehended out of the Oneness of the Whole Church is a spiritual quicksand! Thousands of different heretical views cause a spiritual confusion and a constant state of uncertainty. Anyway you are always welcomed to experience the fullness of Christ's mystery in the Orthodox Church!

@@dimitrispeiraias I don't think essence energy distintion has been rejected in a dogmatic way. Eastern Catholics believe it and lots of Latin Catholics like myself too. We also recognize Saints in the orthodox Church even after the Schism, Theosis, the Jesus Prayer, etc. Why would the Pope asked us to return to those traditions and to breathe with both if it had been denied? I think you are wrong in believing Protestants and Catholics have a one-man based faith. I know many Lutherans who base their faith in the Seven Ecumencial Councils, and us Catholics only have a few dogmatic teachings from the magisterium that are infalible doctrine, which are also part of your tradition as well, maybe in some other terms. I don't think I have to convert to Eastern Orthodoxy for the sake of Orthodox theology, I already have that. Our Patriarch of Rome made that freedom posible.

That's wonderful!

Wow, thank you!

@@GospelSimplicity No, no. Thank YOU!

I hope this is a pattern for the future!!! Christians uniting together.....both of you are such a blessing🙂.

God bless you too!

My pleasure!

I’m so glad to hear that!

It’s our pleasure!

So glad you enjoyed it!

Glad you enjoyed it!

Glad to hear that! It’s one of my personal favorites

Wow! God bless you

I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thank you so much for your support. God bless!

It was my pleasure!

Glad you enjoyed it!

Thanks!

Fr. Spyridon Bailey is an anchor of hope in this storm-tossed world! His voice and wisdom are soothing balm to my soul! ❤️🙏☦️🥰

Father Spyridon Bailey is great, but I don't believe he's a monastic. I might be wrong on that, but he serves a number of parishes in the UK and doesn't live in a monastery to my knowledge.

@@nikola9348 I think you might be right. He's listed on the ROCOR directory as: Priest of St Elisabeth’s Parish, Wallasey, England; also serving the new Mission Parish in Telford, England

@@nikola9348 perhaps he was a former monastic who now serves as a parish priest? Whatever the case may be, he is a true father of the Church who nourishes God’s people with the timeless wisdom and truth of Christ! 🙏☦️❤️

They're great!

It’s my pleasure! Thank you so much

I am an Orthodox Deacon from the Cleveland area. I know Fr. John from Chicago well. Your bringing to light the similarities between Christians is very well done.

Austin, I pray that you appreciate how blessed you are to be given an opportunity to interact on such a personal level with Eastern Orthodox clergy and now Father Seraphim. I pray it leads to your becoming a Catechumen and thus shifts you to interact privately with a Priest who will guide you in your journey outside of a situation where you monetize these interactions as a non-Orthodox. Perhaps your next guest ought be Jay Dyer, I humbly submit. ☦️🙏🏻

Thanks for the recommendations!

Hope you enjoy it!