{"id":18540,"date":"2019-01-22T14:50:00","date_gmt":"2019-01-22T14:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/2019\/01\/code-of-honor-for-priest-whats-danger.html"},"modified":"2019-02-19T06:47:29","modified_gmt":"2019-02-19T06:47:29","slug":"code-of-honor-for-priest-whats-danger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/2019\/01\/code-of-honor-for-priest-whats-danger","title":{"rendered":"Code of Honor for a Priest. What\u2019s the Danger of Trying to Mingle with the World?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/div>\n
Make a Vow<\/strong><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
As soon as they are consecrated, new priests acquire a new life. Similar to the Sacrament of Baptism, which restores the purity of God\u2019s image in a human being, the Sacrament of Priesthood also revives the image of God.\u00a0When a person becomes a priest or a monk, he crosses the threshold of a new reality and declares that it is God who is the purpose of his life.\u00a0The vows that the person takes demonstrate that the Lord becomes the reference point of his entire life, and that there aren\u2019t any values of this world that could undermine his desire to come closer to God and to serve Him.<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
The Spiritual Code<\/strong><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
If we look into it carefully, we\u2019ll see that the vows taken by a priest or a monk in front of God and people imply his acceptance of a certain spiritual code of conduct. It is an oath that he has to abide by till the end of his days. Finally, it\u2019s an examination of his decency and courage, accountability and honesty, and his allegiance to his cause.<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
It brings to memory Moonzund, a novel by Valentin Pikul, which describes the last months of the First World War and underlines how important it was to preserve one\u2019s honor, courage, and allegiance to one\u2019s cause in the wake of various difficult and contradictory circumstances.\u00a0First Lieutenant Artenyev who serves on a destroyer, maintains the qualities of a true naval officer in spite of the difficult situation. He is a brave and resolute man, who is also capable of compassion and who becomes sad when his crew faces a tough luck.\u00a0As an officer, he cannot yield to the destructive tendencies on the warship, and doesn\u2019t want to placate rudeness, knavery, and cowardice.<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n

He does everything he can to prevent anarchy and lawlessness. Letting go of the reins and backing down is fraught with peril, judging by the example of another officer who was in charge of the engine room. Afraid for his life, he started appeasing the sailors as soon as the riot broke out on the ship. He tolerated humiliation and mockery. He broke the code of honor and smeared his dignity, at which point he lost the other officers\u2019 respect while not becoming a comrade for the rank-and-file sailors. He was openly despised and later blamed for disorder and collapse of the engine room.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Once a Priest, Always a Priest<\/strong><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
Nowadays, there are priests who cannot withstand external pressure of the hateful society, agitated by the slanderous and misleading mass media accounts, which love to spit out libel about the Church, as well as internal provocations of other clergymen, who are unqualified for this sacred calling due to a number of factors, including their personal qualities. Those priests fail the test, betray the Church and the vows that they promised to God, and infect other priests with their rebellious \u201crevolutionary\u201d talk.<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
They find it hard not to kowtow to those who, in their opinion, possess power and wealth. They do their best to demonstrate to the outsiders that they are \u201cgood fellas\u201d, accommodating and harmless.<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
It is a great personal tragedy for those priests. Trials must make us stronger, unite us, and help us to find out what is the most important for us. They must make our souls free from debris. That is something every Christian, especially a priest, must remember.\u00a0A priest\u2019s heart requires constant purification to be a worthy container for God. Self-improvement is key for a successful priest. Abba Isaiah instructs, \u201cIf you want God to dwell in your heart, keep it spotless.\u201d You must always remain honest and sincere with yourself, the Lord, and other people.<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
If there is just a bit of an unrepented and hidden sin in your heart, all your efforts, your ministry, and your achievements will be null and void. You won\u2019t be able to resist temptations. You won\u2019t be able to walk down your path till the end. You won\u2019t be able to respect yourself.\u00a0One has to be true to his calling in every aspect. Spiritual life in general has no trivial or less important details.<\/div>\n
\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

It is not accidental at all that the Church puts special clothes on her priests. Those clothes must ensure their proper functioning. One must never be shy of wearing the priestly clothes under any circumstances! Obviously, clothes don\u2019t make us any better ipso facto. At the same time, they have been known to shield priests from many temptations.\u00a0Aside from that, the appearance and prudent behavior of a priest or a monk serve as a guidance for our contemporaries.\u00a0It isn\u2019t easy to defy the pressure of the ever-changing world and not to get caught under the millstones of popular trends and tendencies. Christianity is for the strong in spirit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Every person who chooses this path must be aware of the high dignity of a Christian, and especially of a priest or a monk. When you break these vows, you betray yourselves first of all. The Church was, is, and will remain forever. She is like a ship in a turbulent sea. She resists all storms and torrents. She saves and protects everyone who is inside.<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
Only those who don\u2019t forget the vows that they\u2019ve made before God and stick to those vows, will be saved.<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
Translated by The Catalog of Good Deeds<\/em><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Make a Vow \u00a0 As soon as they are consecrated, new priests acquire a new life. Similar to the Sacrament of Baptism, which restores…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18554,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[62],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-18540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-personal-thoughts","tag-personal-thoughts-on-orthodoxy"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/6-4.jpg","views":{"total":84,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1768406587},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paPyw9-4P2","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18540"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19045,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18540\/revisions\/19045"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}