The Role of the Spiritual Father in the Current Crisis: Interview with Archimandrite Savas Agioreitis

The second part of our four-part discussion (2/4) with Archimandrite Savas Agioreitis, given on May 8th, on the need to find, have and come under the direction of a spiritual father.

Archimandrite Fr. Savas Agioreitis began his monastic life in the Holy Kelli of the Entrance of the Theotokos in Kerasia on Mt. Athos. He is also a graduate of the School of Dentistry and the School of Theology, at the University of Thessaloníki, where he completed his Masters Degree with Professor Demetrios Tselengides. Today, Fr. Savas is the spiritual father of the Holy Monastery of the Holy Trinity in the Diocese of Edessa, in northern Greece. Fr. Savas works tirelessly teaching and guiding the faithful not only in his diocese or in Greece, but, indeed, through the online homilies and lectures, the world over, wherever the rational sheep of Christ are thirsting for the Word of God and the Gospel. 

In addition to nearly daily homilies during Divine Liturgy, which are uploaded to the internet, now numbering in the many hundreds if not thousands, Fr. Savas is also a prolific author, penning more than 11 books. 
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00:37 - Question 1: The Responsibilities of the Faithful  
02:39 - Criterion given by St. Symeon the New Theologian - The Apostolic Life
05:03 - The criterion is not that the priest, bishop or even Synod said it...
05:45 - Question 2: Should I choose a Spiritual Father even if he lives hours away...by plane?
07:28 - There will come a time when you will travel hundreds of miles to find a priest...
08:16 - The Spiritual Father is a priest who has been purified and reached illumination
10:33 - Question 3: What happens when a Spritual Father does not direct properly?
12:18 - Question 4: How can the faithful discern whether or not he is being guided properly?
14:13 - Illumination means the Noetic Prayer exists in the Spiritual Father
14:55 - Examples of Spiritual Malpractice by Quack Spiritual Fathers
17:10 - Examples of those coming to Confession without Repentance
18:09 - A Spiritual Father must reach the level of Noetic Prayer
21:50 - Question 5: What is Repentance?: To Move the Nous to the Heart
23:12 - "Death came in through the Gates"
24:34 - Question 6: Can one see noetic prayer, or its fruits, in the Spiritual Father?
26:43 - Clear Criteria: Dogma and Ethos, the Truth, Way and Life
27:12 - His Spiritual Children are also a Criterion
29:00 - Question 7: If a priest does not confess the holiness of the Temple and Holy Things, should one avoid taking him as a Spiritual Father?
30:24 - The Holy Canons say the opposite of what many Bishops and Priests are saying today (with Covid-19 measures)
32:57 - We have lost the criteria today: even Patriarchs are succumbing to the spirit of Antichrist
34:16 - ΧΞΣτ (666) = (X) Christian (Ξ) Stranger to the (Στ) Cross
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A Four-Part Interview: 

1. In the first segment we will address the Temple and whether or not the faithful need to fear becoming sick therein. 

2. In this second segment, we address the all-important matter of having a spiritual father during these times of trouble and persecution. 

3. In the third segment, we discuss a wide-range of matters pertaining to how we must live in a spiritual manner in face of this great challenge to our Faith. 

4. And, in the fourth segment, we look at the challenge to the Orthodox Faith from contemporary Ceasaropapism and innovative ideas about the Holy Things in the Holy Temple. 

We are sure that these interviews, with the ever-vigilant Fr. Savas, offered with much love and sacrifice to you, the pious, zealous faithful, will undoubtedly be profitable and enlightening!  
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The Greek original: https://youtu.be/aOf-i2mJmqE

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