We need to pray for Russia

And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.
Apocalypse 8:1

THE FALL of Orthodox Russia in 1917 is an event which, beyond any doubt, changed world history and opened wide the gates of our present age of lawlessness. Even so, the future resurrection of Russia cannot but be an event of significance for the entire world.

We know something of the events which, if man's repentance responds to God's promises, will occur in Russia. These events by no means constitute a "new age" of history or a time of outward prosperity and ease, but rather a short flowering of Orthodox truth and holiness before the end of the world. Even though some few details about this flowering have been revealed, it remains a mystery whose full significance will not be apparent until it is present.

This mystery is even now at work in the depths of Orthodox Russia, just as another and opposed mystery the "mystery of iniquity" (II Thes. 2:7) is also at work throughout the world, preparing the apostate and godless peoples for the coming of Antichrist.

There should be no schism in the body; but the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ (I Cor. 12:26-27). All Orthodox Christians are called to pray for and suffer with their suffering Russian brethren – not only on the day of national mourning, the day of the martyrdom of the Royal Martyrs, July 4/17, but also every day. Just as the Orthodox Russian people in past centuries prayed daily for the deliverance of their Greek and other brethren from the Turkish Yoke, so now let every Orthodox Christian pray for the deliverance of his suffering Russian brethren, even as the Orthodox Russians of the Diaspora pray daily: "O Lord Jesus Christ our God, forgive us our transgressions, and through the prayers of Thy Most Pure Mother, save the suffering Russian people and [all Orthodox Christians] from the yoke of the godless power. Amen."

And let all the Orthodox faithful await with the remnant of Holy Russia the Paschal revelation which, as God is merciful, is yet to come from Russia that which St. Seraphim himself prophesied, and which our own century has several times glimpsed in advance: the all-joyous PASCHA IN THE MIDST OF SUMMER. Amen.

Fathers Herman and Seraphim of Platina