About a Liberal nun in "ROCOR" - MP

DIscussion and News concerning Orthodox Churches in communion with those who have fallen into the heresies of Ecumenism, Renovationism, Sergianism, and Modernism, or those Traditional Orthodox Churches who are now involved with Name-Worshiping, or vagante jurisdictions. All Forum Rules apply. No polemics. No heated discussions. No name-calling.


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Barbara
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Re: About a Liberal nun in "ROCOR" - MP

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A famous and respected Catholic order sent out emails for the Catholic Feast of the Queenship of the Heavenly Queen titled "Pray To Mary With your morning Coffee".
Opening up the email, one finds this introduction :

"We all need reminders each day to pray. What could be a better invitation to prayer than to start your day with Our Mother's beautiful image on your coffee cup? In honor of Queenship, we are also for a limited time reducing the donation for this coffee cup by 25%.

Your donation will support the Redemptorists' many missions throughout the world as we preach the gospel of Jesus to the poor..."

It's almost as though the Redemptorist Province found out about Sister Vassa's ill-starred Coffee operation and decided to turn it for GOOD, with a picture of Our Lady on a coffee mug.

They were not flippant like this nun appears to be, or they would have emblazoned the mug with a corny and disrespectful "I drink Coffee with the Queen of Heaven".

Here is the actual mug offered to raise funds not for someone's niche market of promoting herself, but for a centuries-old Order, the only one assigned to promote the ICON of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, called 'of the Passion' by Orthodox.
Thus the contrast could not be more sharp. Had it been modern non-artwork of the Mother of God, one might not notice this as much. But, it's a bona fide Icon, found on Crete many centuries ago and taken to Rome, where it was accorded special respect. Due to the Redemptorists' zeal, today the Perpetual Help Icon is found in many if not most Catholic churches, and some are named in honor of this Icon.

Image

Observe how all the emphasis here is on PRAYING. Does Sister Vassa mention praying much ? Not that I have seen with an admittedly cursory look at her material, which has a very modern ring to it. "How does one pray with a busy schedule?" was one of her topics. I personally would never waste a second on looking at that lecture or youtube presentation because it is so shallow, apparently aimed at neurotic new converts.

Whereas, despite Sister Vassa's attempt to post uncontroversial themes, her emphasis is entirely upon herself ! This should tipoff everyone that she is not a fit leader for a 'ministry'. There are too many sociopaths and narcissists already in various Protestant, evangelical and other 'ministries' who are using the adulation of the congregation to do much harm to the souls of their flocks. It has almost become commonplace to find out that so and so preacher or popular local minister has actually been living an undercover life of darkness all the while the pastor was loudly proclaiming his belief with thundering preaching.

Note too the specifications for the Our Lady of Perpetual Help mug are given precisely. No one has to wonder what he or she will receive in the mail :

Think of Mary with your morning coffee. Or bring this mug to the office to share your devotion to Our Mother of Perpetual Help with others. This sturdy white, glossy ceramic mug is an essential to your cupboard, and an essential reminder of Our Mother. The Icon image displays on either side of the handle.

This ceramic mug shows its true colors with quality assurance to withstand heat in the microwave and put it through the dishwasher as many times as you like, the quality will not be altered.

• Ceramic
• Dishwasher safe
• Microwave safe
• White, glossy

Does Sister Vassa even inform her zombie followers - I mean, zillions - of any of these details ? How does a sincere zillion know whether his picture of Sister Vassa grinning with her coffee mug will even last past a few turns through the dishwasher ? People who are not so aligned with truth usually are vague. They don't forthrightly provide information as was done here. Instead, the narcissist chronically seeks to cover up unpleasant things, such as that the mug is poor quality and may crack in the [ God forbid ] microwave. The more dark variety of sociopaths even get an evil thrill out of deceiving their victims.

Now let's look at price :

For a limited time we are requesting a donation of $14 plus shipping

This cost seems more than reasonable. But the Very Important Nun expects her audience to fork over $ 20 just to have HER OWN PICTURE in their kitchen - or workplace ? No wonder my wallet dropped to the floor in protest !

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Barbara
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Re: About a Liberal nun in "ROCOR" - MP

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Having settled in with my [ lead-free ] mug of herbal tea, I wanted to update this thread a tiny bit.
I came across these words in the book Contemporary Ascetics of Mount Athos, Volume 1, by Archimandrite Cherubim.
They pertain to Elder Kallinikos the Hesychast of Katounakia [+ 1930].

"The spirit of temperance ruled over his entire life...Once when there was going to be an all-night vigil, the fathers asked him if they could drink coffee.

"If we must keep the all-night vigils with drugs, better we go to sleep," was [Elder Kallinikos'] answer.

Indeed, he himself never drank coffee."

NEVER drank coffee ? Even on Mt Athos, where hospitality was always dispensed with an offer of coffee and Turkish Delight ? This says a lot.

If an authentic Athonite Elder, who counseled both Greeks and Russians in the spiritual life for 2 hours each day -- without accepting dime of pay ! -- reacted this way to the suggestion of a little coffee merely to stay awake for the long nighttime service, why does an ultra-modern Orthodox nun hawk coffee mugs on the internet ? Worse, why is she encouraging the coffee-drinking habit ? Near coffee addiction, of course, for some imbibers of the bitter-tasting beverage.

By the way, this Elder Kallinikos, also dubbed "the Vigilant", lived up to this epithet by taking an active role in stamping out the Name-Worshipping Heresy upon its introduction to Mt Athos :

"When in 1913 the heresy of the “worshippers of the name” arose among the Russian and Romanian monks on the Holy Mountain, concerning the name of Jesus, he was the first to go to the Holy Community and point out the unsound and unorthodox nature of the theory, pointing our most appositely that “they’ve left the head and are worshiping the hat”.

The timely intervention of this blessed man and the insistence of the Holy Community on Orthodox views prevented other monks from becoming involved, especially those who were Greek, and so this dreadful upheaval was restricted to the Russians, of whom those who persisted in this senseless heresy, by common consent of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Russian Church, were taken away on a special ship and confined to the Caucasus. Thus, peace was re-established in this holy place and it was relieved of about 1/3 of its population of Russian monks."

http://pemptousia.com/2016/01/on-elder- ... -vigilant/

Final note. Here is a grainy picture of this Elder which managed to slip through his stern prohibition on photos of himself. A tourist rather than a monastic visitor was able to snap it without Elder Kallinkos' knowledge.

Image

How is it, then, that Sister Vassa shamelessly allows her image to be replicated on countless mugs and other advertising materials -- and sold ?

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Barbara
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Re: About a Liberal nun in "ROCOR" - MP

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To see what was 'new', I glanced at the facebook entry for Coffee With Sister Vassa. From this video from earlier this year, it appears she has a new program named Saturday Morning Live, which is too corny for words.

In it, Sister Vassa has incorporated sidekick Rob into at least some of her programming. The result is not very edifying. She makes attempts at jokes, leaning far over to Rob in too chummy of a fashion for any true Nun. Sister Vassa gives the example at one point that her thoughts could have been about the Olympics, which sounds weird to hear on an Orthodox program. Why wouldn't her thoughts be about why Metropolitan Philaret has not yet been glorified by her Church, Rocor-MP ? And what she could do to help speed up that process via her program ? After all, sister Vassa could use her air time instead to educate her largely liberal World Orthodox listeners about this great Saint of God, about whom they would not otherwise have heard. The holy Metropolitan's time at the helm of Rocor after all overlapped with that of [speaking of Fathers Day today] her father, Fr George Larin. She might have heard anecdotes from her father, the long time priest at Nyack, NY, or other clergy which she could recount on air and help popularize Metropolitan Philaret and his superlative example of what a Russian Orthodox Archpastor should be.

But no, she has to tritely brandish an apple and a bag of rice cakes as suggestions for fasting food, as well as drag in the worldly topic of the 2018 Winter Olympics. [ I vaguely would have guessed from the name she gave that they must have been in Seoul, but had to look that up. Turns out those were the 1988 Olympics ; this year's were in some unpronounceable South Korean city. What does this have to do with Orthodoxy ? ]

I only listened to the 1st few minutes of introduction, since I am sure her lecture about the following day, Forgiveness Sunday, is uncontroversial. << However, one can't help wondering whether she even remotely considered to publicly beg forgiveness for her untoward and morally offensive comments which set off the wildfire last summer ?


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Maria
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Re: About a Liberal nun in "ROCOR" - MP

Post by Maria »

This is why I no longer frequent Facebook.

What Sr. Vassa does not interest me at all. Yes, I pray for her that she may be saved, but speculation about her does not benefit our salvation.

We should be praying unceasingly and trying to acquire the Holy Spirit so that thousands around us may be saved.

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner.

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Luke
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Re: About a Liberal nun in "ROCOR" - MP

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I used to listen to Sister Vassa when she was giving lessons about saints or days commemorated. After her email controversy, things started getting strange. I wonder about her now.

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Barbara
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Re: About a Liberal nun in "ROCOR" - MP

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That's just it, Luke. That is why I am following this situation, for remember the old saying about spiritual teachers who mix truth with false hoods - or even immoral statements such as her appalling remarks that day ? People can easily be deceived because they are conditioned by society to observe externals like apparel, hair, etc ? Well, Sister Vassa's hair is properly hidden, and she wears the garb of a ryassaphore nun. Therefore, many, many Orthodox could trust her due to her traditional nun's appearance. But this is how it works : the teacher says something off chord, or even stridently off chord, like this controversy. The observers are trained to discount that and trust the teacher nonetheless, ignoring their feeling of discomfort. Then with the liberal orthodox chiming in in wild support of poor persecuted Sister Vassa, the flood of remarks supportive of Sister Vassa's bizarre post could tip the balance. The uncomfortable listener wonders whether he should resign as a zillion. But well, everyone else seems to be cheering her on for her 'courageous comment', so maybe it wasn't THAT bad.... and so he goes on watching her show at least occasionally.

Luke, you seem to have been one of those who knew it was wrong and was not swayed by 'the crowd' of teeming zillions waving banners for Sister Vassa and her striking departure from Orthodox doctrine and way of life. Good, I am glad to hear that.

I am arguing [ many may not agree ] that it is best to avoid her lectures and programming entirely, for it is unsafe to imbibe the poison mixed in with the useful. Almost everything she teaches or lectures about on her videos [ not so for her scholarly tomes ] is likely easily found in good solid Orthodox books. So why not read THEM, not tune into Sister Vassa for the additional entertainment value, as some may do ?

Here is an example of the latter. For Valentines Day Feb 14, 2014, Sister Vassa produced the following episode. After a few bars of familiar Russian chant, she announces she wants to thank her supporters during her visit to the U.S. These included her older sister Tatiana's gift of an expresso coffee maker [ does wonders for the health ], and the redoubtable Claire and Dorothy in the Rocor Washington DC parish who gave her the strange gift of a mug with both of them and herself pictured on it closeup. Imagine what Elder Kallinikos the Vigilant of Katounakia would think.

At ~ 1:31, the Viennese-based nun had a rock star crooning jarringly
"I-just-want-to-stop-and-thank-you, baby..." Then the voice launches into the refrain, even more wildly inappropriate :

Code: Select all

"How-sweet -it-IS -
 to-be-loved-by-YOU !".

I was appalled ! A NUN playing that pathetic stuff ? If she had to play something non-Orthodox, why not a Johann Strauss waltz, which be at least suitable given her location, though hardly relevant to her subject matter.



Further evidence of the narcissism shows up as Sister Vassa displays goofy bright purple sunglasses [ what is the point, by the way ? The scene - with the star-shaped glasses for the budding Star Orthodox Teacher appears ridiculous ]. She pronounces, "I am not sure when I'll wear them, as I am something of a fashion icon now [ !!! ] ; I can't wear just ANYthing..."

This is flooring to hear. All in all, if I had only viewed this one video and never heard of last summer's major faux pas, I would never look at any production of her Coffee With Sister Vassa, which seems aimed merely to fill up her coffers.

To soothe anyone who did listen to the jazzy recording on this video, I recommend to get that out of the memory
the great Valaam recording of Agni Parthene found here :
http://euphrosynoscafe.com/forum/viewto ... 12&t=11903

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Barbara
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Re: About a Liberal nun in "ROCOR" - MP

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The Edit function ran out before I could post one final point about this video. Sister Vassa says about a wonderful St John the Baptist parish in Washington DC.

BUT - she fails to identify it as part of Rocor, her own jurisdiction ! I thought that was symbolic of what must be sister Vassa's wish to play down conservative Rocor-MP, preferring to draw devoted worshippers of herself from the ranks of the OCA, New Calendar Greeks and the Antiochians ! After all, these jurisdictions would likely be her fans, not seasoned Rocor-MP clergy or laity. Were she to change her jurisdiction, likely she would go to the OCA, one guesses. This would be the quickest path to instant Stardom.

Image
Appropriately located parish at corner of 17th and SHEPHERD in the national capital, this parish has a fascinating history. Founded by St John Maximovitch and built in the beautiful 17th century Yaroslavl style [ which I personally like : both that century and Yaroslavl Church architecture ], why on earth didn't Sister Vassa discuss any points about this parish of general interest to educate her audience and thus give the Church and St John of SF a little promotion on her show ?
Rather than, like a child, listing - and worse, displaying - the trifles SHE received while visiting it - ! Unbelievable Narcissism strikes again...
-- Plum-garbed woman in the picture reminds us of the goofy sunglasses with purple rims amongst these presents. We know she is such a fashion "ICON" - ?!! - that these glasses will be replicated and offered to her following of sheep for a hefty price at her online site- !

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