Theodosios Martzouchos

18 Theodosios 3Fr. Theodosios Marzouchos was born in 1958 in Northern Evia, in the village of Gialtra Edipsou. He graduated from high school in Edipsos and then studied theology at the University of Athens. He met during the period of his studies a magnificent clergyman, Father Meletios Kalamaras, and followed him in Preveza, when he was elected bishop of Preveza in 1980, becoming monk and clergyman, along with several others, scholars of various disciplines. In 1986, he was encharged by the late Bishop Meletios of the ministry of protosynkellos (vicar) of the Metropolis, which he carried on until the death of the bishop (2012). And during this period, until now he is a priest of the small parish of Saint John Chrysostom in the city of Preveza. He in very active in the field of liturgical renovation of the Church of Greece, and gives regularly lectures in church gatherings and theological conferences throughout Greece. He is the owner of the blog enoriako.info, where he publishes his texts and interventions on different topics regarding the faith and life of the Church.


The Spiritual Father Today: Strength and Limits of Discernment

ABSTRACT

The goal and purpose of every spiritual guide is that indicated by Christ to Peter: 'And you, once converted, confirm your brothers' (Lk 22:32). Today this task has been distorted and many contemporary spiritual fathers have become 'elders' (gherontes) who indoctrinate Christians and keep them in a continuous relationship of dependence. Without assumption of responsibility. Without separations. In a perennial sleep 'at the feet ... of Gamaliel' (Acts 22.3). And so we become a sleeping church. Without the dynamism of doubt. Without Thomas. Without prominent personalities, who have been levelled by so-called elders for 'spiritual reasons'. We become a church that has nothing to say to contemporary people, nothing that really matters for their existence. A church of frightened people, who think that everyone is plotting against them. A church of respectable people who confuse the ethics of Christ with good manners. A church that is scandalised by the cruelty of the young without trying to discern elements of authenticity in such cruelty. A church that believes its purpose to regulate the length of hair, cassock, beard and sleeve! A church that fears speaking of the sacraments celebrated above and before the altar (Eucharist and marriage, the sacraments of the sacrificial crucifixion for the love of the other) and which strives to impose behaviours in the social and institutional sphere, again contradicting Christ, who poses as a condition: 'If someone wants to come after me ...'. Instead of a church full of dynamism, filling the daily life of men with meaning, providing a purification of passions and and showing a loving concern for all.

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