[Fr. Nektarios]: Can I receive Communion, even though I live with my partner but we are not married.
(translator’s note: She probably means that they have lived together for a long time and do not plan to marry whatsoever.)
[Morphou]: If you are a spiritual child of Morphou, no.
Otherwise, what is the point of marriage? Why do we call it marriage? Because it permits the sexual act.
(translator’s note: uses the accurate Greek linguistic term for “sexual act”, which, however, has come to be considered inappropriate in the public dialogue.)
These are the [right] words, my child. The Greek language of the wise is accurate.
The sexual act inside a marriage is a blessed act. Did you hear that?
Outside marriage, it’s not a blessed act.
Unfortunately, you, today’s Cypriot parents are victims of your own parents.
As soon as they [Cypriot parents of the old] engaged them [their children], it’s allowed.
Excuse me, why do we wear a white wedding dress? Have you ever thought about it?
Why do we say, “O Lord, our God, crown them with glory and honor.” [from the Service of Marriage].
What honor? Is there any honor left? It applies to both of them, man and woman, not just the woman.
Do you know how many young people have realized these things?
Not by you, the parents. Unfortunately, the parents don’t speak on these things, only a few of you do.
You will answer to God for not teaching purity to your children.
And then, they ask, “Why are my children like this?”
Let alone, your sexuality as secret as it is, defines your children. The desires are hereditary and transmissible.
What does it mean, “Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled;?” [Hebrews 13:4].
You see some people who worry about the Antichrist and live as antichrists inside their homes.
In the past, I dared say something about homosexuals and a bishop came out, [one] in America and [one in] Cyprus, and said,
“We do not enter the bedroom of the couple.”
I found the bishop and I told him, “God enters not [just] all bedrooms, [but even] all bathrooms [as] He is omnipresent.”
“Either you invite Him or not, God is with you.”
Especially, if you are baptized and chrismated as an Orthodox, He is inside you.
He is inside you, in “the deep heart”. [Psalm 63]
Apostle Paul says, “[the] Spirit who dwells in you” [Romans 8:11].
The Holy Spirit is our “housemate.”
However, if we do not strive to repent. Let’s say that I got used to this life, to this way.
If you get used, fight to lessen the bad habit. Isn’t it so? Fight.
No, the church has to legalize everything [instead].
And you have some archpriests come out, I will name him, the one [must be the Metropolitan] of Nea Ionia, Greece. What did the poor man say!
He said, “If there are a few, who by nature have a same-sex desire and inclination, it’s a desire that God puts in them.”
Some bishop to meet!
A layman said, “These people became bishops to rip off the Gospel.”
I told him, “Those are not bishops of Orthodoxy but of the Pope. Of the Pope. With a special mission.”
Our bishop [from Cyprus], told me, “We should not enter the bedroom of the couple.”
I answered him, “Excuse me, why do we enter the kitchen?”
“Where do we enter?” he asked.
Sometimes, since I speak a lot of strong words, I use jokes as well. But they [the strong words] are true. And with a bit of a joke, they become more digestible. They are ingested more easily.
I told him, “My brother, does the church talk about fast? Does it talk about food?”
[Morphou asks a girl from the crowd]: Do you know that tomorrow it’s a fast?
See, you don’t know it. It’s okay, the girl is honest about it.
Others don’t know it, but pretend they do.
The church tells us from [the feast] of All Saints until the [feast] of the Holy Apostles it is a fast, we do not eat meat, we eat fish, except for Wednesday and Friday.
The Church does not oblige you [too fast], it offers it for your own good, for the detoxication of your soul and your body.
The Church cares for the whole man, both his soul and body.
Thus, as we have an opinion on what food we eat during each festive period…
... not us, but the saints [themselves] have an opinion on how we live before marriage and how we live after marriage.
And if we fail to follow these, glory to God, there is repentance.
We repent, we confess. Do you think that the people that come to me are saints? Alas!
The one icon I have in the Metropolis is a gift by homosexuals. The holy icon of St. Mary of Egypt.
Why did these children [the homosexuals] gift it to me?
Because they found help, not by me, but by the things, the saints of God I met, told me.
Others managed to eliminate this pathology [homosexuality] and others to constrain it. This [latter] is also an achievement.
How will God judge us, only God [knows]. We are not the ones to judge.
But we have to declare what the healthy, what the natural, what the ecclesiastical is …
Today, everyone is non-catechized. This can’t go on.
When we follow the anti-Christian life on all levels, psychological, bodily, and spiritual, the Holy Spirit which dwells in our hearts contracts.
It’s humble since it is God.
It contracts, it silences, it does not inform us, it does not enlighten us.
Who arrives then? Nature is afraid of the void. The demonic spirits arrive and dwell inside us, inside us.
May God show mercy.
Love the Divine Liturgy, love the fast, and make sure to have a spiritual father who leads you to find the Holy Spirit.
This is why he is called a spiritual father, not for acting as a guru.
“To buy a car or to buy a house?” [is what people often ask their spiritual fathers].
This is not our job. Our job is, first of all, we, ourselves, to activate the Holy Spirit we acquired ever since we got baptized and were chrismated. That is for the Holy Spirit to enlighten us.
And in turn, whoever comes to us, to help him. Whatever we experienced, for them to experience too.
Yes, my child.
[Fr. Nektarios]: Next question, Maria from Nicosia. Is it a sin for women to wear pants in church?
[Morphou]: No.
Since you want [to hear] something more [on this]. Wear a garment that does not provoke. It does not scream, “Look at me.”
Whatever screams, “Look at me” and distracts the attention from what’s going on [in the church], that is [distracts] from Christ,
be it a huge, long dress or a halter top [as long as both can turn out to be distracting, they are both inappropriate].
Thus, there must be inside us this disposition, “Nobody to look at me, nobody!”
This is our criterion. It does not apply just to women. In our days, men, themselves, have such an attire or attitude that they too provoke, narcissism.
Let us have this concern.
[Fr. Nektarios]: Can women chant in church?
[Morphou]: I already answered this, my child, in the “Lightening the Light of the Saints” [video series which is published on the YouTube channel of the Metropolis].
Yes, the church of Cyprus took a decision.
Since men no longer approach the chant stand because they are embarrassed. They prefer to go hunting instead and don’t say it.
We gave a blessing to women [to chant]. They only have to learn [how to chant] seriously and have the parish priest's permission.
And the priest to inform in turn his bishop. In the Metropolis of Morphou, we have settled this and it is really helpful for the priests, especially, on weekdays.
[Fr. Nektarios]: A guy from Larnaca asks, “Erdogan did not leave with a natural death. Should we expect his removal before the events in the Aegean Sea start? Will we, in Cyprus, have incidents?
[Morphou]: Just Larnaca.
See, the Cypriot guy is crafty. He starts from Erdogan, goes to the Aegean, then Cyprus, then Larnaca.
The only place he should have asked to know about was his neighborhood.
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