/lit/ - Literature

>>20232054

Ah, I see.

What you're talking about is an idea called "Social Gospel" - the idea that true Christianity is to get out on the streets and be an activisist, to be seen in the eyes of the world as a righteous person against public evils for the common betterment of mankind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_R0YfCJPSs

It's true that there are many Saints who have done extensive public working - but the majority of Saints, instead of acting like modern activists that the media loves so much, acted like Christ - preached repentance, led other people to repentance, and were hated by the world, because they stood against all worldly priorities. The recent movie, "Man of God" details the life of one of these recent Saints, St Nektarios of Eugena who was slandered and reviled by the world, and

If you were an anti-war activist, you would be loved by the world, and join in with a pro-Ukraine facebook profile picture if you were in the West, or a pro-Russia VK profile picture if you were in Russia.. Sure, the Saints aren't exactly pro-war, especially in this climate where the wars are completely fake and the people fighting in wars are being manipulated by higher powers, but it's not like you're going to shock people out of their materialistic stupor by telling them that war is bad. Every single materialistic person who fears death is afraid of war, because it brings death. Christians do not fear death, so protesting against war like a scared materialist isn't high on the list of priorities.

Frankly, you should check out what C.S. Lewis wrote in "The Screwtape Letters" about spiritual life in times of war. He got that aspect spot on - that more souls are lost in times of peace than in war, because disaster brings souls closer to God than any amount of comfort ever could.

> Sitting in a cave and repeating a prayer thousands of times could be meaningful for that person alone

If you were an atheist, and saw prayer as something like a therapeutic meditation exercise, this would make sense.

But, if you were a Christian, and actually knew what prayer was - actual direct communication with God - then you'd know that the extensive solitary prayer that monks do on behalf of the world is one of the reasons why the world hasn't already gone to complete destruction, and is one of the reasons that so many souls are saved in the world. Many clairvoyant elders have prayed for people they knew in the world, for needs they didn't know they had - Elder Joseph the Hesychast is an example of one of these elders, and he gave evidence of his clairvoyance and prescient prayers in his letters of correspondence to his nuns.