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“We ourselves have a feeling–based on nothing very definite as yet–that the best hope for preserving true Orthodoxy in the years ahead will lie in such small gatherings of believers, as much as possible ‘one in mind and soul.’ The history of the twentieth century has already shown us that we cannot expect too much from the ‘Church organization’; there, even apart from heresies, the spirit of the world has become very strong. Archbishop Averky, and our own Bishop Nektary also, have warned us to prepare for catacomb times ahead, when the grace of God may even be taken away from the ‘Church organization’ and only isolated groups of believers will remain. Soviet Russia already gives us an example of what we may expect–only worse, for the times do not get better.” —Fr. Seraphim Rose of Platina, Hope, Father Seraphim Rose: His Life and Works by Hieromonk Damascene
“It's actually later than we think. The apocalypse is happening now. And how sad it is to see Christians, and even more so – young people, Orthodox youth, over their heads [in] this unimaginable tragedy and who think they can, in these terrible times, continue what is called ‘normal life,’ completely participating in the ghosts of an insane, self-inflicted generation, totally unsuspecting that ‘fools' paradise,’ in which we live in is about to collapse, completely unprepared for the desperate times that lie ahead of us. Now the question is not to be a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ Orthodox Christian, but the question now is: will our faith survive at all? It will not last for many; the coming Antichrist will be too attractive, too in line with that spirit of the time, that worldly spirit to which we seek, so that most people will not even realize that they have lost their Christianity by worshiping him.” —Fr. Seraphim Rose of Platina
“In those days the remnant of the faithful are to experience in themselves something like that which was experienced once by the Lord Himself when He, hanging on a cross, felt Himself so forsaken by His Divinity, that He cried out ‘My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?’ The last Christians will experience in themselves a similar abandonment of humanity by the Grace of God, but only for a short time.” —St. Seraphim of Sarov