{"id":256494,"date":"2019-10-22T00:27:43","date_gmt":"2019-10-21T21:27:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/?p=256494"},"modified":"2019-10-22T00:27:43","modified_gmt":"2019-10-21T21:27:43","slug":"archbishop-irineu-reminds-monastics-that-they-dont-need-a-virtual-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/archbishop-irineu-reminds-monastics-that-they-dont-need-a-virtual-identity\/","title":{"rendered":"Archbishop Irineu reminds monastics that they don\u2019t need a virtual identity"},"content":{"rendered":"

During the first-ever Monastic Assembly of the five dioceses within the Metropolis of Transylvania, the Archbishop of Alba Iulia highlighted the dangers of using social platforms for the spiritual life of monastics.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe contemporary monk doesn\u2019t need a virtual identity in order to communicate with the world, even in their wish for mission,\u201d the archbishop noted Sept. 10.<\/p>\n

Social media communication is \u201cartificial and sterile\u201d and \u201cseparates people rather than brings them together\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cReplacing the Philokalic spirit with the worldly spirit, which they consider an increase or a progress, the ascetic effort, the daily prayer rule, the obedience and even relaxation time diminish.\u201d<\/p>\n

Archbishop Irineu stated that this process comes in contradiction with the old monastic principle: Ora et labora! (Pray and work!).<\/em><\/p>\n

Both lay persons and monastics who \u201care aware of their calling\u201d keep themselves away from these media networks.<\/p>\n

The risks regarding the spiritual life to which the Archbishop referred include the alienation from God, from our neighbour and ourselves, instability, indiscipline and the waste of time.<\/p>\n

Archbishop Irineu advised all the monks and nuns who gathered at the Dormition of the Theotokos Monastery at Izvorul Muresului that \u201cthe prayer rope should be their only mobile phone.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Saint John Climacus once said, it is only this way that monks can become \u201ca light for lay people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Father Razvan Ionescu also approached the topic of social media risks in an article for Basilica.ro.<\/p>\n

The parish priest of the Romanian Orthodox community \u00a0of Saints Paraskeva and Genoveva in Paris cautioned about the idea of \u201cunilateralizing our lives by shifting our focus online to the detriment of living in the concrete reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that the Church can suggest new ways of fasting to new forms of addiction and our presence on social media, a way of mingling with the crowd, can turn into a withdrawal in prayer, following the example of our Saviour.\u201d<\/p>\n

In order to really give up using social media, Fr Ionescu suggested a real communion instead of a virtual communion.<\/p>\n

Photo: Ancient Faith Ministries<\/p>\n

Follow us on Twitter: @BasilicaNews<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During the first-ever Monastic Assembly of the five dioceses within the Metropolis of Transylvania, the Archbishop of Alba Iulia highlighted the dangers of using social platforms for the spiritual life of monastics. \u201cThe contemporary monk doesn\u2019t need a virtual identity in order to communicate with the world, even in their wish for mission,\u201d the archbishop…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":256106,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[21208,7954,10386,18677],"class_list":["post-256494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dioceses","tag-archbishop-irineu","tag-monastics","tag-orthodox-news","tag-social-media-en"],"better_featured_image":{"id":256106,"alt_text":"","caption":"","description":"","media_type":"image","media_details":{"width":725,"height":483,"file":"2019\/10\/monkpray.jpg","sizes":{"thumbnail":{"file":"monkpray-360x360.jpg","width":360,"height":360,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/monkpray-360x360.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1571332006","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1","keywords":[]}},"post":256494,"source_url":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/monkpray.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256494\/"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post\/"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3\/"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments\/?post=256494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256494\/revisions\/"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256106\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/?parent=256494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories\/?post=256494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags\/?post=256494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}