by Abp. Stephen Enea –
Our youth are starving for something real. Something permanent. Something eternal. They long for tradition, for stability, for belonging, for mystery.
We live in a world that makes bold promises – promises of happiness without sacrifice, identity without roots, freedom without truth, and love without commitment. It offers our youth an illusion and promises them that they can define themselves without God, that meaning can be found in wealth, status, pleasure, and power. But these are lies. Our young people are not thriving under these illusions – they are drowning in them. They are over-stimulated and undernourished, surrounded by noise but starved for truth, offered connection but deprived of communion.
Young people today seek permanence, mystery, transcendence – something greater than themselves. But instead, they are given politics, empty ideologies, and fleeting trends that change with the wind. They are longing to belong, to believe, to become. They are promised light, but are offered only shadows.
The truth is this: the world will not save them. It will not lead them to peace, nor offer them the fullness of life. Only Jesus Christ can do that. And He has entrusted us—bishops, priests, deacons, and faithful—with the mission to make Him known.
Where is the Church in the midst of this crisis?
Every bishop and every priest must become more than an administrator, more than a teacher; we must become an evangelist par excellence—not by mere title or obligation, but by the burning conviction of a heart on fire with love for Jesus Christ and His Holy Church. We must be living icons of the Gospel, burning with the fire of divine love. If our own hearts are not aflame, we cannot set others ablaze. We must preach Christ crucified—not as a theory, but as the living Lord who changes lives, who raises the dead, who makes all things new.
We cannot afford lukewarmness in this age, and especially not at this present time. These present times demand boldness, clarity, and a zeal rooted not in ideas alone, but in a living, breathing, sacrificial love for the Lord of Glory. From the pulpit to the street corner, from the altar to the classroom, we must be heralds of the Gospel with fire in our bones.
We must awaken that same fire in the people of God. The laity, too, must be ignited with a zeal that compels them to live not just for Christ, but in Him, with Him, and through Him. This can only be done when our love for Christ is no longer theoretical, but deeply personal and transformational. The Church cannot afford to raise passive spectators—we must raise disciples who burn with the fire of the Holy Spirit.
Our youth—those in our parishes and missions, yes—but also those wandering without anchor in every city, town, and village, are the fertile soil waiting for the seeds of the Orthodox Faith. The world offers them confusion, fragmentation, and false promises. We offer them truth, communion, and the eternal Word made flesh. But seeds do not grow on their own. Once planted, they must be watered with love, nurtured with prayer, and protected with vigilance. Only then will they bear fruit, fruit that will remain.
We must not be content with our youth coming to Church. We must lead them to become the Church. We must show them not only the Scriptures and the teachings of the Faith, but how the Gospel is lived—in the classroom, at home, on the street, and in every choice they make. Christianity must become for them not a set of ideas or rules but a way of being—a life lived cruciform, marked by joy, conviction, and hope.
Let us teach them to see the Cross not as a burden, but as the path to glory. The world flees from the Cross. Our youth must be taught to embrace it. For the Cross is not only a symbol of suffering, but of strength, victory, and divine love poured out for the life of the world.
We must walk alongside them as they struggle with the temptations of this age. Let us not abandon them to the poisons of pornography, promiscuity, greed, and power-lust. Instead, let us offer them a more excellent way: a vision of chastity, holiness, and purity of heart. Let us show them the radiant joy of married life, the sacredness of family, the beauty of a love that mirrors the love of Christ for His Church.
We clergy must go to them. We cannot sit behind our icons and wait. No! We must go to high schools, to colleges and universities, to cafés, to street corners, in online spaces—to the very heart of the modern world—and there speak of Christ with joy, with power, and with tears if need be. We must awaken in them a hunger for the Holy.
We cannot wait for them to come to us. The shepherd goes to his sheep. The fisherman casts his net. The master washes the feet of his servants. It is not enough to say: “Come and See.” We must say, “Come and Be.” Come and become what you were created to be—living icons of the living God.
Living in Christ is what makes the Orthodox Christian different—not merely in label, but in essence. Christ does not simply visit us; He indwells us. His life becomes ours. His strength is our strength. His mission is our mission. And with that divine life pulsing in our veins, we can do great things, things the world thought impossible.
Our youth are starving for something real. Something permanent. Something eternal. They long for tradition, for stability, for belonging, for mystery. They want to be part of something bigger than themselves. The Church—our Holy, Orthodox, Catholic Church—has exactly what they seek. Politics cannot give them transcendence. Ideologies cannot give them peace. Only Christ can. And through Him, with Him, and in Him, His Church becomes the answer to the aching emptiness of this generation.
We must lead our youth not just to read the Gospel, but to live it. Not just to hear about Christ, but to know Him. Not just to admire the Cross, but to carry it—with courage, with joy, and with purpose.
Let us teach them not to fear the Cross, but to see its beauty and power. The Cross is not a defeat—it is the weapon of victory. It is the tree of life. The world may mock it, but we proclaim it as our glory.
We must be unafraid to speak truth in love: to call our young people away from every counterfeit freedom that enslaves. Not with condemnation—but with compassion, clarity, and conviction. Again, we must show them the goodness of chastity, the holiness of marriage, and the beauty of family. We must present to them not rules, but a vision of life, a vision that captivates the heart and stirs the soul.
What we offer is not a cold institution. It is not moralism or control. It is life in Christ. And life in Christ changes everything. Life in Christ is freedom, a freedom the world promises but cannot give.
To live in Christ is to be truly alive. It is to walk in light, to be filled with grace, to be strengthened for every trial, and to be set apart as His own. That is what it means to be Orthodox: to be sanctified, to be empowered, to be sent.
Our youth are starving for that vision. And it is ours to give. But we cannot offer what we do not live. If we want them to desire Christ, we must be transparent icons of Him. That is the sacred burden of every bishop and priest—of every baptized Orthodox Christian—but to inspire and to convert. Not just to preach, but to witness. Not just to teach, but to love—fiercely, faithfully, sacrificially.
The Church must become missionary again—not in theory, but in reality. Every parish must become a center of evangelization. Every home, a domestic church. Every believer, a light to the world.
So let us go out—not with timidity, but with apostolic boldness. Let every bishop and priest be an evangelist of fire. Let every deacon be a servant of the Gospel in word and deed. Let every layperson become a witness of the Risen Christ. Let us labor not just to preserve what we have, but to expand it, to multiply it, to set the world ablaze with a love that the world, this present age, is incapable of knowing or understanding.
This is not the time for retreat. It is the time for a spiritual advance, a full court press! Let us say with conviction, to every heart and every soul: “Come and Be.” Be transformed. Be forgiven. Be filled. Be holy. Be courageous. Be the Church!
Let us rise up with courage and holy urgency. Let us shake off the dust of apathy. Let us ignite a new era of evangelistic zeal in the Orthodox Church.
The world is on fire with confusion. Let the Church be on fire with Christ.
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Posted on Facebook by Archbishop Stephen J. Enea of the Italo-Greek Byzantine Orthodox Catholic Church. (Minor organizational and content edits to optimize readability and emphasize key points made by Chris Banescu.)
