“Not the God of the philosophers or the scholars, but the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob.”

Blaise Pascal’s famous formula of return to more ancient forms of Christianity is coming true in our own times. I had been hearing too many reports from mainstream media decrying the Gen Z fleeing of faith at alarming rates. Meanwhile, at our local Orthodox Church, we are being inundated with mostly male inquirers who have just graduated or are about to graduate high school. How you might ask do they find us? They simply pull out their phones and ask for “Orthodox Church near me.”

And it is not just our local parish. Other pastors across the country are reporting the same wonderful phenomenon. Young men coming to the Lord Jesus Christ in His Church. I am so happy that even my Evangelical friends at World News Group are seeing the same thing. They have a wonderful piece about young men not only becoming Orthodox but choosing a calling to monasticism. There are just a few disparaging remarks about monastism being an unhealthy escaping from the world, but overall, the piece is positive. And an Orthodox listener to the program called in later in the week to emphasize that monasteries exist in order to 1) Pray for the world (not run away from it), and 2) provide hospitality to people who come to them as pilgrims.

I myself am this weekend at a monastery in the northwest corner of Massachusetts. The retreat with my father over the long weekend has given us much needed time to talk to God and reconnect with our neighbor in a spiritual environment that is not hurried or pressurized to conform to some external standard. Also, one of our parish priests who owns a house nearby the monastery is hosting a retreat for young adults, many of whom have recently been baptized in the faith.

Pray for this wonderful revival to continue. And may Our All Good God continue to call fathers to their children and children to their fathers