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War and the years taken from veterans
Veterans often speak of lost years. Some lost years to deployments, missing the births of children, the deaths of parents, the ordinary life of home. Some lost years after their return, to post-traumatic stress, depression, addiction, or the slow work of recovering from wounds. Some lost years to the moral injury that comes from having done, seen, or failed to prevent things that violate their conscience. Some lost the person they were before they went to war.
Part 10 treats war, veterans, and moral injury at length. Here it is enough to say that Joel 2:25 belongs to veterans as much as to anyone. The "great army" of locusts in Joel is a military image; the prophet speaks the language soldiers know. And the God who commands armies promises to restore the years that the army took. For the veteran who feels that war has eaten their life, the pastor can offer this word: God knows what was taken, He counts every year, and He is able to restore.
Broken families and the years of division
For many families, the locust years are years of division. A divorce splits a household, and children grow up moving between two homes. A quarrel between siblings over an inheritance leads to decades of silence. A parent's addiction or abuse leaves wounds that shape every family gathering.
Adult children estranged from their parents, and parents who do not know where their children are, carry a grief that can last a lifetime.
Joel's promise reaches these losses too. God can restore relationships that seemed dead.
Reconciliations happen, sometimes after many years.
The Sunday of Forgiveness, when the faithful bow to one another and ask pardon (Part 2), is a liturgical sign of this hope. But the pastor must also be realistic. Reconciliation requires two parties, and sometimes one is unwilling or unable. In such cases, the person who longs for reconciliation can still forgive, can still pray, and can still entrust the broken relationship to God, who will restore all things in the end.
Years that are not given back in this life
Honesty requires one more word. Some losses are not restored in this life. A spouse dies before reconciliation comes. A parent dies after a long illness that no one could cure. A grown child does not come home. The person who has prayed Joel 2:25 over such a loss may feel that the promise has failed.
The Church does not answer this with a forced smile. She answers with the Resurrection. Joel's promise looks beyond the harvest to the day of the Lord, and the Church reads it in the light of the empty tomb. What is not restored here is not lost to God. The last word of Scripture on these years is not the locust but the promise: "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying" (Revelation 21:4). Meanwhile the Church prays for the departed by name and so keeps the bond of love unbroken.
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Alas for the day!
The Prophet Joel; for the 21st Century
A Practical Resource for Orthodox Christian Clergy and Laity Alike
Why this book
The Book of Joel is short. In the English Bible it has only three chapters, and in the Septuagint four; anyone can read it aloud in under ten minutes.
Yet the Orthodox Church hears Joel at some of the most important doors of Her year: on the Wednesday of Cheesefare Week, as Great Lent draws near, when the prophet cries "turn to me with all your heart" (Joel 2:12 LXX); at the Vespers of Pentecost, when the Church remembers the promise "I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh" (Joel 3:1 LXX = 2:28 KJV); and on Joel's feast, October 19.
Joel's people faced locusts that came in waves. Ours have other names: loneliness and despair, addiction and the endless screen, broken families and money worries, illness, war and its wounds, and a steady anxiety about the future. Joel's answer, and the Church's, is not a self-help program but a call to turn to God together, and a promise that God will answer.
For whom it is written
Earlier versions of this work were written for Priests and Deacons. This edition is written for the whole Church: for Clergy, and for the Laity with whom they pray, fast, and serve.
There is a reason for the change, and it is in Joel himself. When the prophet calls the solemn assembly, he does not call the Priests alone. He calls, "gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the infants at the breast" (Joel 2:16 LXX), and he summons even the bridegroom and the bride from their wedding.
The Priests have their own place: "Between the porch and the altar let the Priests that minister to the Lord weep" (Joel 2:17 LXX). But they weep for a people who are standing with them. A book about Joel that spoke only to Clergy would leave out half of Joel.
So this book speaks to both. Clergy will still find homily seeds, notes for the confessor, and frank pages on the strain of ministry. Laity will find the same Fathers and the same Scripture in plain English, with practical counsel for prayer, fasting, family, work, grief, and service. Neither is asked to do the other's work. Both are asked to stand where Joel put them, together, before God.
The book still keeps a special place for wounded veterans and for those who live with lasting illness or disability, who are in our pews, at our altars, and in our homes. Its pastoral sketches are composites, not accounts of real persons; yet real persons were the impetus of the accounts.
This book also speaks to those who run toward trouble for the rest of us: firefighters and police officers, paramedics and dispatchers, emergency room staff, chaplains, hospice and bereavement workers, and all who minister at deaths and funerals, as well as veterans.
The toll of that work on their hearts, minds, and bodies can be overwhelming. Part 11 speaks to them directly, and Part 12 to the Parish that receives them. Part 12 also says more about the Orthodox household: why a family should learn Joel together, and how to keep a family altar and a simple daily rule as a little church. a.co/d/017sIjJb
Nov 11, 2026 · 12:47 PM UTC
