The basic truth of the Orthodoxy - God-Man, all the truths of the Orthodoxy are derived from a single truth and can be reduced to one truth, infinite and eternal. This is the Truth: God-Man Christ. The Orthodoxy is- the Orthodoxy of God-Man. And nothing else is it, and no one else. Hence, the second... Continue Reading →
“God receives the repentance of the man until his last breath, if he returns to Him from the heart and honors His Mother. May you have great piety to Her because blessed is the house and the family that venerate the icon of Mother of God. May you read Her Akathist and Paraklesis every day.... Continue Reading →
“The longer we advance in life, the harder it will be for us. Christ knew how the times would be and promptly let us know about them, so as to prepare ourselves and not to live like most of the people who head towards the abyss. It should be to our endeavor to be “true”... Continue Reading →
"The Orthodoxy has always walked on heavenly path of the Gospel; it preserved the authentic spirit of Christianity before the dark mysticism of the Western heresies, of the Caesaro-Papism, the Latin aversion, and of the Protestant subversive rationalism. It permanently kept the equilibrium and the harmony, it didn’t made mistakes as the Holy Fathers were... Continue Reading →
“1. Above all things you should think of God because God thinks of you before all. As the shepherd thinks of the lost sheep more than of the entire flock, so does your God think of you who get lost in sin, more than of all the angels in Heaven. 2. Meditating to God doesn’t... Continue Reading →
Concerning the compromises inside the Church…today there is the very idea that the Ecumenism is a necessity in the Ecclesial space. What do you think about it? - If we obey to the devil, does this mean that it is a necessity? It's not a necessity, but a sin, a very great temptation, a heresy.... Continue Reading →
“In the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit! In a spiritual sense, people are all relatives. There is a carnal relationship -the relationship between parents and children, the relationship between husband and wife, a relationship among the people, based on flesh. On the other hand, there is also spiritual... Continue Reading →
“In the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit!" The Apostle Paul, from the prison, writes an epistle(a message- послание) to the Ephesians in which he says: “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been... Continue Reading →
“Today I would like to tell you about the technological battle that we have to cope with. You all know that we all have to fight against Satan, and many people fight by themselves. Some people think that now we will deal with the witches and the wizards, that we will seek everywhere for them,... Continue Reading →
...The Holy Spirit doesn’t let to be felt by the man who is weak of humility. Even though there are people who want to save themselves, the Good Lord doesn’t discover them the gifts of the eternity for He has mercy for those souls. The words of the Psalms are fulfilled with them: “Plenty is... Continue Reading →
“If you want to pray, as you should do, don’t worry, no one will pray in vain. If you keep your rage on someone, pray for him and, in this way, this anger will stop, as the prayer drives the sadness away. If somebody keeps evil against you, show him kindness and humble yourself before... Continue Reading →
When you have a trouble, a temptation, a spiritual, an economical annoyance or a bodily one, whether it is an illness or a temptation or any other evil, kneel and pray that God's will to be done and not yours. God, Who has permitted the temptation, also gives to the man the means to overcome... Continue Reading →
- Nowadays, we pay too much attention to seen state of the things. Can we go to our inside, anymore? - Of course, but this is not an easy thing to do. We cannot enter into our soul; we cannot really enter inside our heart without God’s grace. For doing this, we need the wonderful... Continue Reading →
Tell me, where have you been one hundred years ago? Tell me quickly right now! Let me see. And where will you be after one hundred years? Do you know? Do you see that you don’t know where you have been and where you go? What has the Savior told to the Apostles? Thou don’t... Continue Reading →
“God is very rich! And He’s awaiting us!… He waits for us to ask! Wherever you are, and whenever you’re tempted, pray and do not be discouraged! Anyone who wants to acquire the gift of prayer, must keep silent and pray. We speak so much about prayer. That’s one thing that it cannot be discussed... Continue Reading →
Generally our people pray little, but with much humility. Can they hope for salvation through their small quantity of prayer? And how should the sick or those who can’t read pray? Our Savior Jesus Christ said: When you pray, do not use vain repetition like the gentiles, for they think they will be heard for... Continue Reading →
“We do not know what God looks like, as we read in John 1:18, No man hath seen God at any time. This is true, but we can meet with Him in prayer. Go into your room, into your chamber, into your heart, and above all, truly think of Whom you will speak, and then... Continue Reading →
Truly to serve to the Lord, you need to have a practice and an unceasing prayer to Jesus Christ, saying in mind: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner. At the hours of the afternoon, you can say this prayer like this: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, for the... Continue Reading →
-How can people reach the Heaven? -Through the gift of the Holy Spirit, through God’s grace and mercy. The man, when being in a mortal sin and his soul is warm, he is with his soul in hell. But, through true repentance and the grace of the Holy Spirit, who unties the sins through the... Continue Reading →
You yourself know from experience that wherever we may be, my son, we need much patience. Living in the wilderness has its own struggles, whereas living in the world has many other different kinds of struggles. So be brave. And since you have chosen this burden, bear it with fear of God. And believe me,... Continue Reading →
“The thirst for God directs us towards the love of our neighbor and vice versa. So great is the power of love that one who reaches a genuine love for all people denying oneself, receives the gift of healing. This is the true “follower” of Christ! Such man loves with the love of Christ all... Continue Reading →
“Every word that you send in the world will build or will destroy. It will ascend peaks of light or will cause the opening of abysses of darkness. It will stir blessings or dreadful curses. How will we enrich the shape of light and dream of the world? How will we enhance the harmony and... Continue Reading →
“Don’t give up! No matter how little you are, no matter how tired, you mustn’t give up. For, I repeat, no misfortune means anything. Nothing is lost as long as faith is established, the soul doesn’t surrender, and you raise your head again! God forbid that you be sad! Don’t’ be afraid! It’s true, one’s... Continue Reading →
- Father, sometimes we get into such a bad state that we can neither pray, nor sleep, nor eat, we can not talk, and we do not have any disposition. - Hear what the divine Father Isaac the Syrian says, because I will not cease to bring examples, not from me, I'm source of all... Continue Reading →
"Futility is all you take from selfishness. Eternity is all you give from love. And the most generous eternity is to receive with love in order to give the joy of the reciprocity to that who offers himself to you with love. " Source: http://www.cuvantul-ortodox.ro
“Be like the children” Pleasantly I have heard that you visited the monastery of St. Sergius in the day of his feast. You have been there with me and the others in my room, arranged for me, for Christ’s sake. Please accept my sincere thanks! And I was there indeed, with all my heart. What... Continue Reading →
"The prayer has the gift of making drip into the soul the ceassless spring of joy. The soul from whom does not ascend to heaven the voice of prayer is like a deserted house full of cobweb, inhabited only by the birds of the darknes. A soul that does not how to pray, will not... Continue Reading →
“Compel yourselves to the Jesus Prayer, and it will be for you all: food and drink, garment and light, consolation and spiritual life. It will be all, for the one who has prayer. Without it (the prayer) can not be filled the spiritual emptiness. Do you want to love Christ? Yearn for prayers and clothe... Continue Reading →
The Ecumenism is a huge lie; they speak in the name of a love outside of Christ, which excludes you from the Truth. If the Ecumenists really loved the world, they would not disown the truth of the value and the spiritual richness of Church Tradition and of the Holy Fathers. They disown Christianity from... Continue Reading →
Letter 3 Counsels to a scholar woman who suffers mockeries from her neighbors because she goes to the church At the mockery you should respond with a smile. Reproach comes from a heart full of malice; may your smile be without malice. The ridicule is always from ignorance, the smile - from knowledge. With... Continue Reading →
“Beauty saves the world - wrote Dostoevsky. Beauty - this is God. Though we have examined our lives, no matter how much dissected it into its component parts, so as to understand its mechanism, life in its entirety is always beautiful, divine and not known until the end, neither its beauty is known. Though we... Continue Reading →
“If we lose our attachment to the Orthodox tradition and start to dilute ourselves in this absurd and criminal movement of the Ecumenism – and if it’s not criminal, it’s at least anti-Christian – then we’ll certainly be lost. It’s a great tragedy! I wonder if they really don’t understand its danger. Or perhaps they... Continue Reading →
“Through patience you get to love your brother, to forgive your brother, to respect your brother, to see that he is better than you, to see that he is more beautiful than you, to see that he is more hardworking than you. Through patience you see these all. You only then get up”... ... Continue Reading →
My child, be careful with your imagination. All sins originate from the imagination; it is the root of sin. So be careful. As soon as a fantasy of a person or deed comes, of something you saw or heard, immediately drive it away from your mind with anger and the prayer. Say it rapidly and... Continue Reading →
I pray, my child, that you resist egoistic and proud thoughts, for from them and from similar passions all the other evil passions originate, and by them a poor soul is pushed over the cliff of destruction. Pay no attention to passionate thoughts; disregard them completely, since the ugliness of evil is written all over... Continue Reading →
Pay no attention to whatever the enemy (demons) says to you. As soon as he is about to whisper something in your ear, immediately say, “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me”, or “Save me”, rapidly and without stopping, and soon you will see that the thought — or rather the pressure to accept the... Continue Reading →
Everyone has a cross to carry. Why? Since the leader of our faith endured the cross, we will also endure it. On one hand, the cross is sweet and light, but, on the other, it can be also bitter and heavy. It depends on our will. If you bear Christ's cross with love, then it... Continue Reading →
"You don't see how , with every prayer you utter, many demons fall and turn back. You only see how much you are wounded. Know that they, also, are being beaten, and flee. Each time we show patience they flee in leaps, and with each prayer they are seriously wounded. So, in the time of... Continue Reading →
The principal characteristic of falling into sin is always the same: wanting to be good for one's own sake; wanting to be perfect for one's own sake; wanting to be God for one's own sake. In this manner, however, man unconsciously equates himself to the devil, because the devil also wanted to become God for... Continue Reading →
The remembrance of God is an all-powerful weapon, a mighty suit of armor against satan and the various sins. When the mind ceases to remember God and meditate upon divine things, man is overcome by negligence, indolence, forgetfulness, and then by evil desires! If you see your mind rushing towards the world, know that your... Continue Reading →
„For me, Saint Justin Popovich is the best application of the dogma in our age. He is the man who has brought God among people, into a civilization based on itself, on a luciferic Humanism. A great Theologian and dogmatist of great value who has incomodated and incomodates through his mode of trenchant presenting the... Continue Reading →
Letter 178 Counsels for the young new married couple: the earthly life - journey From my solitude, with the picturesque banks of the Volga, the magnificent and gorgeous Volga. I congratulate you with the good deeds you have done in your family for which, with a parental heart I am together with you, so happy... Continue Reading →
“Anyone can pray without ceasing if he always walks before God with his mind and heart. He can work with his hands while his mind and heart are raised to God. The only thing I have to add is that the most important thing in the spiritual prayer is that our mind and heart are... Continue Reading →
Letter 176, To a certain family. Life is changeable like the sea. Love for thy neighbor - the best delight. The gratitude to God for the gift of the friendship. In quiet seclusion on the shores of the majestic Volga, I often think of you, oh, blessed couple! And you - on the shores... Continue Reading →
“Confessing the Truth is a Christian responsibility, especially when times are hard. Otherwise, we can say all the prayers and —, if we do not confess the Truth at the right time, this accounts as a betrayal on our behalf. I believe that it is precisely through this confession that we can wash away our... Continue Reading →
“The first, between the Christian virtues, is the effort of the faith. The souls of the people must unceasingly strive into this capital virtue; this means that the faithful souls must devote themselves to Christ unreservedly and without compromise, after they have descended to the depths of their beings and they will have been raised... Continue Reading →
“To be Christ's, then humble yourself like a worm: put yourself in the situation of those who are grieving, full of sadness and sorrow, those who are in turmoil and follies. Humble yourself harder than all; make yourself all to all, but like Christ and in Christ. When you don’t have His humility, pray like... Continue Reading →
The husband is the head of the family, not because he is a man, but because he is the image of Christ, and his wife and children can see in him this image, that is the image of boundless love, devoted love, self-sacrificing love, a love that is willing to do anything to save, protect,... Continue Reading →
The life of self-centeredness and self-satisfaction lived by most of today's Christians is so all-pervading that it effectively seals them off from any understanding at all of spiritual life; and when such people do undertake spiritual life, it is only as another form of self-satisfaction. This can be seen quite clearly in the totally false... Continue Reading →
Once I fulfilled my obedience: I cooked for the brothers and I went to the Elder. When I was cooking in the courtyard, I was pronouncing the Jesus prayer with my mouth: “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me! Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me!” According to my Elder’s commandment and advice, at that time... Continue Reading →
“If your vision about the world has blended with faith, you have to show it even through your life. Nowadays, for many people the exterior is important, and the Christian spirit is totally missing. That's why so many misfortunes occur and we are to be blamed in front of God, because through our bad living,... Continue Reading →
The pleasures of the world are obtained with toil and expenses, and after their momentary enjoyment, they are followed by various consequences, so that they are incorrectly called pleasures. The pleasures of God, however, do not have such consequences, because spiritual pleasures down here on earth are the firstfruits of an eternal series of pleasures... Continue Reading →
Jesus Prayer is a divine commandment. It hasn’t been established through a prophet or an Apostle, not through an angel-but by God and the Son of God Himself. After the Last Supper, through other requests, final commandments and wills, Lord Jesus Christ established the prayer of His name; He gave way to the prayer as... Continue Reading →
“Continue your path with courage, with much courage. Let your heart rejoice in Lord, and He will grant it all vitamins and all energy that is needed so that you do not collapse. Nothing should seem difficult to you.”
“I don’t want either wealth or glory or riches for you here, because I know that from these come other troublesome things. If you have, by the grace of God, love and holy desire, then there, beyond the grave, will your future be. And doing God’s will, you’ll have much gain here as well, and... Continue Reading →
“Come to the Church of Christ to learn what innocence and purity are, what meekness is and what love is. You will find your place in life and the purpose of your existence. To your astonishment, you will discover that our life does not end in death, but in resurrection; that our existence centers on... Continue Reading →
“I felt with every man who humbly came into my office or I came to him in the operating room, that Christ Himself appeared to me in the suffering and the despair of that man...”
“We neither have chosen the country in which we will born, nor the people or time in which we will be born, but we choose to be human or non human.”
“The purpose of life is to seek after the highest truth and never divert from that road even when they force you to serve the purposes of the lowest form of truth by trampling upon the truth of Christ. You should be ready even to be martyred since you are sailing against the current. Keep... Continue Reading →
I have heard for a lot of times that it is dangerous to pray with the Jesus Prayer, and reading the canons- this being in safe. What is your opinion about it? - Lord does not put bombs to people. When He tells us to pray and say: “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me”,... Continue Reading →
Just as people do not enter a war in order to enjoy war, but in order to be saved from war, so we do not enter this world in order to enjoy this world, but in order to be saved from it. People go to was for the sake of something greater than war. So... Continue Reading →
When we unite these two centres – the heart and the mind -, they become a spiritual unit and then man is whole, as God made him: a full man. Through the prayer of the heart, one achieves this holy ideal of our earthly life. However, before we reach this ultimate goal of ennoblement, of... Continue Reading →
“Do not run after spectacles; do not run after cheep miracles performed on stage, do not run to the senseless babbling of the sectarians; their incomprehensible words are serpents coming out of their mouth! Do not run to the theatrical preaching of any of them; they are all lies, they are all hidden weapons of... Continue Reading →
When the soul knows the love of God by the Holy Spirit, then he clearly feels that the Lord is our own Father, the closest, dearest Father, the best. And there is not greater happiness that to love God with all the mind and heart, and our neighbor as ourself. And when this love is... Continue Reading →
How mistaken are those people who seek happiness outside of themselves, in foreign lands and journeys, in riches and glory, in great possessions and pleasures, in diversions and vain things, which have a bitter end! In the same thing to construct the tower of happiness outside of ourselves as it is to build a house... Continue Reading →
The beginning of conversion to Christ consists in coming to know one’s own sinfulness and fallenness. Through this view of himself, a person recognizes his need for a Redeemer, and approaches Christ through humility, faith, and repentance. He who does not recognize his sinfulness, fallenness, and peril cannot accept Christ or believe in Christ; he... Continue Reading →
...If each denomination contains only a part of the Christian faith, only the Orthodox Church contains the totality and plenitude of the true faith, ‘which was transmitted to the saints once and for all’ (Jude 3) . . . The union of all the churches cannot be achieved through mutual concessions, but only by adherence... Continue Reading →
“Man has to find his inner peace, he has to calm down. If he calms down mentally and physically, look (this is) his salvation. When man is quiet, the nervous system relaxes and then everything is easy to him”. Source: extracted and translated from the book: Starețul Tadei de la Mănăstirea Vitovnita, Cum îti sunt... Continue Reading →
On Love We need to love everyone as we love ourselves, and be ready for death at any hour. But another thing is possible: to love your neighbour as yourself, to pray for him as for yourself; thus, seeing that the sins of your neighbour are your sins, you descend into hell with these sins... Continue Reading →
We are against the ecumenism. And who is not ecumenist? The one whose life is correctly grounded in the Orthodox Church. Strenghten yourselves in life in the Orthodox Church, live the Orthodox spirituality, and then you will also be against the ecumenism. This is what I wanted to tell you. Source: https://youtu.be/0ZHz3pR9gZw?t=3034
Let’s not use any bit of time, because it is so precious. The loss of time will be reason of wailing, sometimes. One has lost time. We are dealing with a God Who, without any question, if people knew how much He loves us, maybe they would be more awake or, finally, we would be... Continue Reading →
“Well, oh yes! It has its own Pope, greater than all popes and patriarch in the world. It has had and will have from the beginning to the end of the ages. This is the same pope invoked by all Christ’s Apostles, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of wisdom and reason, the Spirit of God’s... Continue Reading →
The arrangement according the commemoration of the Non-Orthodox is recalled by the clergy so as at the Divine Liturgy only people belonging to the Orthodox Church may be reminded, because the act of commemoration makes people part of the service officiated and only the Orthodox Christians may be part of it. Also, people who have... Continue Reading →
“Never, never, never let anyone tell you that, in order to be Orthodox, you must also be Eastern. The West was Orthodox for a thousand years, and her venerable liturgy is far older than any of Her heresies.”
Thus, repentance itself – that is the spirit which has to fill our prayer. ''True repentance is the voice of true prayer. When the prayer does not turn to repentance, it does not fulfill its goal; so, God does not bless it''. First of all, Saint Ignatius turns his attention back to unceasing repentance, which... Continue Reading →
The Holy Fathers were illumined and left us these little prayers. A few words: ''Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us'' and ''Most Holy Theotokos, save us''. We dont need to read encyclopedias, nor many books. With these two little prayers, all Christians are saved. Monastics, who do not have wordly concerns, pray much and... Continue Reading →
...With such an attitude—a view of both the good things and the bad things in the world—it is possible for us to have and to fire an Orthodox world-view, that is, an Orthodox view on the whole of life, not just on narrow church subjects. There exists a false opinion, which unfortunately is all too... Continue Reading →
Orthodox Theology 