Orthodoxy for all

A collection of sources ( To translate the sites into your preferred language use google translator) : ROCOR (Russian Church Abroad) anathema of 1983 against ecumenism: Those who attack the Church of Christ by teaching that Christ's Church is divided into so-called "branches" which differ in doctrine and way of life, or that the Church does not exist visibly, but will be formed in the future when all "branches" or sects or denominations, and even religions will be united into one body; and who do not distinguish the priesthood and mysteries of the Church from those of the heretics, but say that the baptism and eucharist of heretics is effectual for salvation; therefore, to those who knowingly have communion with these aforementioned heretics or who advocate, disseminate, or defend their new heresy of Ecumenism under the pretext of brotherly love or the supposed unification of separated Christians, Anathema! Source:  http://orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/ecum_anath.a...

A collection of sources ( You can translate the sites into your preffered language using google translator) : 1. Orthodox Witness Concerning Catholicism https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AEhcylQq4ZnbvJVlYy5zP4Ry549_QVtd/view?usp=drive_link 2. Catholicism (vera pravoslavnaya) https://verapravoslavnaya.ru/?Katolicizm_-_alfavit 3. On Papism, Two books by Fr Vladimir Guetee https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Vladimir_Gette/papstvo-kak-prichina-razdelenija-tserkvej-ili-rim-v-svoih-snoshenijah-s-vostochnoj-tserkovyu/ https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Vladimir_Gette/eretichestvo-papstva/ 4. My Exodus From Roman Catholicism by His Grace Bishop of Nazianzus Paul de Ballester https://www.oodegr.com/english/biblia/Ballester/perieh.htm 5. Archimandrite George (Kapsanis) Orthodoxy and humanism. Orthodoxy and papism https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Georgij_Kapsanis/pravoslavie-i-gumanizm-pravoslavie-i-papizm/ 6. Archimandrite Emmanuel (Kalivas) Condemnation of the Papacy https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/konfessii/osuzhdenie-p...

A collection of resources ( To translate the sites into your preferred language use google translator). 1. Faith and the reasons for unbelief by St Varlaam Ryashentsev https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Varlaam_Rjashentsev/vera-i-prichiny-neverija/ 2. Mystical proof for the Existence of God by St Theophan of Poltava https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Feofan_Bystrov/misticheskoe-dokazatelstvo-bytija-bozhija/ 3. Dialogues by St Valentine Sventitsky https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Valentin_Sventsitskij/dialogi/ 4. Belief, unbelief and doubt by Metropolitan Veniamin Fedchenkov https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Veniamin_Fedchenkov/o-vere-neverii-i-somnenii/ 5. The Sunflower, or conformity with the Divine will by St Ioann Maximovitch of Tobolsk https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Ioann_Tobolskij/iliotropion/ 6. Leibniz's doctrine of the origin and essence of evil by St Joseph of Petrograd https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Iosif_Petrovyh/svjashhennomuchenik-iosif-mitropolit-petrogradskij-zhizneopisanie-i-trudy/4_4

A collection of sources ( To translate the books into your preferred language use google translator). Fr. Konstantin Bufeev Orthodox Doctrine of Creation and Theory of Evolution https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/bogoslovie/pravoslavnoe-uchenie-o-sotvorenii-i-teorija-evolyutsii/ St Seraphim Rose on evolution https://genesis.blessedseraphim.com/ Fr Daniel Sysoev https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Daniil_Sysoev/letopis-nachala/

   St Apostle Paul says that: Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God (Rom.13:1). Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves (Rom.13:2). St Apostle Paul himself comments his words: For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same (Rom.13:3).

The World According to modern vernacular, to be worldly means to be successful, to have material wealth, to have the means for self indulgence, to mingle with beautiful people, to seek and gain acceptance from the desired social class. Fame, money, self indulgence are all highly prized and glorified in our culture. Although it seems obvious that these are not meaningful, and although most people deep down know these do not provide one with happiness, the world and all its glitter somehow has achieved the highest status and is the aim of nearly all who breathe. The world demands our attention and provokes our affection. When the saints use the term “world” they are not referring to the planet or the people who inhabit this lovely planet. The term “world” should be understood as that part of the world that is affected by or the object of human thought and behavior—or namely the passions.

Life in Orthodoxy and the Modern World In past centuries, for example in 19th-century Russia, the Orthodox worldview was part of Orthodox life and was supported by the surrounding reality. There was no need to even speak of it as something separate—everyone lived Orthodox lives, in harmony with the surrounding Orthodox society. In many countries, the government itself professed Orthodoxy; it was the center of public activity, and the Tsar or ruler himself was historically the first Orthodox layperson, whose duty it was to set an example of Christian life for his subjects. Every city had Orthodox churches, and in many of them, services were held daily, morning and evening. Monasteries existed in all large cities, in many smaller towns, and beyond them, in villages, and in remote and deserted places. In Russia, there were over a thousand officially registered monasteries, not counting other communities. Monasticism was a universally accepted part of life. Indeed, in most families, someon...

Our life is short - this dust, ashes, sleep, and soon we die. Today you have health, and tomorrow you lose it. Today your face is cheerful, and soon you are already gloomy. Eyes shed tears from great joy and love, and soon - from pain and sorrow. Today - prosperity, tomorrow - collapse. Today - joyful news, and tomorrow sad news comes to replace them. We toss and turn in vain; life is a shadow and a dream. Where are our parents, our brothers and sisters, our grandparents? The coffin has received them all, worms and decay have destroyed them all. Death and decay await us too! Let us pray that the holy God may save us, granting us complete repentance and works worthy of repentance, works of mercy and love, the spirit of repentance with true humility, so that we may incline the Judge to have mercy on us, so that in the terrible hour of death the soul may say with boldness: “I trust in God that He will deal mercifully with my insignificance.” Amen.

  The article entitled  The Self Liquidation of Christianity  was written in 1966 by Eugene Rose, more well known as St. Seraphim. It was originally published in  The Orthodox Word. St Seraphim Rose St. Seraphim is a penetrating and acute thinker (he passed away in the early 1980’s). I would even venture to say he is prophetic, in the purer sense of the word. In many ways, he saw beyond the confines of his immediate times, both into the past and future. (All subsequent phrases within quotations are excerpts from the article referenced above unless otherwise noted.) “ The striking phrase, ‘God is dead,’ is the political expression of modern unbelief.”

As the Fathers say, the extremes from both sides are equally harmful ... (We must) go on the royal path, avoiding the extremes on both sides. St. John Cassian, Conference II ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS live today in one of the great critical times in the history of Christ's Church. The enemy of man's salvation, the devil, attacks on all fronts and strives by all means not merely to divert believers from the path of salvation shown by the Church, but even to conquer the Church of Christ itself, despite the Saviour's promise (Matt. 16:18), and to convert the very Body of Christ into an "ecumenical" organization preparing for the coming of his own chosen one, Antichrist, the great world-ruler of the last days. Of course, we know that this attempt of Satan will fail; the Church will be the Bride of Christ even to the end of the world and will meet Christ the Bridegroom at His Second Coming pure and undefiled by adulterous union with the apostasy of this age. But the great que...

Valeriu Gafencu was born on the 24th of December 1921, in the northern part of Romania, near the Russian border of that time. His parents were both active Orthodox Christians. His father was to be deported to Siberia by the Russians in 1940 for his pro-Romanian activity. When he was in high school, Valeriu joined an Orthodox youth organization called the Cross Brotherhood, and, when this became illegal during the second World War, he was arrested and condemned to 25 years of hard labor. He was only 20 and, at his trial, his fellow students and teachers would come and defend him, pointing out his innocence and wonderful human qualities. At first he was sent to a prison called Aiud.

  From the Essays of Bishop Ignatius (Brianchaninov) Introduction The Holy Gospel tells us that the Pharisees, not satisfied with the miracles performed by our Lord, demanded from Him a particular miracle, a sign from heaven (Mark 8:1). A demand for such a sign, consistent with a strange understanding of miracles and signs, was repeated more than once, as the Lord testified: Why doth this generation seek after a sign (Mark 8:12)? The Sadducees took part in the Pharisees’ demand, though their belief was different from that of the Pharisees. The desire for a sign from heaven was sometimes expressed by the people too; and this after the miraculous multiplying of the five loaves and the feeding of the multitude, when there were five thousand men present, and women and children. Yet the eyewitnesses of this miracle, the participants of this meal, said to the Lord: What sign shewest Thou then, that we may see, and believe Thee?... Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written...

One person asked me a very interesting question: From the perspective of Orthodox Christianity, what choice is better for a person: to choose marriage, monasticism, or to live alone in the world without falling into fornication? Here is my reply to it:

AN UNPUBLISHED LIFE OF FR. SERAPHIM ROSE, WRITTEN BY HIS GODFATHER Dimitri Andrault de Langeron The story behind this text: My name is Gregory and around the years 2003-2006 I had the honor of spending time with, praying with and listening to the spiritual words of a truly humble man who loved Orthodoxy with all his heart. I speak of Dimitri Langeron, who lives with his wife Irene and their son Nicholas. Dimitri is Fr. Seraphim Rose's godfather and a most pious and God-loving man. Their house is filled with icons, some very old from Russia and in some rooms nearly half of the walls of the rooms are covered in icons. There is something very other-worldly about Dimitri and his family; something I can best describe as Old Worldish; remnants of the types of people who so rarely exist these days. They pray, they fast, they constantly speak about God and His Holy Church and I really don't know if I've ever heard them speak of anything else; besides of things concerning the nec...

                                     “When I was a youth of fifteen, an indescribable silence blew through my mind and heart,” writes Brianchaninov, in his fortieth year of life, being an archimandrite and abbot of the Sergius Hermitage. “But I did not understand it, I believed that this was the usual state of all people. Thus I entered into military and at the same time academic service, not by my choice and desire. Then I did not dare, did not know how to desire anything: because I had not yet found the Truth, had not yet seen It clearly in order to desire It. Human sciences, the inventions of the fallen human mind, became the object of my attention: I rushed to them with all the strength of my soul; vague occupations and religious feelings remained on the sidelines. Almost two years passed in earthly pursuits: some terrible emptiness was born and had already grown in my soul, hunger appeare...

Archbishop Hilarion, in the world Vladimir Alexeyevich Troitsky, was born on September 13, 1886 in the village of Lipitsy, Serpukhov uyezd, Moscow province, in the family of a priest. He was the brother of Archbishop Daniel of Bryansk.

One elder told his disciple that when he was still a layman, he came to his acquaintances and, among other things, began to talk about God, about the faith of Christ and about other spiritual subjects. One of those present did not agree with his reasoning and even expressed her disbelief and, in any case, disagreement with the teaching of the Orthodox Church.

  From that heresies will spread everywhere and deceive many people. The enemy of the human race will act with cunning in order to draw into heresy, if possible, even the elect. He will not begin by crudely rejecting the dogmas of the Holy Trinity, the divinity of Jesus Christ and the virtue of the Theotokos, but he will begin imperceptibly to distort the teachings and statutes of the Church and their very spirit, handed down to us by the Holy Fathers through the Holy Spirit.