Orthodoxy for all

  In the times we are living through, when so much false talk is heard about the so-called “unification of churches,” when the “ecumenical movement,” which evokes the admiration of many, is expanding and strengthening, and when the Vatican “Ecumenical Council” periodically gathers for its next “session,” it would be timely for all true Orthodox Christians to remember what opinion our recently glorified great righteous man and miracle worker, Saint John of Kronstadt, held about Roman Catholic papism . This is how, for example, he writes in his “Thoughts on the Church” (p. 13): “No confession of the Christian faith, except the Orthodox, can lead a Christian to the perfection of Christian life or holiness and to the complete cleansing of sins and to incorruption, because other confessions, non-Orthodox, contain truth in untruth ( Rom. 1:18 ), mixed vanity and lies with the truth and do not possess those God-given means for purification, sanctification, rebirth and renewal, which the O...

The Holy Evangelist Luke was from Syrian Antioch and devoted himself to learning from a young age. Having thoroughly studied Jewish law, he also learned the art of healing and became familiar with Greek philosophy. He had an excellent knowledge of Greek and Egyptian, and was also a skilled iconographer. From Antioch, Luke came to Jerusalem at the very time when our Lord Jesus Christ was sowing the seeds of His divine teaching there. Luke was privileged to see and hear the Savior. The seed of the Gospel teaching fell upon Luke's heart, as the Gospel parable expresses it ( Matthew 13:8).), as on good soil, and, having sprouted, bore fruit a hundredfold. Having heard the teachings of Christ, Luke drew from them incomparably greater wisdom than in the Greek and Egyptian schools, for he came to know the true God, learned to believe in Him, and instructed others in the faith of Christ. The holy Evangelist Luke was one of the seventy apostles chosen by the Lord Himself to preach the Gospe...

“Theology without experience,” said Saint Paisios the Athonite, “is like a blind mole-rat trying to describe the sun.” Theology, that is, “speaking of God”, is not merely an academic discipline or philosophical system concerned with religious ideas. In the Orthodox Church, theology is the articulation of the Church’s experience of God. The genuine theologian does not stand outside the mystery as a detached observer; he participates in it. For this reason, the Holy Fathers never treated theology as an autonomous intellectual science, separable from purification, prayer, ascetic struggle, illumination, and the life of the Church. According to Saint Gregory Palamas, true knowledge of God is inseparable from the purification and illumination of the nous. Divine illumination is not simply the acquisition of information about God. It is knowledge granted by the Holy Spirit to the purified nous, a participation in the reality of God Himself.

A pinnacle of ecumenism, modernism, rebellion, apostasy from Christ and the Holy Fathers and destroyer of Orthodox ecclesiology Brief assessment of the "Holy and Great Council" held in Kolymbari, Crete (June 19-26, 2016) by Professor Dimitrios I. Tselengidis: The so-called "Holy and Great Council"—from a theological perspective— is not "Holy" in the strictest sense of the word. This is because, in neither the form nor the content of the decisions it adopted, it "followed the Holy Fathers"—that is, it did not adhere to the principle of strict adherence to the decrees and decrees of the Holy Fathers who lived before us, as will be evident from our subsequent explanation. Nor is it "Great" : not only because not all the Autocephalous Churches were present, but even more so because the delegations of the Local Churches consisted of a very limited number of elected bishops. Moreover, if strict theological criteria are applied, this "C...

By Saint Seraphim Rose from his book ''Orthodoxy and the religion of the future'' Orthodox Christians! Hold fast to the grace bestowed upon you; never allow it to become a matter of routine; never approach it with purely human standards, and never demand that it be logical or understandable to those who understand nothing higher than what is inherent in man and who hope to acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit in any way other than that by which the Church of Christ transmits it to us. True Orthodoxy, by its very nature, must seem completely out of place in these demonic times—a dwindling minority of the despised and "foolish" in the midst of a religious "revival" inspired by a different spirit. But let us take comfort in the words of our Lord Jesus Christ: "Fear not, little flock! “For it was your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” ( Luke 12:32 ). May all Orthodox Christians be strengthened before the coming battle, remembering that...

The persecution of the Church by those who oppose God—which began in our country (then the Russian Empire) at the start of the last century—aimed to eradicate faith in Christ the Savior (as well as all other religious traditions). The goal was to establish the absolute power of a group of globalists who styled themselves as "communist leaders." Seeking to reduce human beings to the status of mere "biomass," they aimed to gain control over the entire world—viewing even God Himself as a rival to their own authoritarian rule. This seizure of power—initially within a single nation—began with the direct, mass physical extermination of believers, the destruction of churches, and the eradication of anything that might serve as a reminder of God. Yet, because the Church could not be destroyed through repression alone—a "cavalry charge" approach—the adversaries of God, while continuing their physical assault on believers, began to "co-opt" certain clergy ...

In the first half of the 10th century, the great ascetic Andrew the Fool lived in Constantinople, who was granted miraculous spiritual visions and great revelations. One day he came to the famous Blachernae Church, where the robe of the Mother of God with Her omophorion and part of Her belt were kept. An omophorion is a veil that Jewish women used to cover their heads and that reached down to their feet. Blessed Andrew came to the church to attend the all-night vigil. He was accompanied by a young admirer of his, Epiphanius, who later became Patriarch of Constantinople under the name Polyeuctus. Blessed Andrew usually remained in churches long after the end of the service. This time, however, the all-night vigil lasted a long time. At four o'clock in the morning, Epiphanius saw the Most Holy Theotokos coming from the Royal Doors in great glory. She was supported by John the Baptist and the Apostle John the Theologian. A multitude of saints in white and shining robes surrounded the ...

Can I be sure that the Lord hears my prayer (unworthy, sinful)? Can I be sure that my prayer will not "return to my bosom" ? Can I be sure that the Lord is here, beside me, during my prayer, hearing and listening to it, resting His meek, loving gaze upon me as I fall before Him? Can I, unworthy and wretched, tainted by so many betrayals and falls, dare to dream of such condescension on His part, even to the least of His unworthy ones? Scripture says that I must be sure of this if I resort to Him sincerely, warmly, tenderly, and contritely, and therefore I can. And I can, and I must! I must only humbly leave to the Lord the right to fulfill my prayer or not, to fulfill it now or later, in whole or in part.

Saint Nikon (secular name Nikolai Mitrofanovich Belyaev), the last Optina elder, was born on September 26, 1888, in Moscow to a large, close-knit, and pious family of Moscow merchants, the Belyaevs. Kolya grew up a cheerful, playful child, very inventive in his childhood games and amusements. At the age of five, a momentous event befell him: he became so gravely ill that doctors were certain he would die soon. But his mother began to pray selflessly, fervently, and sincerely, and her son recovered very quickly, literally coming back to life. Later, the Optina elder Barsanuphius especially emphasized the significance of this incident, implying Nikolai's clear destined for monastic life. Another memorable event occurred in the Belyaev family: one day, Father John of Kronstadt visited their home . He held a prayer service, blessed the young mother, and presented her with a photograph of himself, signed and dated: "1888, the year of birth of my son Nikolai."

Short answer: No I am an Orthodox Christian, for me as a Christian there are no nations, Christians have no nations, we are all visitors and sojourners here on earth, our home is the Kingdom of Heaven. Christians are uranopolitists (citizens of heaven), because in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek but all are one. Countries for me are just pieces of land where people live their temporarily earthly lives. Each human being is a unique and unrepeatable person and each person is personally responsible for their own virtues and sins. As Solzhenitsyn said that the line between good and evil does not run between nations or states, but through the heart of every human being, and only God sees the heart of each person.

From a dialogue with a person who made a comment on my post The person: That is why sometimes I prefer becoming roman-catholic. They have much less chances to become nationalist pagans Marcus Orthodoxus: Yes brother, we Orthodox should learn from the Catholics regarding nationalism, but Catholicism is an innovation because Christ got replaced with the fallible human pope who claims that he is the Vicar of Christ on earth, is infallible and that he is above all Councils and jurisdictions, in reality the Church is conciliar, Christ gave the grace to all Apostles to tie and untie, also the filioque is an innovation, the purgatory, the juridical and legalistic understanding of atonement instead of seeing Christ as a doctor/healer, indulgences, scholasticism (mixing Christianity with philosophy), no essence energies distinction (which means that we can't reach God and unite with Him) this is the Hesychast Controversy between St Gregory Palamas and Barlaam of Calabria in the XIV centur...

  Metropolitan Peter, in the worldly realm Peter Fyodorovich Polyansky, was born in Voronezh Province in 1863. He received his secondary education at the Voronezh Seminary and his higher education at the Moscow Theological Academy, from which he graduated in 1892 with a PhD in Theology and a Master's degree, and was retained there as an assistant inspector. He soon wrote a dissertation on "On Pastoral Epistles," for which he was awarded a Master of Theology. From the Moscow Academy, he was appointed superintendent of the Zhirovichi Theological School (Grodno Province), and was then invited to serve as clerk of the Educational Committee of the Holy Synod. A year later, he was appointed a supernumerary member, and a short time later, a full-time member of the Educational Committee. He held the latter position until the Revolution, serving as auditor of theological educational institutions. Traveling literally throughout Russia on official duties, including the Caucasus and ...

The Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian was the second son of the fisherman Zebedee and Salome, the daughter of Joseph the Betrothed, and the younger brother of the Holy Apostle James. The brothers helped their father fish on Lake Galilee. Not inclined to worldly life, John withdrew from the world and remained a virgin forever. He was one of the first followers of John the Baptist, from whom he learned of the coming of the Messiah—Christ—into the world. At the Jordan, where John the Baptist usually preached to the people about repentance, he showed Christ to his disciples. Then two of the Baptist's disciples, Andrew, the son of the fisherman Jonah, and John, the son of the fisherman Zebedee, left their teacher and followed Christ. They both desired to see where Christ lived, and they joyfully accepted the permission given them to go with Him. "Come and see," He said to them. It was a little past midday. They followed Christ to His dwelling and stayed with Him ...

Our holy and God-bearing monastic father Sergius was born in the city of Rostov, the son of Orthodox parents named Cyril and Maria. God chose him to be His servant while he was still in his mother’s womb. One day, when his mother was yet carrying him in her womb, she went to church to attend the holy Liturgy as she was accustomed to do. When the reading of the Holy Gospel was begun, the child cried out so that all those who stood near his mother heard him. During the Cherubic Hymn he called out again, and when the priest proclaimed, "Holy things are for the holy," the child was heard a third time from his mother’s womb. From this, all perceived that he was to become a great light unto the world and a servant of the Holy Trinity. Even as Saint John the Forerunner leaped for joy in the womb before the Mother of the Lord, so did this child leap before the Lord in His holy church. His mother was seized with fear and astonishment on account of this miracle, and all who heard of it...

This is the story of how a young girl named Daria, became a serf named Dositheos, who lived for decades as a recluse, and gave the blessing to Saint Seraphim to go to Sarov. Daria was born in 1721 to the noble Tiapkin family in the province of Riazan. Before she was born, her grandmother entered the Monastery of the Ascension at the Moscow Kremlin and took the name Porphyria. When Daria was two years old she visited her grandmother with her parents, and when her grandmother saw her she insisted Daria remain in the monastery with her to be dedicated to God and the patroness of the monastery, Saint Euphrosyne. The parents reluctantly allowed their child to remain with her grandmother in the monastery. With her grandmother, Daria was educated and learned to love the monastic way of life of asceticism and prayer.

To acknowledge the Church means not merely to dream of Christ, but to live as a Christian—to walk the path of love and self-denial. Faith in the Church demands a feat of both the human mind and the human will. Truth and salvation are granted to the love of the Church—that is, to the Church itself; such is the consciousness of the Church. Latinism (Catholicism), having fallen away from the Church, betrayed this consciousness and proclaimed: "Truth is given to the individual person of the Pope, and the Pope (of Rome) administers the salvation of all." Protestantism objected to this: "Why is truth given only to the Pope?" and added: "Truth and salvation are revealed to every individual person independently of the Church." Every single person (in Protestantism) was elevated to the status of an infallible pope... Protestantism substituted the reason of the individual for faith, and replaced salvation within the Church with a fanciful assurance of salvation thro...

The work presents the Orthodox Church as the faithful continuation of the apostolic and first-millennium Church, while cataloguing numerous innovations, theological novelties, liturgical changes, and forgeries that it attributes to the Latin (Roman Catholic) West, especially after the Great Schism of 1054. Below is a structured summary of the errors listed in the tables of contents, with descriptions drawn directly from the chapter summaries.