Orthodoxy for all

Life of the Holy New Martyr Anna of Kurd (+2013)

Anna M. Kaloyan is one of the newest martyrs, people who suffered for Christ in the modern, post-Soviet era. Born on December 18, 1987, to Kurdish Yazidi parents, she lived in the village of Bazkovskaya in the Sholokhov District of the Rostov Region. In the fall of 2012, she came to faith in Christ and converted to Orthodoxy.

About sorrows

Some people think how much more willingly and zealously I would serve my Lord if my life's path were easier, if my life's path weren't so thickly strewn with sharp stones. When you say that, you obviously don't yet know who you are and what you are, what is good for you and what is bad, what you need and what you don't.

It is rightly said that man endures his own well-being worst of all. Days of happiness, days of success, when everything happens as desired—oh, how many times have these days become a deadly snare for the human soul. How much depravity grows on the human heart, like rust on a blade when it lies unused, or like a garden overgrown without the care of a gardener's knife.

All the noble powers of the Christian soul and Christian character can best be revealed and developed precisely during times of grief, misfortune, and suffering. All the wonders of God's grace are most clearly revealed in life precisely when the waters of sorrow and adversity reach our souls and we are forced to acknowledge our own insignificance and weakness and attribute all strength and meaning to the power of God.

“I must go through the school of the cross, I must suffer with Christ, so that I may be resurrected with Him.”

Homily One: The Handmaid of the Lord

"And Mary said: 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord'" (Luke 1:38).

Here indeed, brethren, is a true handmaid of the Lord! If a handmaid is she who exchanges her will completely for the will of her Lord, then the Most-holy Virgin is the first among all of the Lord's handmaids. If a handmaid is she who, with intent and with complete attention, beholds her Lord, then again the Most-holy Virgin is the first among the handmaids of the Lord. If a handmaid is one who meekly and quietly endures all insults and trials, awaiting only the reward of her Lord, then again and again the Most-holy Virgin is the first and most excellent of all the handmaids of the Lord. She did not care to please the world, but only God; nor did she care to justify herself before the world, but only before God. She herself is obedience; she herself is service; she herself is meekness. The Most-holy Virgin could in truth say to the angel of God: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord." The greatest perfection, and the greatest honor that a woman can attain on earth, is to be a handmaid of the Lord. Eve lost this perfection and honor in Paradise without effort, and the Virgin Mary achieved this perfection and this honor outside Paradise with her efforts.

Through the prayers of the Most-holy Virgin Theotokos, O Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.

The Nativity of Christ is more than just a memory of that distant night in Bethlehem. It is a great Mystery that changed the very fabric of the world and continues to operate today. On that night, not only the course of human history changed, but its meaning changed. God Himself entered the world, and history ceased to be merely a story of strength, fear, and survival. It became a story of salvation.

There were two brothers in spirit, Evagrius the Deacon and Titus the Priest. They had a great and sincere love for each other, so that everyone marveled at their unanimity and boundless love. But the devil, who hates goodness and always roars like a lion, seeking someone to devour, sowed enmity between them, instilling such hatred in them that they refused to even look at each other. Many times the brothers begged them to be reconciled, but they would not listen.