Progress in the Death Mill (St Justin Popovich)

Some cosmic conspiracy exists against our planet, for nowhere in the universe do people die as they do on Earth. The island of death, the only island of death where people die—that is our sad star. And above it, around it, and beneath it, circle countless myriads of stars where there is no death, where people do not die. The abyss of death surrounds our planet on all sides. Where is the path that begins on Earth and does not lead to the precipice of death? Where is the being that can escape death on Earth? Everyone dies, everything dies on this terrible island of death. There is no fate sadder than earthly, no tragedy more despairing than human.

For the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (St Theophan the Recluse)

 

The Kingdom of God is not acquired by eating one thing and not eating another, or by drinking one thing and not drinking another. Or—this is not what constitutes the Kingdom of God, not what adorns it, not what constitutes its distinctive character. Or—this is not what makes those who have entered the Kingdom of God glorious, and this is not the sign of whether someone is in the Kingdom of God or not. "Do not think that this is very great progress, and that the Kingdom of Heaven is acquired by this" (Blessed Theodoret). "Do you really think that this will be counted to your credit? And in another place he says the same thing: even if there are pits, we abound; and even if there are no pits, we are deprived" (cf. 1 Cor. 8:8). There is nothing to prove here; it is enough to say. The meaning of the Apostle's words is this: "If you eat, will this enter you into the Kingdom?" (St. Chrysostom).

A Russian Bishop's Word on Putin's Satanism (Archbishop Victor Pivovarov)

SERMON ON THE SUNDAY OF THE VENERATION OF THE CROSS (2014)

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Brothers and sisters. I want to detain you for a moment—you'll spend less time in front of the television. Listen to our voice, the voice of the real Church, about the events that are currently troubling the entire world. This is not the voice of the church created in 1927 by the Bolsheviks to cover up the atrocities of the satanic regime, but the voice of the real Church, which has always been faithful to God, which cares for the people. The mouthpiece of that Chekist church is television and its lying press. What is television? It is a satanic voice, the voice of Satan and Putin, where there can be no truth, only lies, one upon another. You heard on television that Banderites and nationalists have seized Ukraine. What nonsense! First of all, there are no nationalists or Banderites in power there, and if there are Banderites among the people, then ask yourself: who was Bandera? He stood up for his people, for his nation. Hitler imprisoned him for this, and he suffered, he truly suffered for the people. He wasn't a doctor of theology and, of course, he was mistaken. But who wasn't mistaken in those years when the prevalence of lies in the world was at its height? And who are the nationalists? They are patriots who care about their people. However, when nationalists don't recognize God, they turn into Nazis, the same as the Bolsheviks.

Archpriest Nikita Ignatiev

About priest Nikita Ignatiev

…Father Nikita Ignatiev awaited this moment every day for 40 years—and it never came for him. But he never lived to see freedom, and he was forced to die and be buried as secretly as he had lived… He told his spiritual children: “If our Church can gain freedom, if I can leave my home openly—don’t tell me right away, without preparation—I won’t be able to bear it…” He feared his heart wouldn’t be able to bear this joy. Those 40 years were truly a bloodless martyrdom, when every day he laid down his life for his flock—and his spiritual children prepared to suffer for him every day…
Nowadays, it’s fashionable to call Metropolitan Sergius and the patriarchs who followed him, along with their like-minded followers, “bloodless martyrs.”
But the story of this man's life testifies: martyrdom—even if bloodless—is something quite different...

Life of St Stephen the Protomartyr

The holy apostle Stephen was a relative of Saul, later apostle Paul. No information about his life, his conversion to Christ, or the circumstances of his conversion has survived. We have only a brief account in the Book of Acts of the Apostles of Stephen's apostolic labors, his suffering, and his martyrdom when he was already about thirty years old. At this time, murmurings arose among the Christians of the Jerusalem Church. These murmurs arose among the so-called "Hellenists"—Jews of the Diaspora, so named because, born and raised in pagan lands, they spoke Greek or Hellenic, the language then common throughout the Roman Empire. The Hellenists complained that their elderly widows, cared for by Christians in Jerusalem, were poorly maintained and suffered from want of everything. Then the apostles, having gathered the faithful, declared that it was not fitting for them, the apostles, to abandon their ministry to the word of God to tend the widows' table, and that for this purpose they should choose from among the believers seven men filled with the Holy Spirit and wisdom. This proposal of the holy apostles pleased everyone and was accepted by the assembly of the faithful, and consequently, seven proven, virtuous men were chosen to care for the Christian widows cared for by the Church, headed by St. Stephen, one of the seventy apostles. The holy apostles ordained these chosen ones as deacons, and St. Stephen, filled with great faith and spiritual strength, was the first of them, for which reason he was called archdeacon.

On Marxism, communism and other utopian movements (St Valeriu Gafencu)

 

Q: Valeriu, what is Marxism?

 A: A false Christianity, a counterfeit Christianity, the materialization of the spirit, the anthropomorphism of God, the overturning of all values, the incarnation of the world, both philosophically and politically. Marxism is prison. In the Marxist spirit, all values, all reason ing, all things, all actions become a prison for Man. Marx refused any transcendence.

 Q: And socialism? 

 A: Socialism is a bizarre mixture of Communism and bourgeois materialism. 

 Q: And nationalsocialism?

A: A confused and vague response to Marxism.

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.

The Lord is always with us. Instructions and thoughts on spiritual life (Hieromartyr John Pommer)

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.”

Three Homilies on the Theotokos (St. Nikolai Velimirovich)

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 Great Mystery of the Nativity (Igumen Tihon)

 

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.