On the Acquistion of the Holy Spirit (talk between St Seraphim of Sarov and Motovilov)

 

The conversation between St. Seraphim and Nikolai Alexandrovich Motovilov (1809–1879) about the purpose of Christian life took place in November 1831 in the forest near the Sarov Monastery and was recorded by Motovilov. The manuscript was discovered 70 years later in the papers of Nikolai Alexandrovich's wife, Elena Ivanovna Motovilova.

The apparent simplicity of the conversation is deceptive: the sermon is delivered by one of the greatest saints of the Russian Church, and the listener is a future ascetic of the faith, healed from an incurable illness by Seraphim's prayer. It was to N.A. Motovilov that St. Seraphim bequeathed before his death the material care of his Diveyevo orphans and the founding of the Seraphim-Diveyevo Monastery.

On the Circumcision of the Lord and the New Year (Archimandrite George Kapsanis)

The sacred hymns we sang this night reveal to us the profound theological meaning of today's feast, the Circumcision of the Lord. They proclaim: "The Savior, descending to the human race, accepts the swaddling clothes of a child and does not disdain the circumcision of the flesh." He was not ashamed even of the circumcision of the flesh. This is one of the ineffable mysteries—this great condescension, the extreme humility of the God-Man, our Lord, who deigned to begin a full human life and even to fulfill the statutes of the Mosaic Law, and to endure circumcision. Therefore, the sacred hymnographer is greatly amazed, contemplating the Lord not only clothed in infant swaddling clothes, but also enduring the circumcision of His holy flesh. And all this—for the sake of our salvation.

God commanded the Israelites in the Old Testament to be circumcised, and this was a sign of the Divine Covenant. He who was circumcised belonged to the people of the Covenant, to the people who held the promises of God. It was a sign of the covenant between God and the faithful Israelites. Therefore, anyone who did not receive circumcision was not considered a faithful Israelite. But this circumcision—a fleshly circumcision—was ordained by God to prepare the people and lead them to another circumcision, which would be the only true circumcision, no longer of the flesh, but of the "old man": the circumcision of passions and the investiture with the new man of Grace. Therefore, the Apostle Paul and the Fathers of our Church say that Old Testament circumcision was only a symbol of the true circumcision—Holy Baptism.

Life of St Basil the Great (+379)

 

Basil, a great saint of God and a divinely wise teacher of the Church, was born of noble and pious parents in the Cappadocian city of Caesarea , around the year 330, during the reign of Emperor Constantine the Great. Constantine the Great reigned from 324 to 337. His father was also named Basil , and his mother, Emmelia. The first seeds of piety were sown in his soul by his pious grandmother, Macrina, who in her youth was privileged to hear the teachings of St. Gregory the Wonderworker , and by his mother, the pious Emmelia. Basil's father instructed him not only in the Christian faith but also in secular sciences, which he knew well, as he himself taught rhetoric, oratory, and philosophy. When Basil was about fourteen years old, his father died, and the orphaned Basil spent two or three years with his grandmother, Macrina, not far from Neocaesarea, near the Iris River , in a country house owned by his grandmother, which was later converted into a monastery. From here, Basil often traveled to Caesarea to visit his mother, who lived with her other children in that city, her birthplace.

About Elder Paisios the Athonite (Archimandrite George Kapsanis)

Elder Paisios has no need of our praise or promotion. With his Christ-like love, he pleased God and people and thus gained great glory in the Church of Christ.

The elder possessed a unique gift of finding a common language and helping everyone (regardless of their education, financial situation and spiritual state).

Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service called the Ecumenical Patriarch "the devil incarnate."

Comment from the author of this blog ''Orthodoxy for all'' Marcus Orthodoxus:

These satanists have gone too far, they call Patriarch Bartholomew an antichrist and a devil incarnate! While they themselves are satanists who kill their fellow brothers and sisters in Ukraine! And their ''church'' (Moscow Patriarchate) is a KGB organization what was established by Stalin in 1943 to serve the communist regime, nothing changed today, this fake church blesses the genocide of Ukrainians, calls this war ''Holy war'', swapped Christianity for the satanic pagan nationalist cult of ''Holy Rus'' the Third Rome! How dare they blaspheme like this! Plus they created an uncanonical ''Exharchate of Africa'' in 2021 on the territory of the canonical Alexandrian Patriarchate! These satanists better shut up!

Enough is enough! They must be stopped! They need to be condemned and put in prison!!! And their ''church'' be anathematized as a totalitarian sect that has nothing to do with Orthodox Christianity!

Here is their blasphemy:

The Press Bureau of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation reports that, according to information received by the SVR, Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, who dismembered Orthodox Ukraine, continues his schismatic activities within the Orthodox Church. Now he has set his dark eye on the Baltic states. This "devil incarnate" is obsessed with ousting Russian Orthodoxy from the Baltic states, establishing in its place church structures completely under the control of the Phanar.

In this, he is fully supported by the British intelligence services, which actively fuel Russophobic sentiments in European countries. At their instigation, Bartholomew, mired in the mortal sin of schism, has found common ground with the authorities of the Baltic states in an effort to sow discord in the Russian Orthodox world. Relying on ideological allies in the form of local nationalists and neo-Nazis, he is attempting to tear the Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian Orthodox Churches away from the Moscow Patriarchate by luring their priests and flocks into the puppet religious structures artificially created by Constantinople.

The "Constantinople Antichrist"'s aggressive ambitions are not limited to Ukraine and the Baltics; his treachery is gradually spreading to the lands of Eastern Europe. In order to strike a blow against the "particularly obstinate" Serbian Orthodox Church, he intends to grant autocephaly to the unrecognized "Montenegrin Orthodox Church."

Church circles note that Bartholomew is literally tearing apart the living Body of the Church. In this way, he resembles the false prophets mentioned in the Sermon on the Mount: "They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. ... By their fruits you will know them." 

Press Bureau of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Russia

12.01.2026

Source: http://www.svr.gov.ru/smi/2026/01/konstantinopolskiy-patriarkh-varfolomey-antikhrist-v-ryase.htm

ROCOR stance on the Moscow Patriarchate before the 2007 apostatic union

"Orthodox Rus'" and the Moscow Patriarchate 

Until it fell into the hands of the Sergianist-Ecumenists, the church-public organ "Orthodox Rus" was always a spiritual beacon pointing the way to Christ's Truth. Such foreign pillars as Archbishop Vitaly (Maksimenko), Archbishop Averky (Taushev), and Archimandrite Konstantin (Zaitsev) served on the magazine's editorial board. Excerpts from "Orthodox Rus" illustrate the traditional relationship of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia to the Moscow Patriarchate.

How can a layperson be saved? (St Paisius Velichkovsky)

I advise you to read more diligently the Divine Scriptures and the teachings of our holy and God-bearing Fathers, who have been given by the grace of the Holy Spirit to understand the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, that is, the true meaning of Holy Scripture.

On Conscience (St Ignatius Brianchaninov)

 

Conscience is a feeling of the human spirit, subtle, bright, distinguishing good from evil.

This feeling distinguishes good from evil more clearly than the mind.

It is more difficult to deceive the conscience than the mind.

And the conscience struggles for a long time with a deceived mind, supported by a sin-loving will.

Conscience is a natural law.

Conscience guided man before the written Law. Fallen humanity gradually acquired an incorrect way of thinking about God, about good and evil: the false mind communicated its wrongness to conscience. The Written Law has become a necessity for guidance to true knowledge of God and to God-pleasing activities.

Prayer of one persecuted by men (St Ignatius Brianchaninov)

I thank You, my Lord and God, for all that has happened to me! I thank You for all the sorrows and temptations that You sent me for the cleansing of those defiled by sins, for the healing of those wounded by sins, my soul and body!

Have mercy and save those instruments that You used to heal me: those people who insulted me. Bless them in this and the next age! Impute to them as virtues what they did for me! Appoint for them abundant rewards from Your eternal treasures!

On the cross (St Innocent of Alaska)

“The word “cross” means suffering, pain and adversity. “To take up one’s cross” means to accept without complaint everything that can happen in life, unpleasant, painful, sad, difficult and oppressive. In other words, to bear every laughter, contempt, tiredness, pain and annoyance of others; to bear every poverty, misfortune, illness, without considering oneself offended. And if, when you carry your cross according to the will of God, a proud thought suggests to you that you are not weak like others, but that you are firm, pious and better, eradicate such thoughts as much as possible because they ruin all your virtues.“