The World is Mad (Archbishop Averky Taushev)

“The time will come when people will behave like madmen, and to him who does not, they will say: you behave like a madman because you’re not like us.”

Why Orthodox Christians cannot celebrate Halloween

The feast of Halloween began in pre-Christian times among the Celtic peoples who lived more than 2,000 years ago in what is now United Kingdom, Ireland, and northern France. These pagan peoples believed that physical life was born from death. Therefore, they celebrated the beginning of the "new year" in the fall (on the eve of October 31 and into the day of November 1), when, as they believed, the season of cold, darkness, decay and death began. The Celts believed that a certain deity, whom they called Samhain, was the lord of death. To him they gave honor at their New Year's festival.

From an Orthodox Christian point of view, many diabolical beliefs and practices were associated with this feast, which have endured to this current time. On the eve of the New Year's festival, the Druids, who were the priests of the Celtic cult, instructed their people to extinguish all hearth fires and lights. On the evening of the festival they ignited a huge bonfire built from oak branches, which they believed to be sacred. Upon this fire, they offered burnt sacrifices of crops, animals, and even human beings to appease and cajole Samhain, the lord of death. They also believed that Samhain, being pleased by their faithful offerings, allowed the souls of the dead to return to homes for a festal visit on this day. This belief led to the ritual practice of wandering about in the dark dressed in costumes indicating ghosts, witches, hobgoblins, fairies and demons. The living entered into fellowship and communion with their dead by this ritual act of imitation, through costume and the wandering about in the darkness, even as the souls of the dead were believed to wander.

The law of the old testament and the grace of the new testament (St Hilarion of Kiev)

Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, the Christian God, that He visited His people and created deliverance for them, that He did not allow His creation to be possessed by idolatrous darkness to the end and perish in demonic service. But first He justified the tribe of Abraham with the tablets and the Law, and then through His Son He saved all nations, introducing them through the Gospel and Baptism into the renewal of their existence, into Eternal Life .

Let us praise and glorify Him, praised by the angels incessantly, and worship Him Whom the cherubim and seraphim worship, for He looked upon His people. And not a messenger (of Him), not a messenger, but He Himself saved us, not coming to earth in a ghostly way, but truly, suffering for us in the flesh to the point of death and resurrecting us with Himself.

On pride and prelest (spiritual deception)

Excerpt from the life of St Theophan of Poltava (Bystrov) spirtual father of St Tsar Nicholas II

Chapter Seven. Monk Iliodorus
Among the students at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy was a monk named Iliodor. He was distinguished by his spiritual fervor and heightened zeal. The Holy Fathers warn of such students that they can easily fall into "spiritual delusion," into spiritual self-delusion. This occurs because, out of self-confidence and arrogance, they begin to struggle without due humility, trusting in their own strength rather than in the Lord. And the Lord allows this to happen to them, or rather to us, in order to teach us reason and humble us, for falling into this spiritual malady of self-importance and self-delusion is the beginning of all terrible troubles. For Scripture says: "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall" ( Proverbs 16:18 ). "Before a fall, the heart of a man is haughty" ( Proverbs 18:13 ). “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” ( Luke 18:14 ).

Life of Schema-Archimandrite Daniel Klimkov (+1970)

Grigory Yuryevich Klimkov was born in 1893 in the village of Velkhovets, Lviv Governorate. He graduated from the Kharkov Theological Seminary. In 1917, he was ordained a priest, and from 1917 to 1920, he served in Moscow at the Church of the Nine Martyrs of Cyzicus. In 1920, he was tonsured a monk with the name Seraphim by Bishop Seraphim (Zvezdinsky). In 1920, he became a hieromonk, and in 1924, he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite.

Christ is everything to us! (St Ambrose of Milan)

 

Christ is everything to us!

If you want to heal a wound,
He is the doctor;
if you are parched with fever,
He is the source;
if you are oppressed by iniquity,
He is justice;
if you need help,
He is strength;
if you fear death,
He is life;
if you desire the sky,
He is the way;
if you are in the dark,
He is the light…
Taste and see how good the Lord is:
Blessed is the man who hopes in Him!

Saint Ambrose

HOW TO ACQUIRE FAITH

From Holy Scripture :

Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me ( Rev. 3:20 ).

And you will seek Me and find Me, if you seek Me with all your heart ( Jer. 29:13 ).

If you desire wisdom, keep the commandments , and the Lord will give it to you ( Sir.1:26 ).

How the famous Dutch actor became an Orthodox hermit - A story of Jozef van den Berg (+2023)

On Friday, October 13th 2023, the famous Dutch actor and puppeteer, Jozef Van den Berg, turned Orthodox Christ hermit reposed in the Lord at the age of 74 at Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Sochos, where he went to live the last few months of his life on earth, due to his failing health. His funeral was held on Tue 17th at the same Monastery and he was buried there. It was a blessing to light a candle and pray at his grave.

Jozef, who was born in Beers of the Netherlands on the 22nd of August 1949, was a very well known actor in the 1970’s and 1980’s in the Netherlands. He was initially an atheist and married with four children. Later, he began a successful career as a wandering puppeteer for children. Then he made his own performances in the theater, for children and adults. Van den Berg travelled the world, from Australia to Canada. In the 1980’s, Jozef Van den Berg played in his last play “Enough Wait” for his brother who was seriously ill and was in a wheelchair. On September 14, 1989, he would bring that performance to the De Sing but then something very special happened.

On following our Lord Jesus Christ (St Ignatius Brianchaninov)

"If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me" ( John 12:26 ), said the Lord. Every Christian, through the vows made at holy baptism, has accepted the obligation to be a slave and servant of the Lord Jesus Christ: every Christian must absolutely follow the Lord Jesus Christ.

Having called Himself the shepherd of the sheep, the Lord said that "the sheep hear the voice of this Shepherd , ... and the sheep follow Him, for they know His voice" ( John 10:3-4 ). The voice of Christ is His teaching; the voice of Christ is the Gospel; following Christ on the path of earthly pilgrimage is an activity entirely directed according to His commandments.

To follow Christ, you must know His voice. Study the Gospel, and you will be able to follow Christ with your life.

Hieromonk Arseny (Minin) (1823–1879)

Elder Arseny (Alexander Ivanovich Minin in the world) was born in the Tver province to a merchant family. Alexander arrived on Mount Athos in August 1857, became a novice at St. Panteleimon Monastery, and in 1859 took monastic vows with the name Arseny. He was ordained a hierodeacon, and then a hieromonk.