Beautiful words from St. Patrick, Irish missionary

I arise today through
The strength of the sky,
The light of the sun,
The splendor of the moon,
The splendor of fire,
The swiftness of lightning,
The swiftness of the wind,
The depth of the sea,
The stability of the earth,
The firmness of the rock.

True Freedom (Archbishop Averky Taushev)

One may easily hear the prophetic voice of Archbishop Averky, most of all considering that these talks were given shortly after World War II. With the eyes of the spirit, he clearly foresaw the end of the path upon which humanistic freedom was leading mankind. A very timely, sober, and challenging message. One we and our world must heed.

True freedom, which grants happiness, is freedom from sin. Is this how contemporary people understand freedom, and is this the freedom they seek?

What Christ Accomplished on the Cross (Hieromonk Damascene)

The topic of today’s talk—what Christ accomplished on the Cross—is of course a prime subject of contemplation during the Lenten season, as we prepare to prayerfully commemorate Christ’s passion, death, and the inevitable consequence of His death: His holy Resurrection. As we call to mind and repent of our sins during the Holy Fast, we also call to mind that which has saved us from the eternal consequences of sin. We call to mind Christ’s life-creating death on the Cross, which He underwent for the salvation of each one of us.

About faith, and to those who say that it is impossible for someone living in the world to achieve perfection in virtues (St Symeon the New Theologian)

At the beginning of the discourse is a very useful story. It is a good thing to preach before all the mercy of God and to proclaim to your brethren His great compassion and the ineffable grace which He has for us. I know a man who neither observed long and great fasts, nor kept vigils, nor slept on the bare ground, nor imposed other such particularly difficult feats upon himself, but, recalling his sins, he recognized his wretchedness and, condemning himself, humbled himself - and the all-merciful Lord saved him for this alone, as the divine David says: "I humbled myself and saved me" (114:5).

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