Orthodox Faith

11 Jan 2024 16:43

So much did this brother increase spiritually that, in addition to constant prayer, he also acquired the gift of foresight, knowing the future, and he was full of humility and spiritual wisdom.
On January 7, 1995, when Saint John the Baptist was celebrated, after several months of suffering, blessed John David delivered his soul into the arms of Christ, being honoured by the locals as a great supplicant and hermit from the Carpathians.”

Orthodox Faith

11 Jan 2024 00:34

We should all strive with philotimo (selfless love) and according to our strength. It is by cultivating philotimo that we grow in our love of God. When our efforts are driven by philotimo, our prostrations and fasting will be pure outbursts of love, and our path one of spiritual valor... We should simplify our efforts and put all our hope in Christ rather than in ourselves. Christ is full of love, kindness, and consolation. He will never stifle us. He gives abundant oxygen and divine comfort... You must be very careful to live the spiritual life with your heart rather than your mind... first putting your trust in God, with great humility.

✝️ Saint Paisios, Spiritual Counsels, Volume I: With Pain and Love

Orthodox Faith

09 Jan 2024 16:16

“Lord Jesus, receive my spirit, wherein O Lord, impute this not to them in sin.” ✝️The Holy First-Martyr and Archdeacon Stephen (Dec 27/ Jan 9)

With joy the young deacon St Stephen gave up his pure soul to Christ. His body, “left for devouring by beasts, was secretly taken up by the illustrious Jewish teacher Gamaliel and his son Habib, and given burial on his estate. And afterwards these both believed in Christ and accepted holy Baptism.” —from the Synaxarion

Orthodox Faith

09 Jan 2024 03:01

Only-begotten Son and Logos of God, being immortal, You condescended for our salvation to take flesh from the holy Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary and, without change, became man. Christ, our God, You were crucified and conquered death by death. Being one of the Holy Trinity, glorified with the Father and the Holy Spirit: Save us.

Orthodox Faith

08 Jan 2024 23:09

Of old, the river Jordan turned back before Elisha’s mantle at Elijah’s ascension. The waters were parted in two and the waterway became a dry path. This is truly a symbol of baptism by which we pass through this mortal life. Christ has appeared in the Jordan to sanctify the waters!

Orthodox Faith

07 Jan 2024 01:45

The Feast of the Nativity, Julian Calendar

“Prepare thyself, O Bethlehem! Adorn thyself well, O manger! The Truth hath come! Receive Him, O cave! The shadow hath passed away, and God hath appeared to mankind through the Virgin, assuming our form and deifying our flesh.”

Orthodox Faith

05 Jan 2024 21:46

Forefeast of the Nativity (Dec 23/ Jan 5)

Today the Virgin cometh to give birth ineffably/ to the preeternal Word in the cave./ Dance, O world! And having heard this,/ with the angels and shepherds glorify// the preeternal God, Who is to appear as a little babe.

—Kontakion of the Forefeast Tone III "Today the Virgin"

Orthodox Faith

03 Jan 2024 14:45

The earliest known prayer to the Theotokos (Greek, Θεοτοκος, meaning “Bearer of God”) is found on a fragment of papyrus dating back to approximately AD 250.

"Beneath thy compassion, We take refuge, O Mother of God: do not despise our petitions in time of trouble, but rescue us from dangers, only pure one, only blessed one."

Orthodox Faith

03 Jan 2024 02:41

In 2017, a crowd of people enjoying a day at a Sochi beach, watched curiously as a pod of dolphins swam up to the beach and left an object behind. The object turned out to be the icon "The Mother of God - The Sign.”

https://ruskline.ru/news_rl/2017/06/10/chudo_chudnoe/

Orthodox Faith

30 Dec 2023 21:40

Cheer up!

“O sinful descendant of Adam, cheer up! Light lit up in your dungeon: God descended to the lower land of your banishment, in order to elevate you in your heavenly fatherland that you had lost. You wished to know good and evil: He left you this knowledge. You wanted to become like God, and from that you became like the devil by your soul, and like beasts and cattle by your body: God, uniting you to Himself, makes you god by grace. He forgives you your sins. Not only this! He extinguishes the root of evil from your soul, the very infection of sin, poison, thrown into your soul by the devil, and He gives you medicine for the entire way of your earthly life, for curing you from sin, no matter how many times you would get infected by it, because of your infirmity. This remedy is confession of sins.”

☦️ St Ignatius Brianchaninov

Orthodox Faith

30 Dec 2023 21:31

May we imitate the love St. Anysia showed to her Lord: “I love You, my Bridegroom, and in seeking You I endure suffering. In baptism I was crucified so that I might reign in You, and I died so that I might live with You. Accept me as a pure sacrifice, for I have offered myself in love.”— from the Troparian
The relics of St. Anysia are contained in the Church of St. Demetrios in Thessaloniki.

Orthodox Faith

26 Dec 2023 21:24

Joseph, the Betrothed (Dec 26/ Jan 8 ) was chosen by God to be the guardian of Jesus Christ and His holy Mother, a task which he performed with great humility and diligence.

Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.” When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “Out of Egypt I called My Son.” + St Matthew 2:13-15

Orthodox Faith

28 May 2023 04:30

Among the 318 bishops who gathered at the First Ecumenical Council (5th Sunday of Pascha) were many confessors who bore the marks of torture upon their bodies. At Nicea, they would confront not the instruments of physical torture, but the heresy of Arianism which was spreading across the Empire and infecting the Church.

Arius, a priest, denied the divine nature of Jesus Christ and His equality with God the Father. He falsely taught that the Saviour is not consubstantial with the Father. Arius' Christ was a creature, a most honourable one, but a creature nonetheless. Arius' Christ was not the true Saviour for Whom the martyrs gave their lives. Arius' clever teachings received their "walking papers" at Nicea.

Christ’s declaration, “I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Mt. 16:18), was fulfilled at Nicea and continues to be fulfilled until His coming again.

Orthodox Faith

25 May 2023 03:26

“Christ Has Ascended!"

After the feast of the leavetaking (Apodosis) of Pascha, we replace the greeting, “Christ is Risen!” "Indeed He is Risen!" with the Ascension greeting "God has gone up with a shout, The Lord with the sound of a trumpet." Psalm 46 (Septuagint), verse 5.

The psalm continues "Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises! For God is the King of all the earth; Sing praises with understanding. God reigns over the nations; God sits on His holy throne. The princes of the people have gathered together, The people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God; He is greatly exalted." (verses 6-9)

Orthodox Faith

15 May 2023 05:07

When a group of Christian children playing at the seashore decided to baptize their pagan playmates, they chose the lad Athanasias (May 2/ May 15) as "bishop". Young Athanasius performed the baptism, precisely repeating the words he had in church during this sacrament.

Patriarch Alexander observing this from a window, summoned the children and their parents and attested that the baptism performed by the children at play was in everything in accord with the Church ustav (rule). He acknowledged the Baptism as real and supplemented it with the sacrament of Chrismation. From this moment the Patriarch looked after the spiritual upbringing of Athanasias and in time brought him into the clergy.

Orthodox Faith

11 Jan 2024 16:43

The blessed Ioan (John) David (1920-1995) is a beloved lay-ascetic of the village of Plai, in Romania. He lived a solitary and pious life as a shepherd.
In “Spiritual Stories" by Archimandrite Ioanichie Balan (Romanian Patriarchate), he is remembered as one who “loved peace, silence and solitude so much that he rarely met others. He especially loved his sheep and called them all by name; wolves and thieves never stole them...."
“He lived as a hermit, isolated from the world; he had shelter in a barn in the forest, ate only breadcrumbs, made innumerable prostrations, and glorified God day and night.
Ioan David received spiritual direction from a monk named Simeon. In 1943, the monk Simeon reposed in the Lord and another hermit came to his cell, the monk Varsanufie Scriban, from the north of Moldova. He spent 26 years in that cell, having the humble lay-ascetic John David as his disciple.

Orthodox Faith

11 Jan 2024 00:33

When spiritual people are affected by vainglory, they feel very little satisfaction and are left with a sense of emptiness in their souls. Their hearts feel empty and do not flutter and leap; and as their vanity increases, the emptiness inside makes them suffer even more. Where there is anxiety and despair, the demons are at work in one's spiritual life. You should not feel anxiety about anything. Anxiety is the work of the devil. Where you see anxiety, be certain that the devil is involved... When we feel anxiety in our spiritual struggle, we must know that we are not moving in the realm of God. God is not a stifling tyrant.

Orthodox Faith

09 Jan 2024 16:16

The bees of Isidor Timinis, a beekeeper near Athens, Greece show veneration for the Holy First-Martyr and Archdeacon Stephen (Dec 27/ Jan 9). The bees do the same with icons of the Lord, the Holy Theotokos and the saints. The bees regularly “wax" around the icons’ images, but never over top of them.

Orthodox Faith

09 Jan 2024 02:35

“As acceptable victims and freshly plucked flowers, as divine first-fruits and newborn lambs, you were offered to Christ who was born as a child, holy innocents. You mocked Herod’s wickedness; now we beseech you: ‘Unceasingly pray for our souls.’”

Let us remember not only the holy innocents condemned by Herod, but also the tens of millions of children who have died by abortion.

Orthodox Faith

08 Jan 2024 20:49

When you are offended, be silent without fail, and you will acquire humility. However, one needs to be silent not only with one’s mouth, but also with one’s heart. Against pride, just as against judging, one needs to fight with silence.

-Archbishop Seraphim Sobolev (1881-1950)

Orthodox Faith

07 Jan 2024 01:44

So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, "Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us."

✝️ Luke 2:15

CHRIST IS BORN! GLORIFY HIM!

Orthodox Faith

03 Jan 2024 14:46

"My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience." James 1:2-3

Orthodox Faith

03 Jan 2024 02:55

"Cheerfulness is not a sin. It drives away weariness, and it is from weariness that despondency comes." ☦️ St. Seraphim of Sarov (Jan 2/Jan 15)

Orthodox Faith

02 Jan 2024 20:34

"If touching the Saviour’s garment, and the garments and handkerchiefs of the Apostles could restore health to the sick, much more are the images of the Saviour and of the Mother of God powerful to heal every affliction…" ☦️ St John of Kronstadt (Dec 20/ Jan 2)

Orthodox Faith

30 Dec 2023 21:32

"Contemporary people, even when they come to the Church, do not wish to genuinely change their mindset. They do not wish to genuinely repent (for 'repentance' in the biblical sense is a change of mindset). They want at once to be both Orthodox and friends of this world. People have absolutely no desire to make this choice, and so they begin to want to 'sanctify everything.' This gives rise to the invention of new virtues, foreign to the holy fathers (such as 'tolerance of spiritual delusion'). The old terms, such as 'love' and 'marriage', take on entirely new meanings. And we begin to encounter the opinion that since there are many 'good' or 'nice' people outside the Church, Christianity isn't something they really need after all. Christianity becomes something that is desirable but not essential.”

☦️ Hieromartyr Daniel Sysoev, “Marriage to a Non-believer?”

Orthodox Faith

30 Dec 2023 21:31

In no age is it safe to be a Christian. Living safely is not our first concern. Anysia the Righteous Virgin-martyr of Thessaloniki (Dec 30/ Jan 12) lived in especially unsafe and unwelcoming times for Christians. Christ was her first Love.
The Co-Emperor Maximian (286-305) issued an edict stating that anyone had the right to kill Christians with no fear of punishment. Once, when Saint Anysia was on her way to church, a pagan soldier stopped her and demanded that she come to the festival of the sun and offer a sacrifice. At first, St. Anysia gently pulled herself away from him, but when the soldier forcefully grabbed her and attempted to tear the veil from her head, she shoved him, spit in his face and declared, “My Lord Jesus Christ forbids you!”Enraged, the soldier ran her through with his sword. She was buried near the city gates. A chapel was built over her grave.

Orthodox Faith

28 May 2023 04:54

“The Lord ascended from us to heaven in order to shine like the sun on all of us from the height of heaven with His grace.” ☦️ St John of Kronstadt

Orthodox Faith

25 May 2023 03:33

Blessed feast of the Ascension of the Lord!

“And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.” 1 Tim. 3:16

Orthodox Faith

25 May 2023 03:18

“I ascend unto My Father and your Father, and to My God, and Your God”+ John 20:17

"In the Ascension resides the meaning and the fullness of Christ’s Resurrection." - Fr. George Florovsky

With Christ, man’s nature ascends also. As God-man, Christ's ascension shows that we are capable of being deified-- united, both body and soul, eternally.

The Ascension is also a sign and token of Pentecost and of the Second Coming. “This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11).

"O Christ God, You have ascended in Glory, Granting joy to Your disciples by the promise of the Holy Spirit. Through the blessing they were assured That You are the Son of God, The Redeemer of the world!" (Troparion, Tone 4)

Orthodox Faith

15 May 2023 04:10

Love your Mother. Happy Mother's Day.