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[English Edition / Homilies and Spiritual Instruction]

The Christmas Traps

Fr. James C. Meena

Beware, for we know not the hour or the day in which the Lord shall come and require of us a full accounting of our stewardship. When we talk about stewardship we’re not only talking about our worldly possessions and our money, we are talking about the stewardship of our lives. How have we taken care of our lives and what priorities have we established and maintained by which our lives may be ordered. If our first priority is Christ and our commitment to Him then all these things will be added unto you but if our priorities are disorganized and we put shopping and gift giving and feasting before our commitment to Him then Christmas has no meaning whatsoever. It’s just another pagan feast day among the many pagan feasts that we observe, not the least of which, I might add as a post script to this writing, is the feast of New Year’s Eve which we are about to observe.

[English Edition / Homilies and Spiritual Instruction]

The Ancestors of Jesus Christ Our Savior

Fr. Thaddaeus Hardenbrook

Last Sunday, the second Sunday before Nativity, we celebrated all the forefathers of Christ—that is, everyone who worked to prepare the way for the coming Messiah. We praised the men who shone forth before and during the Old Covenant Law. We honored Adam, Abel, Seth, Enoch, Noah, Samson, Barak, Jephthah, Nathan, Eleazar, Josiah, Job, Samuel, David, Solomon, Elijah, and all the prophets, especially Daniel and the three holy youths. We sang to the holy women made ”strong in the days of old by the might of Your Strength, O Lord: Hannah, Judith, Deborah, Huldah, Jael, Esther, Sarah, Miriam, Rachel, Rebecca, and Ruth.” We sang of all the righteous of the Old Covenant times, men and women, Hebrews and non-Hebrews, who found life in God and ”will appear with Him in glory” when ”Christ who is our life appears” (Col. 3:4).

[English Edition / Homilies and Spiritual Instruction]

Children in Church

Bishop Alexander (Mileant)

Every Christian mother considers it one of her primary obligations to teach her child prayer as soon as his consciousness awakens — prayer that is simple and easy for him to understand. His soul must be accustomed to the warm and fervent experience of prayer at home, by his cradle, for his neighbors, his family. The child's evening prayer calms and softens his soul, he experiences the sweetness of prayer with his little heart and catches the first scent of sacred feelings.

[English Edition / Homilies and Spiritual Instruction]

Nativity Fast

Father Rostislav Sheniloff

We have now gone through almost three weeks of the Nativity Lent, my dear friends. This fast, beginning on November 28th, lasts for six weeks - almost as long as the Great Lent. However, the Nativity Lent has a different and entirely unique character.

[English Edition / Homilies and Spiritual Instruction]

Take time to enjoy Advent season

We see the denial of this natural rhythm increasingly more frequently in our society. Instead of quiet preparation of prayer and fasting, we engage in a whirlwind of activities. Our schedules are filled with Christmas concerts and Christmas parties. People even began decorating for Christmas the day after Halloween.

[English Edition / Homilies and Spiritual Instruction]

On the Faith of Christ's True Disciple

Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov)

Probably we are speaking of the faith we read about in the Holy Scriptures and in the Lives of the Saints; the faith which healed, worked miracles, gave unshakeable courage to the martyrs, fed the desert dwellers, and carried humble ascetics into the heavenly realms. It is that great faith which is so mysterious and unfathomable to us; faith that, we must admit, disturbs us when we read Christ’s words in the Gospels, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out the demons!

[English Edition / Homilies and Spiritual Instruction]

Ancient Fears and Modern Man

Fr. Ian Page

I must confess that I met the idea of preaching upon today’s Gospel with a certain degree of trepidation. For several reasons, we modern people find ourselves particularly disconcerted by accounts of demonic possession and exorcism.

[English Edition / Homilies and Spiritual Instruction]

Faith in Captivity: The Prayer Life of Ingrid Betancourt

Ingrid Betancourt has written a book filled with stories of torture, treachery and hardship -- and it's not fiction. Betancourt, 49, was born in Colombia and raised in France. She was captured by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, while campaigning for president in 2002 and was rescued in 2008. In Even Silence Has an End she writes about her agonizing six-and-a-half year captivity, where she was chained by the neck, mocked and dragged through the Colombian jungle.

[English Edition / Saints. Asceties of Piety. Church Holy Days ]

My Life in Christ

St. John of Kronstadt

"In this warfare I have come to know the immensity of God's long-suffering to us; for He alone knows all the infirmity of our fallen nature, which He mercifully took upon Himself, except for sin (I Peter2:22; Isaiah 53:9; I John 3:5; 4:10; Hebrews 4:15), and therefore He commanded us 'seventy times seven' times to forgive the sins (St. Matt. 18:22) of those who have fallen into them; and He has surrounded and continued to surround me everyday with the joys of salvation from sin in peace and expansion of the heart. The Divine mercy which I have experienced and the perpetual nearness to me of the Lord confirm me in the hope of my eternal salvation and in that of those who follow and hear me to salvation, according to the word of the Scriptures, 'Behold I and the children which God hath given me'"

[English Edition / Saints. Asceties of Piety. Church Holy Days ]

The Law of Love

St. John of Kronstadt

Thus, the measuring stick of relationships to others is simplicity and sincerity, good will, and love for all—this is the best side of relationships to others. But not rarely, the nature of relationships to others is cunning, suspicion, dislike, rudeness, envy, extreme selfishness, self-seeking, partiality, vanity, ambition, vainglory, sensuality, or extreme haughtiness; that is, a high opinion of one's self, which seeks to humiliate others.

[English Edition / Orthodoxy Today]

How Does God Fit in My Life?

Very Rev. Protopresbyter Frank P. Miloro

"Come aside by yourselves”. These are mysterious words as if a secret were about to be shared. “Come aside by yourselves”… That day on the shore of the sea of Galilee, Jesus shared the mysteries of the kingdom with the apostles! He told them spiritual secrets that had never been revealed before.

[English Edition / Saints. Asceties of Piety. Church Holy Days ]

Teachings of the Elders of the Glinsk Hermitage

The most noteworthy aspect of the history of the monastery was the fact that its monastics were able to endure through all of the deprivations and trials of the awful decades, and to return to the monastery not the glory of its former magnificence, but rather the spirit of true asceticism, eldership, and service to the world. This permitted the Glinsk Hermitage to function for a short time – from 1942 to 1961, when it was once again shut down – as a manifestation of unusual spiritual strength, at whose center were the elders

[English Edition / Saints. Asceties of Piety. Church Holy Days ]

Why is there a fast for the Dormition?

The Service of the Paraclesis to the Theotokos consists of hymns of supplication to obtain consolation and courage. It should be recited in times of temptation, discouragement or sickness. It is used more particularly during the two weeks before the Dormition, or Assumption, of the Theotokos, from August 1 to August 14. The theme of these Paraclesis Services centers around the petition. . “Most Holy Mother of God, save us”.

[English Edition / Homilies and Spiritual Instruction]

Dormition Fast Begins

Fr. Thaddaeus Hardenbrook

During the Dormition fast each year, take time to reread the account of the Virgin Mary’s death and bodily assumption. It will touch your soul and energize you spiritually. And it is a great adventure! The Apostles find themselves caught up in clouds and whisked to Jerusalem from various continents where they are evangelizing.

[English Edition / Homilies and Spiritual Instruction]

Is the Current Drought God’s Punishment?

Hieromonk Job (Gumerov)

For Biblical man, raised on the Divinely-revealed holy books, the thought that weather could exist independently from God would have made no sense. In chapter 14 of the book of the Prophet Jeremiah is found the Lord’s word to the prophet about drought. The Prophet says to the Lord, Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not thou he, O LORD our God? therefore we will wait upon thee: for thou hast made all these things (Jer. 14:22).

[English Edition / Theology]

On Holy Tradition

Archimandrite Cleopa (Ilie)

Holy Tradition is the teaching of the Church, given by God with a living voice, a portion of which was later written down. Like Holy Scripture, Holy Tradition also contains Holy Revelation, and is therefore fundamental for our salvation. Holy Tradition is the life of the Church in the Holy Spirit; and, in concord with the enduring life of the Church, it is a wellspring of Holy Revelation, and thus it possesses the same authority as Holy Scripture.

[English Edition / Saints. Asceties of Piety. Church Holy Days ]

St. Seraphim on Monastic Life

From the book, St. Seraphim of Sarov, by Elena Kontsevitch

Elena Kontsevitch

“One distinguishing characteristic of the superior should be his love for his inferiors: for the true pastor, according to the words of St John Climacus, is shown by his love for his flock. For it is out of love that the Chief Shepherd was crucified on the cross.”

[English Edition / Saints. Asceties of Piety. Church Holy Days ]

Homily of the Feast of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God

Commemorated July 8/21, October 22/November 4

Archimdrite Kirill (Pavlov)

Thus we see, dear brothers and sisters, that the main cause of our country’s salvation from destruction was the firm Orthodox faith of our ancestors. When hope in human strength was no more, then all the true children of the Church and Fatherland placed a three day fast on themselves and prayed to the Mother of God before her Kazan icon. Their prayer was heard.

[English Edition / Saints. Asceties of Piety. Church Holy Days ]

Sermon on the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul

Archpriest Andrew Phillips

It is also claimed that not only did the apostle Peter found the Church of Rome, but that somehow this gives the Church of Rome some special supremacy and superiority over all the other Churches. This is clearly not true, for the Church of Antioch, which was founded by St Peter, has never claimed any superiority. In reality, when our Lord says in the Gospel: ‘Thou art a rock and on this rock I will build my Church’, it refers not to some special authority given to Peter, it concerns all who confess Christ as the Son of the Living God. All who make this confession have authority, all who confess Christ truly are rocks and are granted the keys to the kingdom.

[English Edition / Homilies and Spiritual Instruction]

The Prayer Rule of St. Ambrose of Optina To Be Read in Times of Temptation

St. Ambrose, elder of Optina offered to those who came to him with various sorrows and trials a special, brief prayer rule that is possible for any Christian to read. The elder knew from his own experience the effectiveness of these prayers, how they strengthen one's enfeebled spirit, and how they scatter the enemy's attacks if read with faith and hope in God's almighty help. This prayer rule, comprised of the Psalms of David, we offer here together with extracts from the letters of St. Ambrose.

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