St. John of Kronstadt: There is … a true, real life, and there is a false, imaginary life. . . .

Orthodox Church Quotes

“There is, my brethren, a true, real life, and there is a false, imaginary life.

To live in order to eat, drink, dress, walk; to enrich ourselves in general, to live for earthly pleasures or cares, as well as to spend time in intriguing and underhanded dealings; to think ourselves competent judges of everything and everybody is—the imaginary life; whilst to live in order to please God and serve our neighbors, to pray for the salvation of their souls and to help them in the work of their salvation in every way, is to lead the true life.

The first life is continual spiritual death, the second—the uninterrupted life of the spirit.”

— St. John of Kronstadt

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St. Augustine Seeks God In the Depths of His Own Soul

No words … only read with your heart … and weep …

Milk & Honey

By: St. Augustine of Hippo

Thou remainest unchangeable over all, and yet has vouchsafed to dwell in my memory since I learnt Thee. And  why seek I now in what place thereof Thou dwellest, as if there were places therein? Sure am I that in it Thou dwellest since I have remembered Thee, ever since I learnt Thee, when I call Thee to remembrance. Where then did I find Thee that I might learn Thee? For in my memory Thou wert not before I learnt Thee. Where then did I find Thee that I might learn Thee but in Thee above me?…Too late loved I Thee, O Beauty so old, yet ever new! Too late loved I Thee. And behold, Thou wert with me, but I was not with Thee. Thou calledst, and shoutedst, burstedst my deafness. Thou flashedst, shonedst, and scatteredst my blindness. Thou breathedst odors, and I drew…

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Great and Holy Wednesday and Thursday

OrthodoxWord

 

Is any one among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let then pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects.

James 5:13-16

Holy Wednesday and Thursday

 Real Media Format  

Thy bridal chamber I behold, adorned O my Savior. But I have no wedding garment that I may enter. Make radiant the vesture of my soul O Giver of Light and save me.  

 

 

  

 

 

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The Meaning Of Fasting For Man by St. Ignatius Brianchaninov

OrthodoxWord

 

“But take heed to yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down
with dissipation and drunkenness and the cares of this life.” (Luke 21:34)

                                                                                       

It is good for the salvation of our souls during the Holy 40 Days of Lent not only to oppress our bodies by fasting, but also to speak about fasting; it is for the salvation of our souls for us to direct all the necessary attention to the warning against over-eating and satiation made to us by the Lord Himself; “take heed to yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the cares of this life.”

The institution of fasting is a divine institution. The first commandment given by God to man was the commandment of fasting. (“.of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat.” Gen 2:17) It was indispensably necessary for us in Paradise…

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To think beautifully

OrthodoxWord

I believe that there is no better call than “to think beautifully!”. What is a “beautiful thought”? It means to think of something good not only at a particular moment, but to think beautifully at any moment of your life, to be mindful of your thoughts, to select the thoughts that go through your mind, to keep the good thoughts and possibly to extent them, to put them into action. The foundation of spiritual life is the thought, so the essence of the religious life is inner discipline, the discipline of the mind. (Archimandrite Theophil Paraian, “Words to Youth”)

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Fast and Feedom

OrthodoxWord

Fast and freedom

by: Hieromonk Savatie

  What can be more absurd than the fast, in a religion which boasts of having given the man the freedom? How can you name yourself free, when you have to refrain from the things you like, when you must do what you don’t want! The fast is the abstinence not only from food, but also from the bodily pleasures. How not to see in this an outrage to the noblest instinct that the man has – the freedom?

  If the fast is an obligation, than the Gospel is a masterpiece of the absurd’s literature. Understanding this, the Protestants decided to renounce the fast. However, despite the numerous quotations brought from the apostle Paul or from the words of the Saviour Himself, the spur to fasting is like a thorn in the flesh of him, who at least scarcely, knows the Holy Scriptures.

 …

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The Great Fast

Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me …

OrthodoxWord

By Hieromonk Moses the Hagiorite, Vatopaidi Monastery, Mt.Athos 

Many people ignore or do not will to acknowledge the true meaning of these days (of fast), consuming themselves with their routine (monotonous) everyday life. The modern man complains that life is tiring him, yet makes no step towards a fundamental change. He takes on strict diets sometimes, yet disregards the fast. He can make time for a counseling psychologist, can spend hours in front of television, but finds no time for a spiritual father or for the church.

  Today’s man does not want to offer but he’d rather receive with not much effort or personal sacrifice. Too afraid to look himself in the eyes, he runs away from himself and struggles in his inner emptiness.

  The Great Fast works like an X-Ray, like a (video) camera or like a mirror. In a certain way, we do not welcome…

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The Vita Icon of St Mary of Egypt

Glory to God for our Holy Mother of Egypt

A Reader's Guide to Orthodox Icons

The Fifth Sunday of Great Lent commemorates the life of St Mary of Egypt, a well-known ascetic Saint who lived in the late 5th/early 6th century. Below is a brief biography of the Saint, with scenes from her “Vita Icon”. A Vita Icon is an icon of a Saint with scenes from his/her life shown in the border.

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From Vespers on the Sunday of Orthodoxy

A Reader's Guide to Orthodox Icons

“Inspired by your Spirit, Lord, the prophets foretold your birth as a child incarnate of the Virgin. Nothing can contain or hold you; before the morning star you shone forth eternally from the spiritual womb of the Father. Yet you were to become like us and be seen by those on earth. At the prayers of those your prophets in your mercy reckon us fit to see your light, for we praise your resurrection, holy and beyond speech.

Infinite, Lord, as divine, in the last times you willed to become incarnate and so finite; for when you took on flesh you made all its properties your own. So we depict the form of your outward appearance and pay it relative respect, and so are moved to love you; and through it we receive the grace of healing, following the divine traditions of the apostles.”

“The grace of truth has shone…

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The Triumph of Orthodoxy and Holy Icons

A Reader's Guide to Orthodox Icons

An icon celebrating the veneration of icons, the Triumph of Orthodoxy is the festal icon for the first Sunday of Great Lent. As Lent is a period of communal fasting which continues for seven weeks, such triumphalism early on is understandable: it helps to strengthen the faithful for the coming days. It is also understandable given the century of struggle which preceded the events in the Icon; years in which it seemed as though the Faith of the Church was overcome.

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