9/15/2016
Archpriest Andrei Chizhenko
Before Meatfare Sunday, the Sunday of the Last Judgment, the Holy Church has established a universal Ancestors' Meatfare Saturday, on which we perform memorial services for all Orthodox Christians who have fallen asleep from the beginning until now.
God doesn’t want anyone’s death! He wants everyone to be saved!
What matters first of all is the vector, the direction of the movement of your life towards the radiant feast of the Nativity of Christ.
Priest Andrei Chizhenko
We can conclude that they sought only one thing: God. Nothing else mattered to them.
How did a Hebrew man, who was born about 3,000 years ago in the town of Tishbe of the historical Gilead region of ancient Israel, become a great prophet of God, and how was he deemed worthy of being lifted to heaven in a fiery chariot? Can we become like him?
A sin is confessed, but it continues to bother your conscience. What should you do? Must it be confessed a second time? Fr. Andrei Chizhenko examines the issue.
The Communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ is the closest most intimate communion of man with God. And the Spoon is a symbol of this communion.
Rating: 9.3|Votes: 24
On Pascha, a man removes the bridle from the horse of his body, and no longer holding back, rushes off somewhere. As a rule, the master of the horse, that is, the man himself, has no idea where the long-suppressed desire will take him. Fr. Andrei Chizhenko talks about what is important to remember during these days.
Rating: 9.8|Votes: 24
There are a huge amount of possibilities for the modern Christian to be an apostle. It is important that the heart burn with faith and the search for God and the thirst for the knowledge of Him.
Rating: 8|Votes: 14
We honor all the righteous of the Old Testament, including those who became the Savior’s ancestors according to the flesh, because these people burned like candles of God in the darkness of paganism, and lived in the hope of the coming of the Messiah and mankind’s deliverance from slavery to the devil, sin, and death.
Rating: 9.5|Votes: 17
On November 30/December 13 the entire Orthodox world commemorates the disciple of the Savior who first came to Christ, the first to respond to His call, for which he received the moniker “First-Called”—the holy apostle Andrew.
Rating: 9.8|Votes: 26
The worship of the Orthodox Church is closely connected with the sacred history of the Old and New Testaments. It as if illustrates this history from the very beginning, symbolically and spiritually, deeply connected with it.
Rating: 8.7|Votes: 12
Why God Sends Us Tribulations and Why It’s Useful to Learn Patience from Job the Much-Suffering and St. Job of Pochaev
Rating: 10|Votes: 3
“Read the Gospel with great reverence and attention. Consider nothing in it unimportant, or unworthy of consideration. Every iota emits a ray of life. Disregard for life is death.”
Fr. Andrei Chizhenko
Rating: 10|Votes: 2
January 20, in the afterfeast of Theophany (the Baptism of the Lord), the Orthodox Church honors the one who (as it says in the canon dedicated to him) “wast found worthy to touch the head of Christ the King,” and of whom the Savior Himself said in the Gospel: Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist (Lk. 7:28). On this day, the apodosis of the Theophany, we would like once again to remember the great Forerunner of Christ.
Fr. Basil suddenly felt as if an icy needle had left his heart. He quietly wept, fell to his knees before this miracle and whispered: “O Lord! Forgive me! Forgive me, a sinner! I know You are with me. You are ALWAYS with me!”
Rating: 6|Votes: 2
In the Church liturgical cycle the Nativity of Christ is the second most important festival after Easter and that is why it is celebrated for whole twelve days. As always, the all-merciful Lord abundantly pours out His grace and light upon us. Hence the Russian name of this season: “Svyatki”, that is, “Holy Days”.
Rating: 8.7|Votes: 7
This is why the word of God must be expressed with purity of sound, clarity of speech, and the articulation of each syllable; a church reader must not impose his personal emotions on the people praying in church.
Rating: 7.5|Votes: 16
As we were created from non-existence for eternal life, we inscribe in our hearts, with the help of God, these great and beautiful words: This is the day which the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Your sons and daughters will travel their own particular paths in life, but you know that the foundation laid in their souls is true. They will fall and make the same mistakes you did in your youth, but they will be their own. And they will get up to go on. But upon them, in their inner hearts' horizon, will shine the star of Orthodoxy, carrying them through life. Only try from a young age to instill in them, with God’s help, love for prayer. It is a journey, and its boat will undoubtedly guide us to God.
Rating: 7.5|Votes: 26
In an Orthodox church there is no thing or action which does not carry meaning of spiritual weight. Even the iconostasis and curtain over the Royal Doors are full-fledged “participants” in the Divine services.
