3/7/2014
St. Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky), Archbishop of Crimea
O you, my beloved Christians, always remember the holy and righteous Joachim and Anna, who so wisely raised their God-given Daughter. Strive to create favorable conditions for your own children to grow in holiness, righteousness, and goodness.
One can be a bearer of light even while living without light; and one can live in sunlight while being dead, having no spiritual light within himself.
How can we praise the one who is higher after the Theotokos than all the saints? He is the first of the saints in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Remember, please remember: The greater your sorrows, the greater will be you consolation.
In order to overcome all the passions without exception, it is necessary to learn abstinence.
She came to hate and commit to death her self-satisfied life, and saved it by fervently loving Christ and the path He indicates in the Gospel.
Let us try to be a little like St. Barbara. If martyrdom is the lot of the chosen few, then confession is obligatory for all.
To my great sorrow, some of you have started going to sectarian gatherings and have been infected with their false teachings.Some have been infected with the false teaching that we shouldn’t pray for the dead, that we shouldn’t give alms for their repose.
St. Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky)
The Most Holy Virgin Mary was shown before the bodiless heavenly powers to be blessed among all women. But for Lutherans and all Protestants and sectarians, she is only a pious woman, one of the numberless many, and not deserving any exaltation before them.
I would like to deepen your attention and focus it upon the very important characteristics, which distinguish her wondrous appearance in the Blachernae church on the great day of her Protection.
St. Luke of Crimea
Pray as best as you can, sincerely, like small children. Christ hears your prayer, for no matter how weak it is, it rises very high to God, and the Lord accepts all prayers. Don’t be discouraged, don’t be idle, don’t expect your prayer to be freed from distraction quickly and easily.
St. Luke, Archbishop of Crimea
Rating: 9.6|Votes: 25
It was very, very, extremely hard for the apostles to believe that the Lord Jesus Christ had risen.
Rating: 9.9|Votes: 33
In reading this explanation of this prayer, repeated many times at every service during Great Lent, may we discover new meaning and inspiration for our Lenten struggle.
Rating: 8.8|Votes: 15
We are all like flies, which settle in clusters onto festering wounds, focusing all our attention on our neighbor’s sinful wounds while forgetting about our own.
Rating: 9.6|Votes: 20
Do you hear? Patience makes us perfect, without any inadequacies.
Rating: 9.2|Votes: 27
Don’t you want God to live with you? He Himself says that He lives in the hearts of the humble and revives them; and we so badly need out hearts to be revived! God looks down on the humble of heart.
Rating: 9.9|Votes: 14
This great ascetic and desert dweller, St. Ephraim the Syrian, prayed that the Lord give him the spirit of chastity. Could it really be that he had need of that prayer? He considered that he needed to pray for this, and all the saints prayed for this. Why?
Rating: 10|Votes: 22
Love of power is against the spirit of the Gospel, against the spirit of humility. Nevertheless this passion has a grip on everyone, and there is no one who is not infected with it—even little children.
Rating: 9.4|Votes: 45
If you don’t turn from sorrow for the world to sorrow for God, you will perish! Remember the seriousness of despondency. Remember that the heart of a Christian should be filled with the joy of reaching for the light; it should be foreign to the sadness that fills the hearts of sinners.
Rating: 8.2|Votes: 70
Why does St. Ephraim the Syrian begin his prayer with a request about idleness, as if there are no worse faults?
Rating: 9.3|Votes: 22
We must dedicate our whole lives to the Lord Jesus Christ. We must strive with every fiber of our souls to never anger the Lord in any way, and to pray that He would help us who are weak in spirit. And the Lord will help us.
Rating: 10|Votes: 3
Oh, how thankful we must be for all and everything—for the good and the evil; for the joy and the sorrow; and for the suffering and trials we must be grateful to God Who leads us along the path of salvation, not only by way of happiness, but above all and most of all by way of suffering.
Rating: 9.1|Votes: 21
But I want the thought to reach your heart that not only does this kind of prayer, which works manifest miracles seen by everyone, not only the prayer of the Prophet Ellias, and the prayers of the apostles, prophets, and martyrs work miracles. I want you to understand that any prayer will work miracles.l
Rating: 1.7|Votes: 3
Aren’t there in the life of our days also many visitations of God, which we do not notice, or do not admit that they serve for our peace and salvation?The days of our visitation by the Holy Spirit are manifold and diverse.
Rating: 9|Votes: 9
Really, did the Lord Jesus Christ, who we glorify amd who we venerate in icons, not living among us? Did the Virgin Mary, who was painted by the apostle and evangelist Saint Luke not live among us? This icon was blessed by the very Theotokos herself, saying that grace would always be with this icon. Do you know how many miracles happen from icons of the Virgin Mary?
