11/12/2025
Priest Leonid Bartkov
Every year at the end of August, the Orthodox world is immersed in the experience of an event that at first glance seems paradoxical. We celebrate death.
When we justify our cohabitation as a “psychological test,” we are not just falling—we are trying to pass off our fall as a rise.
Forgiveness is not amnesia. Forgiveness is not saying, “Nothing terrible happened.” No, something terrible did happen. Evil is evil. Forgiveness is not reconciliation with evil. Forgiveness is renouncing personal revenge. It is breaking the chain of evil within oneself.
“What is it that you’d like to confess?” - “Well, I think I need to cleanse my karma. Lately my financial flow has been blocked, and my love life has completely stagnated. Could you perform an exorcism?”
A candle is not a “payment” for the fulfillment of a wish. It is a visible sign of the invisible movement of the soul.
A family crisis is not a broken machine that needs to be repaired by a neighbor. It is a surgical procedure that God performs on your souls
Heaven bowed before us that day. God breathed eternity into your soul and called you by name. And this love has no statute of limitations.
The mind, accustomed to quickly switching between applications and reading short and superficial messages, loses the ability to perform deep and focused prayer.
