Priest Anthony Rusakevich
The modern perception of Lent is often reduced to a strict diet, but its original essence in early Christian practice was fundamentally different.
Sin is the transgression of the Law of God, the failure to fulfill the holy commandments of God.
What is a pure heart? A meek, humble, guileless, simple, trusting, truthful, unsuspecting, harmless, kind, unselfish, unenvious, and chaste heart.
Nikolai Gerasimov
According to St. Gregory, hesychia is not just an outward stillness, but an inward state of mind and heart in which a Christian renounces worldly vanity and passions.
Priest Tarasiy Borozenets
Epstein Island and the series “Westworld” are two faces of the same reality, two symptoms of a single spiritual illness, the name of which is self-deification.
The joy of expectation stirs our feelings; yet at the same time sorrow seizes the soul when the conscience tells the heart that we have spent the time of the fast not as true Christians ought.
Natalia Vashchina
He was a leader for teachers and an example for students. He was loved.
A man who has undertaken the path of inner watchfulness must first of all possess the fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom.
Fr. Lawrence Farley
How do Orthodox understand the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist? How can the sacrifice on the cross that occurred in the first century be present on our altars today?
The Church again calls unceasingly to repentance. The Savior calls us to faith. Let us believe, and we shall be healed.
Hieromonk Ignaty (Shestakov)
St. Gregory taught that everyone should perform the prayer of the heart and always repeat this prayer in the depths of their hearts: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
Thus the foundation of the establishment of these Saturdays is love.
According to the teaching of the ancient Fathers, a healthy infant does not fast only while still nourished by its mother’s milk—that is, approximately until the age of three.
Matthew Hartley
The early Christian community of the Lycus Valley in Phrygian Asia Minor, centered on the cities of Colossae, Hierapolis, and Laodicea, was closely connected to the holy Apostle Paul’s missionary labors.
Let no one think, my Christian brethren, that only those in holy orders and monks have the duty to pray unceasingly and at all times, and not laypeople.
Alexandra Kalinovskaya
The monastery rule was very strict. They read and sang slowly, and Vigil could last twelve hours. The meal was very modest, and they never ate white bread. The brethren’s prayer rule was voluminous.
Nothing so contributes to progress in virtue as frequent converse with God.
Hieromonk Athanasius (Deryugin)
Lent is a special time when we abstain from something particularly solemn and related to the commemoration of the Resurrection of Christ on weekdays; that is why such a service is celebrated.
St. Macarius of Egypt says, “He who practices abstinence without prayer—how shall he stand without its help?”
Fasting is a period of spiritual exertion. If we cannot give our whole life to God, let us at least dedicate to Him wholeheartedly the period of the fast—intensifying our prayer, increasing our works of mercy, restraining our passions, and reconciling ourselves with our enemies.
