Fr. Stephen Freeman
Rating: 8,1|Votes: 11
Finding the “core of life” (for want of a better term) is synonymous with the naked experience of the soul, the deep life of our existence.
Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh
Rating: 8,6|Votes: 9
Who of us, in dire, agonizing pain is capable of turning to the Lord, presenting Him a request, asking Him to show mercy and to manifest His power, and when the Lord says to us, in our hearts, “I shall come, I shall work this miracle for you”—who of us would have the courage to say, “No, Lord! Thy word is enough!...”
Fr. James Guirguis
Rating: 8,6|Votes: 14
St. Paul gives us some of the characteristics of those who cultivate such death. He tells Titus to “avoid stupid controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels over the law, for they are unprofitable and futile. As for a man who is factious, (meaning one who causes factions or division) after admonishing him once or twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is perverted and sinful; he is self-condemned.”
Archbishop Theophan (Bystrov) of Poltava
Rating: 9,8|Votes: 15
The learned Archbishop Theophan (Bystrov) of Poltava is well known as the confessor to the Royal Family of Tsar Nicholas II. This sermon was given in his exile in Bulgaria after the Bolshevik revolution in Russia.
St. Ambrose of Optina
Rating: 9,5|Votes: 23
But without fear, even if one should live in heaven, as St. Peter Damascene says, he will fall if he does have fear and is proud.
Rating: 8,2|Votes: 24
All such loyalties (country, family, sports team) do not belong in the same breath with the love of God. It’s like saying, “I love God and my cellphone.” Nothing belongs in a category with God.
Venerable Bede
Rating: 8,3|Votes: 8
Next, the angel saith that the prayer of Zacharias was heard, and then straightway promiseth that the wife of Zacharias should bear a child.We are not to understand that he had been praying for the birth of a son whilst he was offering the sacrifice according to the liturgy of that time, for we are told that he had given up hope of a son, and no one prayeth for that which he hath no hope of obtaining.
Archimandrite Gregorios (Estephan)
Rating: 9,1|Votes: 22
Obedience in Orthodoxy is an inseparable part of the life of the faithful who endure in the journey of their salvation, for in the Fall our human nature lost the ability to discern between the righteous and the wicked, between good and evil.
Rating: 9|Votes: 21
It is so interesting that the while the Lord is the true shepherd, He tells the disciples to pray for more laborers to receive the harvest.
St. John of Shanghai
Rating: 9,1|Votes: 23
The commemoration day of the saints who shown forth in the Russian land show us that spiritual heaven under which the Russian land was created and lived. Before Holy Prince Vladimir, in the Russian land lived disparate pagan tribes who were constantly at war with each other. Holy Prince Vladimir brought them a new faith, a new inner spiritual state; he gave them a new, all-uniting spirit of life, and thus was one nation formed.
Fr. Philip LeMasters
Rating: 8,2|Votes: 12
If we wonder what cross we need to take up in order to acknowledge Him before others, a necessary place to start is with loving our enemies.
Vladimir Basenkov
Rating: 9,2|Votes: 48
Until the revolution in Russia, there was a universal tradition of reading the “lay order” of the services. In the absence of the priest in church, or at home, the entire family would read part or all of the daily cycle of Church services. We will talk today about what happened to this good tradition, how to revive it, and what benefit it brings for the whole body of the Church.
Rating: 9,1|Votes: 16
For a saint, or those who desire to be saints, each and every day we are forced to choose between the flesh and the spirit.
St. Luke, Archbishop of Crimea
Rating: 9,9|Votes: 14
Only an insignificant number of saints have been canonized by the Church. But the whole enormous multitude of other saints are known only to God, about Whom we say that He is the only One Who sees our hearts, “the only knower of hearts”.
Fr. Lawrence Farley
Rating: 7,4|Votes: 34
As soon as one emerges from the cultural cocoon of modern thought one sees that the concept of God’s wrath against sin was not regarded by the ancients as an embarrassment to be overcome and denied, but as something to be emphasized and celebrated.
Rating: 4,3|Votes: 7
We receive the Holy Spirit not as isolated individuals living on our own terms, but as persons in communion, in loving relationship with Christ and with one another in His Body, the Church.
Fr. Ted Bobosh
Rating: 4,2|Votes: 9
The description of the day of Pentecost reminds me of Ezekiel 43:1-5. It is not that Acts quotes Ezekiel, but more there is an echo, a parallel between the passages.
Rating: 9,5|Votes: 28
This is a verse that can bring us great joy in the midst of our struggles. It can be our fuel when we think that we have nothing left in our tank.
Hieromonk Ignaty (Shestakov)
Rating: 9|Votes: 16
The Holy Spirit works in Christians, but people deprived of such grace can neither understand nor tolerate it, but try to ridicule it, often from their misunderstanding. But the Spirit of Divine grace also works on them—we just have to show apostolic zeal and labor to bring this Divine grace to the entire world.
Rating: 4,7|Votes: 14
The fact that in glory He ascends, amazes the Bodiless Powers, for they are in wonder that God’s glory is ascending from earth to heaven rather than the other way!
