What is a pure heart? A meek, humble, guileless, simple, trusting, truthful, unsuspecting, harmless, kind, unselfish, unenvious, and chaste heart.
Bishop Emilianos (Koutouzis), Fr. Moses McPherson, Abbot Ieronymos (Voultsidis)
In this powerful Q&A, Father Moses sits down with Bishop Emilianos and Father Ieronymos to discuss the heart of the Orthodox spiritual life — why remaining broken before God is the safest place to be, what it truly means to have a childlike faith, and how God reveals Himself to those who simply love Him.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
St. Sava of Serbia
Brothers and friends, fathers and children called by God, bow your God-loving hearts to hear divine dogmas.
St. Onuphry (Gagalyuk) of Kursk
On the Sunday of Orthodoxy, the Orthodox Church celebrates its victory over all heresies, schisms, and unbelief… What joy is there in this for us? The joy that all external and internal assaults upon the Church of God have been in vain.
Metropolitan Luke (Kovalenko)
There exists a direct and inseparable link between those who spread this stench across the face of the earth and those who today burst into our churches.
Archpriest Theodor Verevkin
Breaking the fast begins when there is great fuss about what else one might eat.
St. Philaret of Chernigov
Arouse thyself, my poor soul! Rise from the bed of sin. Banish the dreams that seduce you and gather your thoughts that have been scattered by the vanity of the world. Come to your senses.
Cain committed a terrible sin, but his rage was directed outward. He killed the mortal body of his brother—a body already subject to death. But we commit something more subtle and more irreparable: We carry out a “bloodless murder” of our own immortal soul.
