Archpriest Pavel Gumerov
Although sorrow can be caused by some kind of grief or affliction, difficult events aren’t causes of sorrow—they only provoke it. The cause is always in the person himself, in how he perceives life’s events. A Christian always has a reason to live—to love God and others. A believer knows that God will never abandon him, that with God he’s not one-on-one with trouble.
Bishop Emilianos (Koutouzis)
Although Elder Aimilianos is not canonized a saint by the Church yet, we had a tradition on Mount Athos: Before we started any activity or work, we would say: “Through the prayers of my Holy Father.” I still do this myself.
Ekaterina Kharchenko
If a willingness to defend one’s family is considered an undeniable virtue in a man, which is accepted as necessary and indispensable, then a man’s aspiration to protect his unborn children is met with… sheer indignation.
Polycarp (Dr. Rohan) Nehamaiyah
Let us come together and be filled by the Holy Spirit in the Orthodox Church, so that we can Love our God wholeheartedly and follow His commandments, keep trust in His words, Holy Scripture, Eternal Life, or whatever He promised to us.
Fr. James Guirguis
Our life in the Church is the fullness of the presence of the Holy Spirit.
It’s not without reason that the Holy Fathers compare the passion of anger, like lust, with fire, flames, a conflagration. Beginning with a small flash, anger can engulf the soul in a matter of minutes and lead to irreparable consequences.
Metropolitan Serafim (Joanta) of Germany and Central Europe
I would like to say a few words about the work of the Holy Spirit in the Orthodox Church and in the lives of the faithful.
Hieromonk Nazary (Rypin)
The Church is the place where we already foretaste the Heavenly fatherland and where we seek and find our Heavenly Father, and where we truly feel like children of God.
Hieromonk Laurus (Arkhipov)
The Day of the Holy Trinity, the feast of Pentecost, is called the birthday of the Church. It was from that moment, after the Descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles, that they grasped everything the Lord had told them, and everything He had taught them.
One specialist on marriage and family issues once called anger a killer of love. He said this in relation to family life, but this expression can be applied to human relationships in general. Irritability and anger not only cause conflicts, but also kill the feelings of love, friendship, sympathy, and respect that we have for people.
Hieromonk Athanasius (Deryugin)
This labor of faith is necessary for us. And in order to attain the same confidence in the nearness of Christ that the disciples had, the most important thing we need is—to constantly remember God.
Hieromonk Athanasios of Simonopetra
There is one thing that we should know: Once we find a spiritual father, we must fully trust him. We should open all of our spiritual infirmities to him and never hide anything from him.
Hieromonk Pavel (Shcherbachev)
The aim of the Council was to prove the ridiculousness, the absurdity of Arius’s teaching, because it is impossible for anyone other than the Son of God Jesus Christ to perform the salvation of the human race, and take upon Himself the sins of the whole world.
This love for my Elder taught me how to give up my life now for the Church, for my spiritual children.
Virtue doesn’t come by itself. A man who has a disposition towards avarice, miserliness, or greed, should compel himself, force himself to do deeds of mercy, to use his wealth for the good of his soul.
The Ascension became a new stage of human salvation; the God-man entered the Heavenly Kingdom, and thenceforth, human nature was granted full participation in eternal blessedness.
Avarice, love of money, the cult of material values—these are the scourges of our times. Our society is a society of consumption—consumption of material goods, pleasures, and entertainments. And every entertainment requires money.
Any normal man sooner or later understands that the path of licentiousness, permissiveness, and family destruction is a path to nowhere.
St. Seraphim (Chichagov)
Already there are multitudes who have fallen away from the Christian faith and from the Orthodox Church! How many young souls perish through the hypocrisy of false teachers! Are not the same mockeries, scoffings, and blasphemies being repeated today against the miracles of Christ as in the days of the Jews? The modern Pharisees are even worse!
We are seething with sins, falls, and passions, but we are also blessed with the opportunity to cast off all that bondage of the old Adam. This requires some struggle, and that is what I want to talk about.
