In the incomprehensible mystery for the human intellect of the incarnation of the Word of God, of man’s salvation, the Ever-Virgin Mary becomes a participant and an accomplice.
Olga Demidyuk
After the festive Divine Liturgy and Communion, I think that I would really want it that we experience joy effortlessly. But for some reason, you only feel God if you take a risk and unplug yourself from what is familiar and well-known, place your hand in His and put your trust in the way.
Orthodox Christians have profound love and veneration for the Most Holy Mother of God, and greatly love the feast of her Dormition.
Just when it seems you can’t go any further, the laws of logic end and God acts.
It’s a great journey. It’s not easy, but it’s great.
Hieromonk Pafnuty (Fokin)
Eldress Maria’s community became one of the strongholds of post-war secret monasticism.
Bishop Benjamin of Rybinsk and Romanov-Borisoglebsk
When the Lord calls you, you have to answer yourself whether it is your path or not. You cannot go to a monastery because it is beautiful or right, but because you love God and want to serve Him.
Maria Tobolova
During the wedding ceremony, they drank from the shared cup to the last drop: wine mixed with water. In the Orthodox marriage sacrament, the wine in the cup symbolizes the joys of married life, while the water represents their shared sorrows, troubles, and pains. The newlyweds would have much joy in their future life, but even more sorrow and pain.
Metropolitan Vadim (Lazebny)
If we can send a spiritual “recruit” out of our midst into the monastic “army”, then we are more or less spiritually healthy. If a monastery becomes a center that attracts those seeking spiritual life, then many problems of people in the world will disappear too.
Nine separate churches were erected on a single foundation, with one central church, crowned with a large tent, surrounded by eight pillar-churches arranged in a cross-shaped plan.
Here, in this deserted place, far from the hustle and bustle of the world , the Mother of God lit an inextinguishable lamp of prayer.
The monks had to complete the service regardless of the shells flying at them, even if it meant their death. So they prayed like the first Christians in the catacombs as the tanks kept shelling the church.
The inaugural seven students of the Certificate Program have been remotely learning and reflecting together since February from their own homes and parishes across the United States. But coming together for the culminating residency on the campus of St. Tikhon’s brought a spiritual depth to the experience no one, not even the Certificate Program staff, were fully prepared for.
The museum-church complex “New Chersonese” represents an entirely new level of organization for historical, museum, educational, leisure, and cultural spaces not only in Russia but also worldwide.
Archpriest Victor Potapov
The real life of a parish arises from the depths of the human soul, forged into unity by shared spiritual experiences and conjoined in the sacraments and prayers carried out under the shared roof of one sanctuary.
“New Chersonese” is unprecedented in every respect: in its spiritual, ideological, and cultural focus, its historical and educational mission, the scale of its construction, the quality of work, and even the completion time!
Natalia Gorenok
All that remained of the once large ancient village was the vacated Sts. Peter and Paul Church standing in the middle of the field, and its cemetery, practically as forsaken as the church...
Abbess Alexandra (Zharin)
The Orthodox were terribly persecuted by the secular authorities of Rzeczpospolita, the Catholics and Uniates. People were humiliated, deprived of their civil rights, tortured and killed, but they remained faithful to Orthodoxy.
Orthodox musicians and artists have the opportunity to come to the monastery to live and study music and iconography taught by professional musicians and esteemed iconographers.
Sergei Shmel
This ascetic holds a special place among ancient Russian saints and is traditionally revered as the “chief of all Russian monks” because the monastery he founded on the hills of Kiev served as a center and school of ancient Russian monasticism and enlightenment for all of Rus’, for many centuries.
