On the eve of the Nativity of Christ, the Holy Church completes its preparations for the great feast. There are several Old Testament readings at the evening service. Here are some of them.
Valentin Velchev
So far, none of the pillars of the modern physics—neither General Theory of Relativity, nor quantum mechanics, not even the string theory—have been able to explain the existence of space and time.
Priest Pavel Serzhantov
Despite his distress and fear, he finds his secure and steadfast footing: "Yet I will rejoice in the LORD... the LORD GOD is my strength."
Dr. Amir Azarvan
Scripture, itself, does not teach that it, alone, is authoritative for the faith and practice of the believer.
Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol
The holy ascetics, in returning to the blessed state in which Adam abode before his fall, no longer suffer any danger from the natural world.
Christians are strangers to everything in this world, but at the same time, they lovingly pray for everything around them—for the city and country where they live.
Sergei Komarov
The Biblical image of love is different. This love is tough, it’s honest, lively, fervent, sincere—such is the zealous love of God.
Archpriest Geoffrey Korz
Righteous kings and queens—the saintly ones—are given to us as icons, here on earth, as heads of nations, to show us grace, and holiness, and righteousness, incarnate within our very governments.
Larisa Marsheva, Ioann Scherbenko
On September 1/14, Orthodox Christians celebrate the Ecclesiastical New Year, also known as the Beginning of the Indiction. We offer our readers a theological-philological commentary on the troparion and kontakion of the feast.
Vladimir Nemychenkov
The Lord violates not only the laws of nature, established by Himself, but also the philosophical schemes that try to limit the actions of His grace by some human rules that define “correct” and “wrong” icons.
The described wonderworking icon is nothing more than a reproduction on paper of the “St. Seraphim—Diveyevo Tenderness” Icon. That is, this is the same kind of “photo-reproduction” denigrated by some people.
Archpriest Victor Potapov
What we know of God has been given to us through revelation. While remaining unfathomable to the human mind, God revealed Himself to us and gave us the fullness of the truth and the promise of eternal life through His Son, Who became the Son of Man to share our fate and save us from the power of sin and death.
St. Innocent of Kherson
Is Moses’ description pure historical truth, or is there an admixture of poetry in it?
Last question: When did the world come about? There are two sides to this question, which must be distinguished by the one answering it.
That the will of God has such creative power is evident from the fact that even now this creativity is partially expressed in our will.
Archpriest Gennady Fast
I think we shouldn’t do the Rite of Blessing again. But, really, just come to pray there. Overall, we should privately pray with the flock more often.
This is very important; regardless of the degree of ministry—be it a bishop, a patriarch, or a priest—first of all, I am a Christian.
In all of his epistles, the Apostle Paul addresses saints.
The Apostle Peter calls the Jews to repentance and uses complex constructions that were very clear to the Jews then.
We don’t know in every detail what is going on inside this person. But we pray and the grace of God acts.