Olga Rozhneva
Rating: 10|Votes: 2
“Well, that is that,” she thought. “It did not work… It was stupid of me to even hope… The Elder has more than enough things to do without having a conversation with every old woman who wants to talk to him!” The very next day, the phone rang, and, interrupting her daily tasks, she picked up the receiver. She picked it up, and almost dropped it again, for it was batiushkahimself who was calling! And he invited her to come see him at the metochion.
Nun Cornelia (Rees)
Rating: 9,7|Votes: 3
On this day, the 19th of December (December 6 according to the Julian calendar), the Church celebrates the memory of one of her most beloved saints—St. Nicholas the Wonderworker of Myra and Lycia. We are half way through Advent, the fast preceding the feast of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, born as a babe to the Virgin Mary. This is a time when we especially delight in the beauty and sanctity of children—defenseless, dependent, yet meaning everything to us. We would do anything to protect a child, even die ourselves, because we see in him God’s gift of our own eternal existence.
Archbishop John (Shahovskoy)
Many people believe that to live according to the faith and to fulfill the will of God is very difficult. Actually—it's very easy. One needs only attend to details, to trifles, and try to avoid evil in the slightest and most trivial things. This is the simplest and surest way to enter the world of the spirit and draw near to God. A man often thinks that the Creator demands great things of him, that the Gospel insists on complete self-sacrifice, the abolition of one's personhood, etc., as a condition of faith.
Svetlana Khmeleva
A missionary should first of all witness the good tidings of the gospel as it has been preserved by the Orthodox Church over the centuries—without change, without additions, without omissions. We have to look at our brothers (and we are all brothers, children of the one God, be we baptized or not) as at an icon, the image of God. We must respect the traditions by which people live, apply what is best of them. If tradition contradicts the spirit of Christianity, we have to explain this to people with love, without offending them.
Vincent Martini
Rating: 6,7|Votes: 7
IGNATIUS IV was an advocate for both peace and understanding, and he was also a Patriarch with a missionary’s heart—especially to the “Gentile” world of the diaspora. This is rather fitting, as the Church of Antioch began its life as a home base for such missionary activity, with the apostle Paul being the most paramount example. Thanks to his leadership and motivation, there is now an Archdiocese of the Antiochian Orthodox Church in North America (and in many other nations around the world), as well as a distance-education program for people interested in serving the Church and learning more about their faith.
