Rating: 10|Votes: 1

Sermon on the Commemoration Day of St. Ambrose, Elder of Optina

Hieromonk Vasily (Roslyakov)

Hieromonk Vasily (Roslyakov)

Today we too, in approaching the coffin of our holy Father Ambrose, Elder of Optina, rejoice with same inexpressible joy of Christ’s resurrection. Hymning the Tomb of our Savior, we say, “How life-giving, how much more beautiful than paradise, and more resplendent than any royal palace proved Thy tomb, oh Christ, the source of our Resurrection!” And in the troparion to St. Ambrose we sing, “As to a healing spring do we come to thee, Oh Ambrose, our father!”

Rating: 9|Votes: 3

The Fifth Sunday After Pentecost. The Gospel About the Gadarene Swine

Archpriest Andrew Phillips

Secondly, it is clear from the Gospel that devils exist and that they can possess men. All too often we meet naïve people who call themselves Christians but have been so hoodwinked by the Devil that they maintain that devils do not exist and that they most certainly cannot enter into men. Such people have clearly not read the Gospel with understanding and have little experience of life.

Rating: 10|Votes: 1

Julia Sysoev: "One Can Never Get Too Much Help"

Catherine Lyulchak, Julia Sysoeva

It's probably as it is with all the newly widowed: most difficult is learning to live again without him. Life is divided into “before” and “after”—into different eras. But it is necessary to begin a new life, not to pull the load of continuous, depressing memories and resentments. This period of transition between one state and another was the most difficult. But from the first day I saw that the Lord intervenes in all situations, arranging the necessary route. The Lord leads me. This gives us strength.

Rating: 6|Votes: 1

Sermon of Hieromonk John (Maximovich) on his election as Bishop of Shanghai

St. John of Shanghai

“Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19), said the Lord, summoning His first disciples. I did not imagine in my earliest childhood that this call would be addressed to me, though from the first, I knew that I wished to serve the truth. My parents kindled within me the desire to stand firmly for the truth, and my soul was captured by the examples of those who sacrificed their lives for it, struggling against kings when they persecuted the faith of salvation, struggling for kings when they were the bearers and protectors of piety.

Rating: 8,6|Votes: 82

Life and Miracles of St. John (Maximovich) of Shanghai and San Francisco—One of the Greatest Saints of the 20th Century

Bishop Alexander (Mileant)

"Sanctity is not just a virtue. It is an attainment of such spiritual heights, that the abundance of God's grace which fills the saint overflows on all who associate with him. Great is the saint's state of bliss in which they dwell contemplating the Glory of God. Being filled with love for God and man, they are responsive to man's needs, interceding before God and helping those who turn to them." Thus describing the ancient Saints, Vladyka John simultaneously summarized his own spiritual attitude which made him one of the greatest Saints of our time.