Rating: 6,6|Votes: 22
St. Ambrose, elder of Optina offered to those who came to him with various sorrows and trials a special, brief prayer rule that is possible for any Christian to read. The elder knew from his own experience the effectiveness of these prayers, how they strengthen one's enfeebled spirit, and how they scatter the enemy's attacks if read with faith and hope in God's almighty help. This prayer rule, comprised of the Psalms of David, we offer here together with extracts from the letters of St. Ambrose.
Rating: 5,7|Votes: 3
On Monday, July 5, 2010, the eve of the feast of the Vladimir Icon of the Most Holy Mother of God, Archimandrite Tikhon, Superior, and brothers of the Moscow Sretensky Stavropegial Monastery celebrated the All Night Vigil for the feast.
St. John of Shanghai
Rating: 8,4|Votes: 17
He consciously lived in and operated from this otherworldly realm, formed historically by the Church Fathers, and thus he had a virtual disdain for the pragmatic expectations placed on one by the times and fashions. He was an enemy of fashion and gossip and pharisaical narrow-mindedness...
Alexander Solodovnikov
As recorded in the Menaeon of Saints, during an attack on Moscow by the Tatar hordes in 1521, a blind nun of the Ascension Convent had a prophetic vision. The following is a poem in English translation on this theme by the outstanding Russian religious poet, Alexander Solodovnikov (1893–1974).
Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov)
I looked at Fr. Augustine, and understood directly that he had guessed what was going on, and that it was all true! I also understood that if I begin my story with investigator Porphiry Petrovich, the situation would unfold just as I had conceived it, even up to the final, “Why, it is you, Fr. Augustine!