L. N. Pogozheva
Rating: 10|Votes: 1
The Queen of Heaven is particularly close to children who call upon her. She loves and helps them. Once the father of the holy Russian hierarch Joasaph of Belgorod was sitting on his porch at sunset pondering on what awaited his son when he grew up and finished his studies. Suddenly he saw the Mother of God in the air and his son on his knees, praying at Her feet. Then he heard her say to Joasaph, "Your prayer is enough for me," and from the heights an angel flew down and cloaked the youth in a bishop's mantle.
Sergei Bulgakov
Rating: 9,8|Votes: 5
Struck by the speech of the High Priest, as though by the awesome verdict of the judgment of God Himself, the righteous man had no time even to withdraw from the altar, as a new heavier insult struck his hearing. One of the Israelites bringing his gifts, pushed him away, said, “Depart from here, did you not hear that you are unworthy to bring gifts to God together with us, because you have not left offspring for Israel?” With deep humility Joachim accepted this accusation as if it were from the mouth of the very God, and with deep sadness left the temple.
Rating: 8,4|Votes: 20
A true incident which shocked and brought repentance to hundreds of people in the Russian Soviet city of Kuibyshev (modern day Samara), in the year 1956.
Rating: 5,1|Votes: 15
St John has sometimes been described as an unoriginal thinker, a mere compiler of the existing tradition. It was not St. John’s intent to come up with ideas unique to himself. Toward the beginning of his work, The Fountain Head of Knowledge, he writes, “I will say nothing of my own.” While that may not be acceptable or rewarded in the scholarship and academia of today, it reveals St. John’s faithfulness to the tradition.
Rating: 10|Votes: 8
By day, she was able to gaze upon the wooded hills, the swiftly flowing rivers, and the meadows covered with a mottled blanket of flowers; by night the harmonious and majestic vault of the heavens twinkled and provided a spectacle of inexpressible beauty. Soon the virgin began to ask herself questions about the First Cause and Creator of so harmonious and splendid a world.