Rating: 10|Votes: 2
The power of the Cross is given to each and every Christian. But just as a soldier must learn to properly wield his weapons in battle, so a warrior of Christ must learn how correctly to make the sign of the cross. A shield has no effect if carelessly waved about in the air. Likewise, there are many who receive no benefit from the sign of the Cross because they make it mechanically or haphazardly.
Rating: 7,8|Votes: 20
Near the village of Vasta in the Peloponnese, there is a miraculous site that defies human logic. The lush green mountain gully with a river flowing through it is visited by many pilgrims, as well as by those curious to see how seventeen trees can grow from the thin roof of a small chapel. It all goes back to the life of a brave young girl who lived in the Byzantine Empire.
Rating: 7,4|Votes: 7
What we know of the life of St. Theodora of Vasta comes entirely from local tradition, but her little chapel in southern Greece is known throughout the world and visited by thousands every year.
Rating: 8,7|Votes: 7
However, it’s not until today that we have had the opportunity to apologize, in person and at a public event, to the First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad for our sins against the Russian Church Abroad. Your Eminence, Metropolitan Hilarion, we express our deep and heartfelt repentance for these sins, and ask forgiveness from you and from all who have been hurt by our words and actions.
Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose)
Rating: 8,1|Votes: 8
Why is the truth, it would seem, revealed to some and not to others? Is there a special organ for receiving revelation from God? Yes, though usually we close it and do not let it open up: God’s revelation is given to something called a loving heart. This indicates that no matter how often we might hear the truth, if we have no love, we will not receive it; and to the contrary, though we may not even be searching for the truth, but have love, the truth may find us. But if others have not found the truth it would be madness for us to condemn them, saying “we have found the truth”, because our own possession of truth depends upon our loving heart.