☦️ In the diocesan city of the region, where St. Seraphim of Sarov lived, the skies are typically cloudy. It's situated in the joint of Volga and another big river.
St. Seraphim, pray for us!
St. Seraphim, pray for us!
"Beware of passionate attachments to the world. Although they deceive you with peace and comfort, they are so fleeting that you do not notice how you are deprived of them, and in their place come sorrow, longing, despondency, and no comfort whatsoever.” Saint Leonid of Optina
Does it mean to live without any things , comfort, etc? No, but spiritual things should be in the first place. It is important to understand and be ready that we may lose everything any moment. We should develop in ourselves virtues of moderation and self-restraint, especially in nowadays consumer culture which makes us confuse personal happiness with purchasing material possessions and consumption...
Does it mean to live without any things , comfort, etc? No, but spiritual things should be in the first place. It is important to understand and be ready that we may lose everything any moment. We should develop in ourselves virtues of moderation and self-restraint, especially in nowadays consumer culture which makes us confuse personal happiness with purchasing material possessions and consumption...
☦️ Live as the saints lived: by their prayers, wisdom, and virtues; in meekness, humility, and gentleness, not sparing yourself, but renouncing yourself, your rest, ease and enjoyment, for the love of God and your neighbor, in patience, courage and struggle — have their faith, hope and love.
St John of Kronstadt
St John of Kronstadt
🌟🙏🔥 Unite your soul to God by means of hearty faith and you will be able to accomplish everything. Do powerful, invisible, ever-watchful enemies wage war against you? You will conquer them. Are these enemies visible, outward? You will conquer them also. Do passions rend you? You will overcome them. Are you crushed with sorrows? You will get over them. Have you fallen into despondency? You will obtain courage. With faith you will be able to conquer everything, and even the Kingdom of Heaven will be yours.
St John of Kronstadt
St John of Kronstadt
St. Ignatius Brianchaninov teaches about importance of Jesus prayer in our spiritual life
“The name of our Lord Jesus Christ is a divine name. The power and effect of that name are divine, omnipotent and salvific, and transcend our ability to comprehend it. With faith therefore, with confidence and sincerity, and with great piety and fear ought we to proceed to the doing of the great work which God has entrusted to us: to train ourselves in prayer by using the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
“The incessant invocation of God’s name,” says Barsanuphius the Great, “is a medicine which mortifies not just the passions, but even their influence. Just as the physician puts medications or dressings on a wound that it might be healed, without the patient even knowing the manner of their operation, so also the name of God, when we invoke it, moritifes all passions, though we do not know how that happens”
“The name of our Lord Jesus Christ is a divine name. The power and effect of that name are divine, omnipotent and salvific, and transcend our ability to comprehend it. With faith therefore, with confidence and sincerity, and with great piety and fear ought we to proceed to the doing of the great work which God has entrusted to us: to train ourselves in prayer by using the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
“The incessant invocation of God’s name,” says Barsanuphius the Great, “is a medicine which mortifies not just the passions, but even their influence. Just as the physician puts medications or dressings on a wound that it might be healed, without the patient even knowing the manner of their operation, so also the name of God, when we invoke it, moritifes all passions, though we do not know how that happens”
There is very insidious and deceptive sin which is able to spoil a soul and produce many other sins. We should be watchful to ourselves, as it is very frequent thing. We talk about self-pity. Saint Theophan the Recluse explains :
“If self pity has been aroused in you, or a feeling of how good you are, hasten to sober yourself up and banish this whim with some kind of strictness and discipline to yourself, especially by making clear a sound idea of the insignificance of whatever comes into your head. A chance or intentional belittlement or humbling in this case would be like water poured on fire.”
“If self pity has been aroused in you, or a feeling of how good you are, hasten to sober yourself up and banish this whim with some kind of strictness and discipline to yourself, especially by making clear a sound idea of the insignificance of whatever comes into your head. A chance or intentional belittlement or humbling in this case would be like water poured on fire.”
Our life is such that any content is bound up with the form. The immortal soul is present in a mortal body, the Holy Gifts are kept in a tabernacle, fragrant myrrh is kept in a vessel, and the external form for prayerful sighs is the rule. Just as the river has a riverbed along which the water easily flows forward, so is the prayer rule this riverbed along which our prayer flows to God.
Priest Valery Dukhanin
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Sin greatly affects one's soul, which becomes as a dirty vessel. And as well as water cleans the vessel , so repentance restores one’s soul.
"When someone starts making concessions to sin, he darkens inside, the eyes of the soul are clouded and he can no longer see clearly. Moreover, he is polluted by sin, and sin confuses and entangles him, causing him to see even the pure as sinful.
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When a person observes the commandments of God, working to be cleansed of one's passions, then the mind is enlightened; it attains spiritual vision, and the soul becomes as resplendent as it was before the Fall of man."
St. Paisios of Mount Athos
"When someone starts making concessions to sin, he darkens inside, the eyes of the soul are clouded and he can no longer see clearly. Moreover, he is polluted by sin, and sin confuses and entangles him, causing him to see even the pure as sinful.
----
When a person observes the commandments of God, working to be cleansed of one's passions, then the mind is enlightened; it attains spiritual vision, and the soul becomes as resplendent as it was before the Fall of man."
St. Paisios of Mount Athos
🌟☦️ The five breads symbolize the multiplication of breads fulfilled by the Lord, but no it's not just belongs to the ancient time. Such a miracle, for example, happened recently with Russian Orthodox confessors in one of the camps in the past century, and earlier had been worked by St. Seraphim of Sarov.
“A ship does not go far without water; and there is no progress whatsoever in the guarding of the intellect without watchfulness, humility and the Jesus Prayer.” - St Hesychios The Priest
"Watchfulness is a continual fixing and halting of thought at the entrance to the heart... If we are conscientious in this, we can gain much experience and knowledge of spiritual warfare."
Humility means understanding that I am no better than others to judge, and recognizing that I cannot do anything without God.
Jesus prayer repetition leads to inner stillness. Even earlier John Cassian recommended this type of prayer. - "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner."
"Watchfulness is a continual fixing and halting of thought at the entrance to the heart... If we are conscientious in this, we can gain much experience and knowledge of spiritual warfare."
Humility means understanding that I am no better than others to judge, and recognizing that I cannot do anything without God.
Jesus prayer repetition leads to inner stillness. Even earlier John Cassian recommended this type of prayer. - "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner."
“Destroy within you the devil's rule over you; destroy all his influence over you; acquire spiritual freedom. The foundation for your struggle is the grace of holy baptism; your weapon is the prayer of Jesus.”
St. Ignatius Brianchaninov
And how to do that? It can be achieved through constant prayer, watchfulness over ourselves, repentance and the Church life. Our Church has all we need to get saved.
St. Ignatius Brianchaninov
And how to do that? It can be achieved through constant prayer, watchfulness over ourselves, repentance and the Church life. Our Church has all we need to get saved.
The fact that God sends Angels to help faithful in different ways we know from the Scripture. But it doesn’t change the fact that we should strive for righteousness ourselves. St. Anastasius of Sinai citing St Basil the Greate explains:
“Every Christian is given an angel from God to guard him all his life (unless, through evil deeds, he drives him away). But as smoke drives away bees and an evil smell drives away doves, so is the guardian angel of our life driven away by our sins: drunkenness, adultery, anger and so forth. The angel of every faithful man leads him to every good deed, while the demons labor to scandalize the faithful ones and deprive them of the Kingdom of Heaven.”
“Every Christian is given an angel from God to guard him all his life (unless, through evil deeds, he drives him away). But as smoke drives away bees and an evil smell drives away doves, so is the guardian angel of our life driven away by our sins: drunkenness, adultery, anger and so forth. The angel of every faithful man leads him to every good deed, while the demons labor to scandalize the faithful ones and deprive them of the Kingdom of Heaven.”