☦️🌟 The faithful in a row to Communion in St. George's Church in Moscow. The parish is historically called "in Gruzini" pointing out to the big Georgian diaspora. But the parish community is fully mixed today of course.

🌸☦️ Flowers remind us about the Paradise, the holy place where we humans originally belong. It's the duty of everyone to fight good battle get there again.

Georgians in the US, three monasteries, sadly fell to schism, the official sources report. It's what the hidden US project is working on. The same they dream to do to Russian and other parishes as well. Separation from the canonical Orthodoxy.

From Directions of St. Anthony the Great
“It is known that the body has three kinds of carnal movements.
The first is a natural movement, inherent in it, which does not produce anything (sinful, burdening the conscience) without the consent of the soul and merely lets it be known that it exists in the body.
The second kind of movement in the body is produced by too abundant food and drink, when the resulting heat in the blood stimulates the body to fight against the soul and urges it towards impure lusts.
The third movement comes from the evil spirits, who thus tempt us out of envy and try to weaken those who have found purity, or to lead astray from the path those who wish to enter into the door of purity.

However, if a man arms himself with patience and an unswerving faithfulness to the commandments of God, the Holy Spirit will teach his mind how to purify his soul and body from such movements.”

The main power of the Jesus Prayer and all the lustful power of the soul lies in the purification of the heart through noetic prayer.
St. Joseph the Hesychast

“Do not let the enemy shame you for laying your hopes upon such earthly dust as money and food, more than upon God, but shame him himself by your firm trust in God and in His Holy Word.
For "man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." "by every word."
For every word of the Lord Creator can support your life, just as every word can create and transform thousands of creatures. "For He spake and it was done; He commanded and it stood fast."
St.John of Kronstadt

☦️ As Christians we are always in tension — in an anguish and at the same time in bliss. This is mad, ridiculous. But it is true - accepting the dark night just as we accept the brilliance of the day.
Blessed memory Met. Athony Bloom

🌟☦️🙏 Saint Nikita the Goth was a Christian martyr and warrior from the Gothic tribes in the 4th century, celebrated as an Orthodox saint. His life was marked by unwavering faith and heroic martyrdom, he is specially venerated in Russia, Serbia, and Romania.
Nikita was baptized into the Orthodox faith at a young age under the guidance of Bishop

Theophilus of the Goths, who participated in the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea. During Nikita's lifetime, the Goths experienced a civil war between two factions. One was led by Fritigern, a Christian, and the other by the pagan chief Athanaric. When the antichristian party started reigning again, the pagan ruler initiated a severe persecution of Christians. Known as a tireless evangelist, St. Nikita was among the first to be arrested. He was subjected to severe torture, including being burned alive, yet he remained unwavering, holding onto an icon of the Theotokos and Christ. Miraculously, his body was not harmed by fire and was later recovered by Christians. His courage and sacrifice became a powerful symbol of faith and virtue for Orthodox Christians.
St. Nikita, pray for us!

☦️🌟 Place of Crucifixion, burial and Resurrection of Jesus Christ was venerated by the faithful from the very beginning, even when Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD. In 325 AD St Elena Equal to the Apostles visited the Holy Land and fulfilled archaeological investigation in that place, with St Makarios, Bishop of Jerusalem.
photo: Church of the Holy Sepulchre inside

“Since this habit has acquired power over your heart through frequent repetition of certain actions, which satisfy the passion dwelling in the heart, opposing it in the heart is not enough to weaken and destroy this power; you must use actions which are contrary to the former ones, actions opposed to the passion, smashing and destroying it.”
Unseen Warfare
Getting rid of passions is a lifetime process, which should never stop. The narrow path a Christian chose, supposes constant spiritual life and work. And the Church has all means for it.

“For those who devote themselves to prayer, it is especially important to practice the publican’s prayer and to maintain contrition of heart, else they will be deceived by the demons and fall into high-mindedness, spiritual pride and vanity. May the Lord protect us from such a state.”
Abbot Nikon Vorobiev

See God clearly with your spiritual vision, and when thus contemplating Him, ask of Him anything you wish, in the name of Jesus Christ, and it shall be given to you. In one single moment God will be everything to you, for He is an incomplex Being, above any time and space; and in the moments of your true faith, of your heartfelt union with Him, He will accomplish everything for you that is necessary for your own salvation...
St John of Kronstadt

Do not believe, brethren, in the enemy's enticements, not for one single moment, when the matter concerns food and drink, however plausible they may apparently be.

By feeding largely, one becomes a carnal man, having no spirit, or soulless flesh; while by fasting, one attracts the Holy Spirit and becomes spiritual. When cotton is not wetted with water it is light, and if in a small quantity flies up in the air; but if it is wetted, it becomes heavy and at once falls to the ground. It is the same with the soul. O, how important it is to preserve it by fasting!
St.John of Kronstadt

☦️🕯️"Death is the bridge that carries man from this world to the next. After the eyes of the body close, the eyes of the soul open immediately, and it beholds things that it could not see before with the eyes of the body.

Every person will have to confront the weight of death. Yet the more spiritual a person becomes, the less they will taste of the torments of the soul's departure. We must abide in prayer, repentance, and watchfulness. We must be attentive to our thoughts, words, senses, and deeds. We must endure temptations and forgive from the heart those who accuse us.

Whatever we accomplish for our neighbor will be returned to us by God. We forgive, and we will be forgiven; we love, and we will be loved; we show mercy, and mercy will be shown to us. We do not judge our fellow man, and God will not judge us either. All things will be rendered equally. Whatever we give, that we shall receive.

When we know the path of salvation, salvation is easy... It is impossible for the person who loves, who does not judge, who forgives, who overlooks, and who shows mercy to stray from the path of salvation. Let us take care not to lose the salvation of our soul, for the whole world is not worth an immortal soul."🕯️☦️

♰ Elder Ephraim of Mount Athos ♰

☦️🕯️"Shared sufferings lighten the suffering; and, just as when you suffer a trouble alone, the trouble is without consolation, so too, when you find another who has fallen into the same trouble, the trouble becomes easier.

Therefore, so that we do not fall overwhelmed by all the troubles that come upon us, let us pay great attention to the stories in Scripture.

We will take from them a foundation of great patience; they will console us not only by the fact that those of old endured the same sufferings as we do, but also by teaching us how to escape the misfortunes that come upon us; they will further teach us that, after the passing of the storm, we should preserve our tranquility, neither growing idle nor becoming proud.

It is not at all surprising that a man struck by troubles should be humble and pious; such is the nature of trials; it compels him to do this, to grieve, even those with a heart of stone.

But a truly pious soul, which continually has God before its eyes, never forgets God after escaping trials."🕯️☦️

♰ Saint John Chrysostom ♰

☦️ In the left it's blessed memory graceful Elder Iliy of Optina, the father confessor of Patriarch Kirill, in his earlier years. The contemporaries recall that even in the seminary he evidently bore a sign of special godliness.

Saint Isaac the Syrian warns us not to rest on the laurels even when we think we achieved much.
“You must work Spiritually not only until you see the fruit in your Soul, but also until your very end. For even ripe fruit is often destroyed by hail.”