“God’s boundless wisdom has given each person a cross according to his/her character and strength. If we carry our cross without grumbling, repent of our sins and do not justify ourselves, then like the good thief we shall enter God’s Kingdom. But if we grumble, if we blaspheme God and our neighbor, we shall perish like the wicked thief—in great torment, without the hope of salvation to lessen our grief. The choice lies in our own hands.”
Abbot Nikon Vorobiev
From the Letters to Spiritual Children
Earthly life is not easy, but we know that it is not for eternity yet, but it’s time for the most important choices about eternity.
Abbot Nikon Vorobiev
From the Letters to Spiritual Children
Earthly life is not easy, but we know that it is not for eternity yet, but it’s time for the most important choices about eternity.
Love has two remarkable characteristics: to grieve and suffer when a loved one suffers harm, and to rejoice when he is happy and work for his benefit. That is why blessed is the one who weeps for the sinner, who is exposed to terrible danger, and rejoices at the one who does good, for it is written that he gains incomparable benefit.
📸 Malorossiya (Little Rus') — the historical name of a number of lands of Rus' (The territory of modern Ukraine). The Russian Empire.
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A glimpse of WW3. The final book of the Scripture tells us about that.
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The true door is always open, but people keep knocking on the doors that they themselves paint on walls.
🎥 Cathedral of Saint Vladimir in Chersonesos. Crimea. Russia
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Righteousness has no bell for us to ring and learn about it. The bell of righteousness is tolerance, longsuffering and endurance. All these are adornments for any monk and every Christian”.
☦️ St Joseph the Hesychast
📸Personal photo archive. Chersonesos, Crimea, Russia
📸Personal photo archive. Chersonesos, Crimea, Russia
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Through fasting man can become a lamb. If he becomes a beast, it means the ascetic struggle he is undertaking is either beyond his capabilities, or is done with egoism, and therefore does not have divine assistance.
St. Paisios of Mount Athos
Spitual life is not about making some actions without thinking. Our spiritual involvement is always required. It means our desire to learn and grow, our efforts and work. And we can do nothing of it without God. That is why it is necessary to call for His help.
St. Paisios of Mount Athos
Spitual life is not about making some actions without thinking. Our spiritual involvement is always required. It means our desire to learn and grow, our efforts and work. And we can do nothing of it without God. That is why it is necessary to call for His help.
Certain saints, mostly Martyrs, were give by God power to beat demons. Etymologically, the word demon is neutral, in Greek culture it's neutral, any divine power. On the contrast, in all Slavic languages that word (from the Proto-Slavic *čьrtъ) comes from the root "magic". Indeed magic is all demonic, in the modern world people lost that understanding. Any play with meditation, eastern ezoteric, taro and like that is gravely dangerous. Not just dangerous, but either fatal, or at best causes longterm harm.
Holy water is a mystery, in the narrow sense. There is a number of stories, even I could narrate one. It happened during the "American decade" of Russia, after dissolution of USSR, associated with a murderous assault of my family member, so won't narrate. But holy water helps in medical cases in particular.
☦️ By divine providence, rare, souls of the reposed appear to people, one of the stories from pre-revolution Russia, in one of the well known Orthodox compilations 🌟
Ivan Afanasyevich Praschev, a young officer, participated in the suppression of the Polish rebellion in 1831. His orderly at the time was Naum Sereda. Sereda was mortally wounded in a skirmish, and as he lay dying, he asked Praschev to send his mother the three gold coins he had with him.
"I will certainly fulfill your request," Praschev replied, "and not only these three gold coins, but I will add another for your faithful service."
"How can I repay you, Your Honor?" the dying man groaned.
"And if you die, come to me from the other world
Ivan Afanasyevich Praschev, a young officer, participated in the suppression of the Polish rebellion in 1831. His orderly at the time was Naum Sereda. Sereda was mortally wounded in a skirmish, and as he lay dying, he asked Praschev to send his mother the three gold coins he had with him.
"I will certainly fulfill your request," Praschev replied, "and not only these three gold coins, but I will add another for your faithful service."
"How can I repay you, Your Honor?" the dying man groaned.
"And if you die, come to me from the other world
on the day I am to die."
"I listen, Your Honor," replied Sereda, and soon died.
One night, taking advantage of fine weather (this was thirty years after Sereda's death), Prashchev, his wife, daughter, and her fiancé were in the garden. The dog, who always kept Prashchev's company, suddenly darted down the alley, as it usually did when it spotted a stranger. Prashchev followed, and lo and behold, Sereda approached him.
"What are you saying, Sereda? Is today the day of my death?" Prashchev asked.
"Yes, your honor, I have come to fulfill your orders, the day of your death has arrived," the unearthly messenger replied and vanished.
Prashchev immediately prepared for death according to the Christian rite, confessed and received Holy Communion, and made all the necessary arrangements. But death did not come. Around eleven o'clock in the evening on May 17th, Prashchev was in the garden with his entire household; Suddenly a woman's cry was heard: the cook's wife was asking Prashchev for help, as if he were her landowner; her husband was chasing her; the cook was drunk, and in that state he always considered his wife unfaithful and beat her. The cook jumped up to Prashchev and stabbed him in the stomach with a knife, from which he died immediately.
"I listen, Your Honor," replied Sereda, and soon died.
One night, taking advantage of fine weather (this was thirty years after Sereda's death), Prashchev, his wife, daughter, and her fiancé were in the garden. The dog, who always kept Prashchev's company, suddenly darted down the alley, as it usually did when it spotted a stranger. Prashchev followed, and lo and behold, Sereda approached him.
"What are you saying, Sereda? Is today the day of my death?" Prashchev asked.
"Yes, your honor, I have come to fulfill your orders, the day of your death has arrived," the unearthly messenger replied and vanished.
Prashchev immediately prepared for death according to the Christian rite, confessed and received Holy Communion, and made all the necessary arrangements. But death did not come. Around eleven o'clock in the evening on May 17th, Prashchev was in the garden with his entire household; Suddenly a woman's cry was heard: the cook's wife was asking Prashchev for help, as if he were her landowner; her husband was chasing her; the cook was drunk, and in that state he always considered his wife unfaithful and beat her. The cook jumped up to Prashchev and stabbed him in the stomach with a knife, from which he died immediately.
☦️🌟 Story narrated by Fr. A. Preobrazhensky.
"In the village of Ch., Vetluzhsky district, in the Kostroma province, lived a devout peasant named Philip.
From an early age, this peasant loved the Church of God, and therefore, both in childhood and after marriage, he never missed a single church service, despite the fact that the village where he lived was ten miles away, for which
"In the village of Ch., Vetluzhsky district, in the Kostroma province, lived a devout peasant named Philip.
From an early age, this peasant loved the Church of God, and therefore, both in childhood and after marriage, he never missed a single church service, despite the fact that the village where he lived was ten miles away, for which
reason his neighbors soon nicknamed him a saint.
In gatherings of relatives and acquaintances, Philip was never the first to initiate conversation, but always loved to listen to the conversations of others. But as soon as the conversation inclined toward condemnation, the devout Philip, as if not hearing the beginning, would immediately begin the conversation on another subject, mostly religious, and thus often deflect others from further gossip.
Whatever task Philip undertook, he approached it only with an invocation of God's help — for which the Lord generously rewarded him with His gifts. Even if his diligent labors were sometimes unrewarded, even then Philip dared not utter a single word of complaint; he never envied others anything, and was always content with his lot.
But Philip's happiness was short-lived: Divine Providence, for His inscrutable purposes, was pleased to test Philip's patience, as they once had righteous Job, lest those who hated goodness say of him what their leader had once said of Job: "Does Philip worship God for nothing? Has He not blessed the works of his hands? But let Him stretch out His hand and touch him, and will Philip not deny him?" In his twenty-fifth year, Philip was struck by illness: his entire body was covered with sores that emitted an unbearable putrid odor.
Seeing Philip suffering in such a pitiful state, his haters taunted him: "Behold, our holier-than-thou is still rotting alive." Indeed, the unfortunate man's illness soon progressed to the point where worms began to infest many places under his skin, which, gnawing through the skin even in healthy areas, gradually spread throughout his entire body. In two years, his illness had multiplied to such an extent that at night they crawled out of his body in whole swarms and covered his entire bed.
The care of the sick man's bed and his needs rested with his wife, Theodosia, a woman of very obstinate character. She often told him that death had apparently forgotten him, to which the patient sufferer would usually reply, "Yes! Apparently, for my grave sins, the Lord has visited me with such a grievous illness, but what can I do? Apparently, the Lord, Whom I have served since childhood, knows that it is better and more convenient for me to approach Him not through the path of prosperity I have hitherto enjoyed, but through suffering: I must endure it."
After two years, this illness not only showed no sign of abating, but, on the contrary, was noticeably worsening with each passing hour, so much so that Philip, foreseeing the imminent end of his suffering, begged his wife to quickly invite a priest to administer the Holy Gifts to him. His wish was immediately fulfilled. And he, having been deemed worthy to receive this precious relic, said to his wife with a smile upon the priest's departure: "Feodosia! Oh, how much better I feel now, precisely from the moment Father gave me communion!"
In gatherings of relatives and acquaintances, Philip was never the first to initiate conversation, but always loved to listen to the conversations of others. But as soon as the conversation inclined toward condemnation, the devout Philip, as if not hearing the beginning, would immediately begin the conversation on another subject, mostly religious, and thus often deflect others from further gossip.
Whatever task Philip undertook, he approached it only with an invocation of God's help — for which the Lord generously rewarded him with His gifts. Even if his diligent labors were sometimes unrewarded, even then Philip dared not utter a single word of complaint; he never envied others anything, and was always content with his lot.
But Philip's happiness was short-lived: Divine Providence, for His inscrutable purposes, was pleased to test Philip's patience, as they once had righteous Job, lest those who hated goodness say of him what their leader had once said of Job: "Does Philip worship God for nothing? Has He not blessed the works of his hands? But let Him stretch out His hand and touch him, and will Philip not deny him?" In his twenty-fifth year, Philip was struck by illness: his entire body was covered with sores that emitted an unbearable putrid odor.
Seeing Philip suffering in such a pitiful state, his haters taunted him: "Behold, our holier-than-thou is still rotting alive." Indeed, the unfortunate man's illness soon progressed to the point where worms began to infest many places under his skin, which, gnawing through the skin even in healthy areas, gradually spread throughout his entire body. In two years, his illness had multiplied to such an extent that at night they crawled out of his body in whole swarms and covered his entire bed.
The care of the sick man's bed and his needs rested with his wife, Theodosia, a woman of very obstinate character. She often told him that death had apparently forgotten him, to which the patient sufferer would usually reply, "Yes! Apparently, for my grave sins, the Lord has visited me with such a grievous illness, but what can I do? Apparently, the Lord, Whom I have served since childhood, knows that it is better and more convenient for me to approach Him not through the path of prosperity I have hitherto enjoyed, but through suffering: I must endure it."
After two years, this illness not only showed no sign of abating, but, on the contrary, was noticeably worsening with each passing hour, so much so that Philip, foreseeing the imminent end of his suffering, begged his wife to quickly invite a priest to administer the Holy Gifts to him. His wish was immediately fulfilled. And he, having been deemed worthy to receive this precious relic, said to his wife with a smile upon the priest's departure: "Feodosia! Oh, how much better I feel now, precisely from the moment Father gave me communion!"