💡 TO BE UNHAPPY, you have to look with sorrow at someone else's success: someone else's team, someone else's country, someone else's husband... It takes so little to be unhappy, and it's so easy to be so.
The absence of illness, criminal prosecution, having a home, a family, and good health don't make many people happy. They're simply inattentive and ungrateful and don't properly appreciate what they have.
Archpriest Andrei Tkachev

The closing of paradise, and the placing of the Cherubim with the burning sword to prevent his entrance (Gen. 3:24), must be regarded as actual events; but they are also realities encountered inwardly by each soul. A veil of darkness-the fire of the worldly spirit-surrounds the heart, preventing the intellect from communing with God, and the soul from praying, believing and loving the Lord as it desires to do. All these things may be learnt from experience by those who truly entrust themselves to the Lord, persist in prayer, and fight zealously against the enemy.
St Macarius the Great

☦️ The Orthodox Church is the author of the Bible, and the only correct interpreter.
Many read the Holy Scriptures and hear them read. But few can grasp their meaning and import. For some what is said in the Scriptures is impossible, for others it is altogether beyond belief. Some again interpret them wrongly...
St Symeon the New Theologian

🌟⚡️ Not every belief, even "belief in Jesus", leads to salvation. Only pure/correct ('orthodox') Faith does. For example, teaching of the Sadducees was a heresy, as the Scripture calls it (αἵρεσις τῶν Σαδδουκαίων, Acts 5:17), and there were many heresies during the 2 millennia of Christianity.

Really experienced Christians, like St John of Kronstadt, have mindset of a child. A child of God. The priestly Wonderworker did speak about that in his writings.

The only thing God requires of us is that we do not sin. But this is achieved, not by acting according to the law, but by carefully guarding the divine image in us and our supernal dignity. When we thus live in our natural state, wearing the resplendent robe of the Spirit, we dwell in God and God dwells in us. Then we are called gods by adoption and sons of God, sealed by the light of the knowledge of God (Ps. 4:6. LXX).
St Symeon the New Theologian

📜🌟 The DSS manuscripts is a unique source, they give us a glimpse into the real message of God, not modified by the modern interpreters:
Let's put our ear to the holy teaching and develop the fear of God, as He commands (a fragment from the Scroll):

"You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you.
Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him." (Deut 8:5-6)

A photofact of how the present civil war in the okraina began. The monk, risking his life, is trying to stop the rioters, consumed by prowestern madness. Later the monks were expelled from the Lavra, but the rioters were utilized by the antichristian new-government which they helped in its coup.

🙏 In the ancient Lavra, this feast.

🌟 Following the service by book, we understand the meaning deeper, and feel the energy of prayer more vividly.

“Two factors are involved in man’s Salvation: the Grace of God and the will of man. Both must work together, if Salvation is to be attained.” -Saint Nektarios of Aegina
⚡️The work of salvation is performed by God. God through Christ and the Holy Spirit has the power to save us, forgive, justify and give us new life.
⚡️But it's up to us whether receive this gift and help or refuse. And it is not just receiving the gift like a permanent ticket to Heaven.
⚡️From the Scripture we know that it's a life-time process. It'a life time co-working, relationship, even engagement. Path that we follow after God step by step till our last breath.

Our Church has a long history and deep teaching, and it may seem overwhelming for people outside of it. Of course , nobody promised Christians easy going life, and spiritual growth needs hardship and efforts. But what we have in return is so great and worthwhile!
Moreover, once you become part of the Church, you see how many helpful means it has for us. We are not alone in this journey.
the Holy Scriptures, sacred Tradition, the dogmatic definitions of the Ecumenical councils, the spiritual teachings of the Church Fathers. All combined with prayer, Sacraments, Liturgy daily makes us spiritually stronger and help our eyes see clearly the Truth and move toward union with Christ.

“Just as the Blessings of God are unutterably great, so their acquisition requires much hardship and toil undertaken with hope and faith.” - Saint Macarius the Great

It is not enough to read the law, we are obliged to follow it. The same in spiritual life. Not only we should know the theory and try to get rid of sinful passions, but also attain virtues. This is the only true way.
“Not only did the Lord ask us to refrain from injustice, but He also calls us to active goodness. Not merely ‘do not hate’, but rather, ‘love’.” - Saint John Chrysostom

🌟 A great vision is known, granted to St. Seraphim of Sarov on Holy Thursday during the Liturgy. Having cried out, "Lord, save the pious and hear us…" and raising his orarion, Deacon Seraphim was no longer able to speak or move. He was led into the altar, where he remained in an unusual state for approximately three hours. Hegumen Pachomius later learned that Father Seraphim had been granted a vision of the Lord of Glory Himself, surrounded by all the ranks of angels, "like a swarm of bees," as Father Seraphim figuratively put it. Christ, walking through the air from the western gates, reached the ambo, blessed the celebrant and the worshipers, especially Seraphim himself, after which, shining with the indescribable light of Tabor, He entered His image on the iconostasis.

Fr. George Maximov, in addition to his missionary advances which we all know about, also received a honorary award as a writer for his early Orthodox scifi book.

🌟☦️ All the frescoes are with titles in Georgian, but it's Moscow. "St. George the Trophy-Bearer Church in Gruzini".

“Life without Christ is not life. That’s just the way it is… If you don’t see Christ in everything you do, you are without Christ.”
Saint Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia

That's the secret. Our attitude to all things should be like that. It can help to stop ourselves from many possible sinful acts and words.

🌟🙏 In the Holy Land everything is compact, there's less than 500m between the Ascension Monastery and the Tomb of the Prophets. That Mount has tremendous symbolism: Hezekiah saw in the vision how God's glory moved to the mountain to the east from the Temple, and that factually happened: the divine Ascension of the Savior happened there.

☦️🕯️"Today the devil has three tentacles:
For the poor—Communism;
For Christian believers—Ecumenism;
And for the rich— (Free) Masonry!”🕯️☦️

♰ St. Paisios the Athonite ♰

☦️🕯️A monk once told me that when he was very ill as a child, his mother said to his father: “Look how much our child is suffering. I would gladly allow myself to be cut into pieces if only it would ease his pain.”
Such is the love of God for mankind. 🕯️☦️

♰ St. Silouan the Athonite ♰