“Evils reinforce each other; so do virtues, thus encouraging us to still greater efforts.”
Saint Mark the Ascetic
The more we go away from the true Church, the more we fall. The more we try to do our best in spiritual growth and listen to what the Church teaches, the more we change and attain and get closer to God.

☦️🌟 Do you not know that the laying on of hands after baptism and then the invocation of the Holy Spirit is a tradition of the Church? Do you demand proof from the Scriptures? You can find it in the Acts of the Apostles. And even if it were not supported by Scriptural authority, the consensus of the whole world in this respect would have the force of a command. For many other observances of the Churches, which are due to tradition, have acquired the authority of written law, as for instance the practice of dipping the head thrice in the baptistery, and then, after coming out of the water, of tasting milk and honey mingled in representation of infancy; and, again, the practices of standing in worship on the Lord's day, and ceasing to fast every Pentecost; and there are many other unwritten practices which have gained their place through reason and custom.
St. Jerome of Rome, Dialogue Against the Luciferians

🔥☦️ Symbolism of color. Red inner dress of Angels symbolizes their fiery nature.

☦️ The Orthodox volunteers posted from their recent travel/service at the holy relics of St. Sergius.

I often hear people complaining they don't feel like they manage to change and fight their sins, and sometimes it's easier to give in. But this is what devil wants. God wants us to do at least small steps and have hope in Him.

“We mustn’t despair when we struggle and continuously see nothing but the slightest progress. We all do nearly nothing, some a little more, some a little less. When Christ sees our little effort He gives us an analogous token and so our nearly nothing becomes valuable and we can see a little progress. For this reason we mustn’t despair, but hope in God.”
Saint Paisios the Athonite

What is the "dispassion" the Saints talk about ? Does it mean lack of emotions or absence of sins?
“Dispassion doesn’t mean to no longer feel the passions, but to no longer accept them.”
Saint Isaac the Syrian
It's a hard task to get rid of passions and not to fall again and again. We have to repent, be watchful and try hard during all our days of life.

The triumphal Arch of St. Constantine was built at the moment when Christianity was finally recognized as a perfectly legitimate religion. It was achieved not by words but by joint action of good people. As the ancient historians say, St. Constantine's army fought under the Christogram in that battle, as modern Orthodox do. The banner is also called labarum.

“Don’t forget these words: God has given you time to build your Eternal Salvation. Do not waste it!”
Saint Sophrony

It's very easy to lose the sight of this essential goal of our life in this world. There are many things we all have to do every day (work , family, etc), all of it should be filled with God's presence.

The person who loves God values knowledge of God more than anything created by God, and pursues such knowledge ardently and ceaselessly.
St. Maximos the Confessor

☦️ Prayer must be imageless ☦️
"Hence we ought to abandon all other things and as intelligent beings cleave to the intelligence, offering with the intelligence intelligible worship to the divine Intelligence. Then we will be found worthy to receive from Him in this present age, in return for human words, the divine words of the Holy Spirit. For it is said of God that He 'gives prayer to him who prays' (1 Sam. 2:9. LXX); and indeed to one who truly prays the prayer of the body God gives the prayer of the intellect; and to one who diligently cultivates the prayer of the intellect, God gives the imageless and formless prayer that comes from the pure fear of Him.
St Peter of Damascus

☦️🕯️“The Church, through the temple and Divine service, acts upon the entire man, educates him wholly; acts upon his sight, hearing, smelling, feeling, taste, imagination, mind, and will, by the splendour of the icons and of the whole temple, by the ringing of bells, by the singing of the choir, by the fragrance of the incense, the kissing of the Gospel, of the cross and the holy icons, by the prosphoras, the singing, and sweet sound of the readings of the Scriptures.”🕯️☦️

♰ St. John of Kronstadt ♰

☦️🕯In ancient times, tax collectors would sit along the roads and extract from travelers the money they believed was due to them. They acted with such savage cruelty that the church fathers saw in this a metaphor of the demonic encounters the soul will have after death, which is why even St. John Chrysostom referred to these demons as “persecutors, publicans, and tax-collectors.”🕯☦️

“Your Lord is Love: love Him and in Him all men, as His children in Christ.
Your Lord is a fire: do not let your heart be cold, but burn with faith and love.
Your Lord is light: do not walk in darkness of mind, without reasoning or understanding, or without faith.
Your Lord is a God of mercy and bountifulness: be also a source of mercy and bountifulness to your neighbours.
If you will be such, you will find Salvation yourself with everlasting glory.”
- Saint John of Kronstadt

☦️ For someone who desires spiritual rebirth, the first step towards the light is to curtail the passions, that is to say, to guard the heart; for it is impossible otherwise to curtail the passions. The next stage is to devote oneself to psalmody; for when the passions have been curtailed and laid to rest through the heart's resistance against them, longing for intimate union with God inflames the intellect.
St Symeon the New Theologian