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    ‘FATHER, BLESS ME TO HANG MYSELF!’

    Over ten years ago there was the following incident at our parish. I was an altar attendant at the time, serving with the rector of the Church of the Mother of God “of the Don” in the town of Mytischi (just north of Moscow), Fr. Anatoly (Proskurin). A man came to him and said, “Father, life is hard. Bless me to hang myself.” You can imagine father’s surprise. However, Fr. Anatoly listened to him, heard him out, and explained to him that taking one’s own life by suicide is a terrible sin, and that human life is a priceless gift of God. But the man would not hear it, and…

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    Holy Women of the Northern Thebaid (Part I)

    “Let women keep silence in the churches.” 1 Cor. 14:34 Away from the tumult and noise of this world, in quiet monastic refuges, in deserted landscapes which evoke thoughts of eternity, women of Holy Russia worked out their salvation for a thousand years, striving to acquire first of all humility of wisdom. The spiritual fragrance of this key virtue in Patristic Orthodoxy, that of humility of wisdom, which is the joining together of humility and wisdom, has always been very close to true Orthodox women, and especially to the women Saints. Behind them there always shines forth the humble image of Her Who is the first Abbess of all monastics,…

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    Spoken At the Grave

    A homily spoken at the grave of Elder Hilarion of Sarov, 1841. And so, pilgrim on the earth, you have finished your journey; you have crossed the sea of temptations and misfortunes and found repose for yourself! But what kind of choirs surround you? Behold, our father and instructor: Your children have come to you from the wast and the north and the sea and the east not to behold your end, but to hear from your honey-flowing lips the words of eternal life; but you sleep, your eyes and lips are closed. Arise! Arise! Bless! Alas, he is without breath… Father! Where are your promises given constantly to everyone?…

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    The Self-Liquidation of Christianity

    The striking phrase, “God is dead,” is the poetical expression of modern unbelief. Much is expressed in this phrase that is not to be found in the more prosaic expressions of modern atheism and agnosticism. A vivid contrast is established between a previous age when men believed in God and based their life and institutions upon Him, and a new age for whose inhabitants, supposedly, this once all-illuminating sun has been blotted out, and life and society must be given a new orientation. The phrase, itself apparently coined by Nietzsche almost a century ago, was for long used to express the views of a comparatively few enemies of Christianity, chiefly…

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    The Life of the Holy Theotokos: Whom the Grave Could Not Contain.

    The Theotokos (God-Bearer) was born of the elderly Joachim and Anna as an answer to their prayers. After being humiliated and run out of the Temple, Joachim stood in prayer and fasting, in the same cave as once did Elijah the Prophet, begging God to give him and his barren wife a child. In their garden, Anna stood in prayer also, fervently asking God to take away her sorrow. An angel appeared to them both telling them of the great mystery that would be given to them, a daughter who would bear the Life of the World. Joachim and Anna made a promise that they would give the child back…

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    Sermon on the Triumph of Orthodoxy

    by Archbishop Averky (Taushev) “This is the Apostolic faith, this is the faith of the Fathers, this is the Orthodox faith – confirm this universal faith.” Beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord, you will hear these solemn and significant words in the Rite of Orthodoxy which the Holy Church has established to be served on this day. The first week of Holy and Great Lent has ended a week of intensified prayer and ascetical repentance. Now the Holy Church, desiring to encourage and console us, has established for us in this first week of Great Lent, on its first Sunday, a spiritual celebration,one most dear and close to our…

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    In Step With Saints Patrick and Gregory of Tours

    A homily given by Fr Seraphim Rose on St Patrick’s feast day in 1977. Fr Seraphim, being an avid venerator of the Western Saints pre-schism, reveals his down to earth approach to the spiritual life and offers a breath of fresh are for so many of us to today who are struggling toward the Heavenly Realm. 1. A PERSPECTIVE ON ST. PATRICK THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK is a very simple document about how he planned to serve God and a few of the trials and sufferings he went through. From what St. Patrick writes, we see that in his lifetime he did not have the universal glory that surrounds him…

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    Each One Of Us Is Potentially a Judas

    Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, there came unto Him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on His head, as he sat at meat. But when His disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, “To what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor.” When Jesus understood it, He said unto them, “Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon Me. For ye have the poor always with you; but Me ye have not always. For in that she hath poured…

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    Spiritual Eyes: The Reality of the Unseen

    [red_title title=”I SEE YOUR GUARDIAN ANGEL” subtitle=”A shocking encounter with Elder Iakavos of Evia” style=”red-title-centered” ][/red_title] The following is a dialogue between Klitos Ioannidis and Dr. George Papazahos.  Dr. Papazahos was a cardiologist in Athens, Greece and was the personal physician of Saint Porphyrios.  Klitos Ioannidies is the author of books about Saint Porphyrios.  In fact, the book that I used to translate into English was authored by Klitos Ioannidis.  In that book about Saint Porphyrios “Elder Porphyrios, Testimonies and Experiences,” there is a whole chapter about the doctor’s personal experiences with the Saint.  I found this article especially interesting because the doctor apparently had a very close doctor/patient relationship…

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    Subhumanity – The Philosophy of the Absurd

    By Fr. Seraphim Rose The present age is, in a profound sense, an age of absurdity. Poets and dramatists, painters and sculptors proclaim and depict the world as a disjointed chaos, and man as a dehumanized fragment of that chaos. Politics, whether of the right, the left, or the center, can no longer be viewed as anything but an expedient whereby universal disorder is given, for the moment, a faint semblance of order; pacifists and militant crusaders are united in an absurd faith in the feeble powers of man to remedy an intolerable situation by means which can only make it worse. Philosophers and other supposedly responsible men in governmental, academic,…

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    Joy to the World

    The following is a guest post graciously written by my spiritual father, Abbot Tryphon. The Very Rev. Fr. Tryphon is a priest-monk of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROCOR) and abbot of the All-Merciful Saviour Monastery on Vashon Island, Washington.  Joyful living according to the Will of God If we focus only on the things that haven’t been done and ignore the little things that bring joy to our lives, we will find ourselves in a rut, constantly thinking of where we’d rather be living, or the job we’d rather have, or the project that still needs to be completed. Then we’ll wake up one day and realize all we’ve needed for happiness has…