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What Saint John Taught Me…
By an Orthodox Subdeacon From Issue 16 This article was written by a subdeacon who had the blessing of serving with Saint John as a child as well as having the Saint as a family friend and mentor. These are his reflections, looking back at the greatest things Saint John revealed to him about the spiritual life. I look down from my perch in the choir loft, the cathedral is spread before me like a map. From the chandeliers above to the lit candles, everything is a sea of light. People still returning from the Cross Procession, candles in hand, only add to the radiance. With the start of the Orthros Service,…
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MADNESS.
Introduction article to Issue 25 Jesus Christ. Swine. Madness. We have flipped entirely upside down. The world’s progression has become an absolute digression and its evolution a complete reduction. The philosophies it continues to build itself upon are ideas of madmen and have been stacked like a house of cards. The world chooses to live in madness, in the filth of its own possession, rather than to be disturbed by anything contrary to its insanity. We fall prey to this machine of insanity, running the race for ourselves—and only ourselves. Love has been distorted into a self-centered motive, respect has been reduced to tolerance of opinion, and self-sacrifice is almost…
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The Mystery of God’s Judgements
By Elder Paisios of Mount Athos (1994) Printed in Issue 19 Father Paisios told us the following story, wishing to give us an example of the way God looks after His children, while many times we get angry at Him and do not understand His actions: An ascetic was praying to God asking Him to reveal why the righteous and pious people are miserable and suffer unjustly, whereas the unrighteous and sinful ones are rich and contented. While he was asking God to reveal to him this mystery, he heard a voice saying to him: “Do not ask to comprehend what your mind and power of knowledge cannot grasp and…
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The Sisters of Mercy
Printed in Issue #22 On the outskirts of Minsk, Belarus, lies a haven for the sick and suffering. This is the Convent of Saint Elizabeth, a source of joy for those who lay on hospital beds, those abandoned by parents, and those suffering from many other illnesses of both soul and body. In this country once run by godless communists, with millions of it’s faithful thrown into gulags to die, this place of sanctity is truly a beautiful rose bush that broke through the atheist concrete, blooming fragrant flowers in the souls of those who seek refuge there. Following in the footsteps of their Patron, Saint Elizabeth the New Martyr,…
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Two Deaths
Written by Sophocles Printed in Issue 22 Every so often it happens to me that my past love of Punk Rock is renewed and brought back up to the surface when happening to chance upon a link on YouTube or on Facebook or any other site I may happen to be on of some band I used to like and listen to. I don’t happen to be looking for it but when I chance upon it, I click and whoosh…I’m 20 years younger again. But not really. I am who I am today because of my past but I am who I am today in spite of my past. Formed by the past and reacting to the past…
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Saint Feofil of the Kiev Caves
From Issue #23 Here we re-print the life of a lover of truth that has become known as the Patron of lost things. Today, more than a hundred years after his death, he finds us, the lost ones, from the life he attained beyond the grave, pulls us out of the dark mire of our society and truly shows us what it is mean to be dead to the world. In October 1788, twin boys were born to Andrei and Evfrosiniya Gorenkovsky in the town of Makhnovo near Kyiv. The oldest of them was named Foma and the younger was named Kalliniky. From his infancy, Foma began to display unusual…
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The Nuns of Shamordino: Prisoners of Solovki
The Nuns of Shamordino Printed in Issue 22 Upon him who labors— God sheds mercy; but he who loves acquires consolation. Elder Ambrose of Optina In the summer of 1929 there came to Solovki about thirty nuns. Probably the majority of them were from the monastery of Shamordino, which was near the renowned Optina Hermitage. The nuns were not placed in the common women’s quarters, but were kept separately. When they began to be checked according to the list and interrogated, they refused to give the so-called basic facts about themselves, that is, to answer questions about their surnames, year and place of birth, education, and so forth. After…
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The Impossibility of Aloneness: When Christ Found Me in the Himalayas
By Subdeacon Joseph Magnus Frangipani Printed in Issue 24 I’m an Orthodox Christian living in Homer, Alaska and experienced Jesus Christ in the Himalayas, in India. I listen to the heartbeat of rain outside… Cold, Alaskan fog blowing in off the bay, emerald hills now that autumn is here and summer chased away into the mountains. But a milky white fog spreads over the bay like a silken ghost. I used to visit Trappist monasteries, back when I was Catholic, at the beginning of high school, and searching for a relationship of love. I read plenty of philosophy then to know that knowing isn’t enough, that having a realization in…
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Exorcisms in Russia: From an Eyewitness
By Nun Cornelia Originally Printed in Issue 6, 1995 No Orthodox Christian in Russia doubts the existence of Demons, and that they wage brutal war against people. Neither do they doubt that Christ is stronger than demons; that He has won the war and continues to conquer. Why are they so sure? Because they see it with their own eyes. They see the pitiful victims of demonic possession who come to church to find relief but are tormented by the demons for doing so. Anywhere we go in the world we can see the result of diabolical hatred—violence, lewdness, profanity, coldness of heart—however, we fail to see the cause. But…
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Death Is Unnatural
+Saint Nikolai Velimirovic Originally printed in Issue 18. Death is not natural; rather it is unnatural. And death is not from nature; rather it is against nature. All of nature cries out: “I do not know death! I do not wish death! I am afraid of death! I strive against death!” Death is an uninvited stranger to nature. All of nature bristles at this uninvited stranger and is afraid of it because it is like a thief in somebody else’s garden who does not just steal and eat the fruit, but also who tramples, spoils, breaks and uproots what is planted and the more it ravages, the more it becomes…
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The Anti-Humans and the Re-Education Experiment
Originally published in Death to the World Issue 12 The Anti-Humans and the Re-Education Experiment Between 1944-1945, Communism took over the Christian country of Romania. An experiment of terror was performed on the young generation, on students from the age of eighteen to twenty five. Among those students was a man who is alive today after surviving sixteen years in the anti-human communist prison system. His name is Father George Calciu. After His release from prison, he was exiled to America in 1984. Below follows part of an interview by Nun Nina from this year. (1998) Nun Nina: This may be more difficult for you to talk about – I…
