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“I LEARNED FROM HIM HOW TO LIVE AND HOW TO DIE”
How Fr. Seraphim (Rose) Influenced the Life of One Future Priest An interview by Jesse Dominick with Fr Martin Person Matushka Sarah Person, and Martha Nichols. Archpriest Martin Person is the rector of the St Herman of Alaska Russian Orthodox Church in Sunnyvale, CA. He and his Matushka Sarah met in 1980 at the University of California at Santa Cruz, where there was an active Orthodox Christian Fellowship of students. That OCF group was mentored and inspired by Archimandrite Anastassy (Newcombe) and by Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose). Fr. Martin and Matushka Sarah were in Russia recently on a pilgrimage to the holy sites in and around St. Petersburg and Moscow. Among…
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A Word About the Store
After making exodus from New York, Death to the World has made home in Lompoc (/ˈlɒmpoʊk/, LOM-poke), CA with Fr John Valadez serving as the priest for the parish of St Timothy. Before leaving for New York, we left merchandise to be shipped by a team in Los Alamitos, CA. We are currently in the process of consolidating all merchandise in Lompoc where we will operate home base. Bad news first. We will be restocking the store site and adding some new gear, but all items being restocked will not be shipped until mid-September due to the logistics of moving. Also, in this process we had to take a good look…
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“ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WALL WAS A PARTY, AND I WAS DOING PROSTRATIONS”
I was born in 1967, and grew up, like all my peers, in an atmosphere of atheism...
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The Saint, the Priest, and Face-tattoos
By Fr Photios Parks Some years back, there was a point in my life when I didn’t give a second thought to the Saints. I really didn’t see how they had any place within my faith. In Bible College and in Protestant seminary, I was fed the idea that saints were either a type of good luck charm to sell my house, a statue in your yard to attract birds, or they were individuals likened to magicians whose bones were exploited in medieval times. Fortunately, I had a life-changing experience that dispelled my incorrect notions about Saints and changed my whole paradigm in the way I view these holy servants.…
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Don’t Judge By Appearances
Photo: Monks of the brotherhood venerating the cross of their reposed Elder (Elder Joseph of Vatopaidi) He showed me many trees that had no leaves; they were withered, and they all looked alike to me. And he said to me, “Do you see these trees?” “I see, sir, that they are all alike, and all withered,” I replied. “These trees that you see,” he answered, “are those who dwell in this world.” “Then why are they withered,” I said, “and why do they all look alike?” “Because,” he said, “neither the righteous nor sinners are obvious in this life. They are all alike. For this life is a winter to…
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Why Were You Created? (Video)
Abbot Ephraim of Vatopaidi on the Holy Mountain speaks to students on the mystery and purpose of why we were created. What is the purpose of life? Where do we find rest and healing? This talk was given during the Nativity season, just before St Porphyrios was canonized. Source: Pemptousia
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300,000 Priests Were Given a Choice – They All Chose Death
They could have rejected their priesthood and saved their lives. But they didn’t under Bolshevik persecution… 300,000 priests were killed during the Communist era. They actually had an easy way out. They could have just rejected their priesthood and been set free. They could have kept praying in secret, even singing in church choirs, as long as they rejected their calling. Yet so many of them chose death. What people are ready to die for reveals with startling clarity what is actually valuable in life. I mean, can you imagine being ready to die just because something frustrated you, for example, if you didn’t get your newspaper in the morning? No, people are…
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Stop Saying “Glory to God for All Things!”
A testimony offered by Hieromonk Synesios. “A few years ago, I was the parish priest of St. Vasileios church (Piraeus) and was called to hear the confession of a young man, Xenophon, 42 years old. When I arrived, his days were numbered. Cancer with rapid metastases had affected his brain too. He was all alone at the ward, the bed next to him was empty, so we were all alone. This is what he told me about how he came to Faith, since he was a “hardened atheist” in his own words: ‘I arrived here about 35 days ago, in this ward of two beds. Next to me was another…
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When Fr Benedict Resurrected His Dead Benefactor
Archimandrite Benedict Petrakis (+ September 8, 1961) developed a magnificent pastoral activity in the Metropolis of Aitoloakarnania and especially in Agrinio. Many spiritual branches of this region bore fruit through his systematic work and his exceeding love for God and neighbor. When he was young and wanted to study theology, he was helped financially by a pious woman from Patras, Melpomeni Bulbasakos. And when he became a mature preacher in Aitoloakarnania, he received a phone call informing him that his benefactor was near death and he was requested to go and give her final communion. Immediately Benedict got into a taxi and hurried for Melpomeni’s home in Patras. When he…
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The Tower of Skulls
By Josef Candelario “I saw a large tower rising in the midst of the plain, as white as Parisian marble… [R]aising my eyes to the monument, I discovered that the walls, which I supposed to be built of marble or white stone, were composed of regular rows of human skulls; these skulls bleached by the rain and sun, and cemented by a little sand and lime, formed entirely the triumphal arch which now sheltered me from the heat of the sun. In some places portions of hair were still hanging and waved, like lichen or moss, with every breath of wind. The mountain breeze, which was then blowing fresh, penetrated…
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The Great River: Christianity and Paganism
From Death to the World #XXVI By Deacon Joseph Magnus Frangipani By the time I arrive in New Delhi, leaping pockets of green slime lining the bus terminals, sailing through smoke of burning bodies, backpacking dog-infested cobblestone streets of Tibetan refugee camps; before happening upon remote caves at the source of the Ganges, and discovering the wonders of the Prayer of the Heart; long before studying black magic in ashrams through Rishikesh and forking roasted vegetables smeared with butter and rose petal; before shooting back and forth across sage deserts of Idaho by astral projection and offering fruit, fire and rice before Krishna, Shiva and the goddess of death I…
