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The Sacrament (Mystery) of Christian Baptism
by St Cyprian of Carthage. From a Letter written to a new convert, 246 A.D. I promise to share with you the grace God in His great mercy has shown me, and to tell you as simply as I can what I have experienced since I was baptized. Until that time, I was still living in the dark, knowing nothing of my true life. I was completely involved in this world’s affairs, influenced by all its changing moods and troubles, and exiled from the light of truth. I had indeed been told that God offered men and women a second birth, by which we could be saved, but I very…
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On Forming the Soul
By Blessed Fr. Seraphim of Platina The soul that comes to Orthodoxy today often finds itself in a disadvantaged or even crippled state. Often one hears from converts after some years of seemingly unfruitful struggles that “I didn’t know what I was getting into when I became Orthodox.” Some sense this when they are first exposed to the Orthodox Faith, and this can cause them to postpone their encounter with Orthodoxy or even run away from it entirely. A similar thing often happens to those baptized in childhood when they reach mature years and must choose whether or not to commit themselves to their childhood faith. From one point of…
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The Orthodox Worldview
By Blessed Hieromonk St. Seraphim Rose Before beginning my talk, a word or two on why it is important to have an Orthodox world-view, and why it is more difficult to build one today than in past centuries. In past centuries—for example, in 19th century Russia—the Orthodox world-view was an important part of Orthodox life and was supported by the life around it. There was no need even to speak of it as a separate thing—you lived Orthodoxy in harmony with the Orthodox society around you, and you had an Orthodox world-view provided by the Church and society. In many countries the government itself confessed Orthodoxy; it was the center…
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Death to the World (Issue 1)
The last true rebellion is death to the world. To be crucified to the world and the world to us. With the seed of dissatisfaction deeply planted in the heart of today’s society, rebellion has been a small key to unlock the doors of change. But the rebellion that the world has known is not the fullness of true rebellion. Since our times have come to a point where things can’t get much worse, the few remaining lovers of truth must search deeper into themselves and deeper into the truth itself — but to get to this point a revolution must take place. A revolution in the hearts of these…
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Blessed Hieromonk Seraphim Rose
Father Seraphim was born into a typical white middle class Protestant family in San Diego in 1934. While growing up, he was the proverbial dutiful child and academic achiever. After high school, however, he began to passionately seek the answer to the question “Why?”–and, not finding it in the society in which he had been raised, he began to rebel. He refused to accept the accepted answers. This was at the very beginning of the modern counterculture, the early 1950’s. Father Seraphim became a student of one of the counterculture’s first pioneers, Alan Watts (whom he realized later was totally pseudo) and became a Buddhist Bohemian in San Francisco. He…
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St. Juvenaly – First Martyr of America
The holy, glorious, right-victorious hieromartyr Juvenaly of Alaska, Protomartyr of America, was a member of the first group of Orthodox missionaries who came from the monastery of Valaam to preach the Word of God to the native inhabitants of Alaska. He was martyred while evangelizing among the Eskimos on the mainland of Alaska in 1796. His feast day is celebrated on July 2, and he is also commemorated with all the saints of Alaska (September 24), and with the first martyrs of the American land (December 12). He was born in 1761 in Ekaterinburg, Russia, and was named Jacob Govouchkin. In his monastic life he was tonsured and given the…
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Elder Cleopa on the Fear of God
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Elder Cleopa on Prayer.
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Murder // Redemption (Issue 3)
Originally Published in Death to the World Issue #3, 1994 1. The life and death of Abba Poemen, the solitary. One day, I went down to Rouba to visit Abba Poemen the grazer. When I found him, I told him the thoughts which troubled me. When night fell, he left me in a cave. It was winter and that night it got very cold indeed; I was freezing. When the elder came at dawn, he said to me: “What is the matter, child?” I said: “Forgive me, father; I had a very bad night because of the cold.” He said to me: “Indeed child? I did not feel the cold.”…
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Hardest of the Hardcore (Issue 3)
Originally published in Death to the World Issue #3, 1994. There have been people throughout history and across the world who have sustained themselves by God alone, having lived for years with neither food, shelter, nor clothing. We are far from the experience of such ascetics; however, stories of them reach us from time to time. The following account is a true story about an ascetic who lived alone in the forests of Romania until the 1950’s In the summer of 1945, I took my staff and went over the Mountain to Sihastria Monastery. I wanted to confess to Father Cleopas. When I crossed the ridge of the Mountain and…
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To Save the World (Issue 2)
Originally published in Issue 2. Written by John Marler, 1994 “Beauty will save the world” -Fyodor Dostoyevsky Progress with its machines has made the world regress to a place where there is no beauty. If there is no beauty, what will save the world? From the womb we are taught that things detestable are attractive, and therefore the image of true beauty is deformed. Since there is no distinction between what is beautiful and what is deformed, the youth of today are left with chaos. We are told that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but if this were true the world would never have a chance to be saved,…
