Tomorrow is Pentecost, the Birthday of the Church!

In the Church’s annual liturgical cycle, Pentecost is “the last and great day.” It is the celebration by the Church of the coming of the Holy Spirit as the end - the achievement and fulfillment - of the entire history of salvation. For the same reason, however, it is also the celebration of the beginning: it is the “birthday” of the Church as the presence among us of the Holy Spirit, of the new life in Christ, of grace, knowledge, adoption to God and holiness.

Tomorrow is a great and joyful day, one of the most important Feasts of the Eastern Orthodox Church! Many and blessed years to all of you, Orthodox, Catholics, Anglicans, Protestants and other Christians!

Prayer for the dead

- Elder, the dead who do not have people to pray for them, are they helped by those who pray generally for the dead?

- Of course they are helped. When I pray for all the reposed, I see in my sleep my parents, because they are at rest by the prayers I do. Whenever I have a Divine Liturgy, I do a general memorial for all the reposed. If sometimes I do not pray for the reposed, the reposed who are known to me appear before me. One relative of mine, who was killed in the war, I saw in front of me after the Divine Liturgy, during the time of the Memorial Service, because I didn’t have him written with the names of the reposed, since he was memorialized during the Proskomide with the other fallen heroes. And you also during the Holy Prothesis, do not only give the names of the sick, but also those of the reposed, because the reposed have great need.

The salvation of our neighbor

Each one is responsible for the salvation of his neighbor.

- St. John Chrysostom

God listens to our heart

God listens, not to our voice, but to our heart. He does not need to be prodded with shouts, since He sees our thoughts, as the Lord proved when He asked, ‘Why do you think evil in your hearts?’ And elsewhere He stated: ‘All the churches shall know that I am He Who searches minds and hearts.’

- Saint Cyprian of Carthage

Memorial Saturday

Today we remember all pious and Orthodox Christians who have fallen asleep in the Lord, and also recall the dread Day of Judgment. May Christ our God be merciful to them, and to us.

“Remember, O Lord, those who have departed from this life, Orthodox kings and queens, princes and princesses, Orthodox Patriarchs, Metropolitans, Archbishops and Bishops, Priests and Deacons and those who have served Thee in the Monastic State, and the laity of the Church, and the blessed founders of all Churches and monasteries, and grant them rest with the Saints in Thy eternal dwellings.”

May God rest the soul of every single person that has departed from this life…

I shall worship the God…

I shall worship the God, who holds His cupped ear even at cemeteries and listens, to hear whether anyone is crying out for resurrection or for the One who resurrects

-St. Nikolai Velimirovic

We cannot give Christ to others…

We cannot give Christ to others unless we have welcomed Him into the central place in our own heart…

- Abbot Tryphon of Vashon Island

We are the icon of God

Our souls are Divine Breath. Our body is His Creation. In the whole of us we are the icon of God…

- Mother Gabriel

The Mother of all

As the Virgin Mary’s life is intertwined with that of her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, so is she intertwined in the life of every Orthodox Christian. As we become children of God by adoption, so she becomes our mother through that same adoption. All we need to do is look at all aspects of our veneration of the Holy Virgin: icons, candles, Commemorative Liturgies, services of Paraklesis, countless intercessory prayers and prayers “that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed.” (Luke 2:35)

- V. Rev. Fr. John Constantine

James will be Chrismated in two days!

This weekend James, a former Anglo-Catholic will be received in the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, namely the Orthodox Church. All the Orthodox Christian community on tumblr is very happy about this!!! 

Please, visit his blog, read more about his journey to Orthodoxy and feel free to send him your wishes!

Congratulations James! May God always bless you and keep you, in order to spread the light of Orthodoxy and inspire others with your life in Christ as you inspired us!

(Photo: Osman Orsal / Reuters)

On being stoic

If we do not ask for help from God, we will fall flat on our face. Whereas, when we do ask for divine help, Christ will bind us with a rope to His Grace and will uphold us. The wind may blow fiercely from all directions, but, because we are bound fast, we are not in danger. But when man does not realize that it is Christ Who upholds him, he may unbind himself, in which case he will be buffeted left and right and tormented.

- Elder Paisios of Mount Athos, “Spiritual Awakening”

The God of love…

Everything comes down to our relationship with the Triune God – the God of love. All is based on love and freedom. On the unconditional love of God, and the freedom we have to respond to that love with love. Love to all people, whether they are non-Christians and non-believers. Respect for all. Love for all. Witness to this truth of love. This is what our faith is about. This is true Orthodoxy.

- Archbishop Anastasios on the Orthodox Christian faith

Love does not depend on time

Love does not depend on time, and the power of love continues always. There are some who believe that the Lord suffered death for love of man but because they do not attain to this love in their own souls it seems to them that it is an old story of bygone days. But when the soul knows the love of God by the Holy Spirit she feels without a shadow of doubt that the Lord is our Father, the closest, the best and dearest of fathers, and there is no greater happiness than to love God with all our hearts, with all our souls, and with all our minds, according to the Lord’s commandment, and our neighbor as ourself. And when this love is in the soul, everything rejoices her; but when it is lost sight of man cannot find peace, and is troubled, and blames others as if they had done him an injury, and does not realize that he himself is at fault – he has lost his love for God and has accused or conceived hatred for his brother.

- St. Silouan the Athonite