Patras cathedral - central dome

This is the blog of an Eastern Orthodox Christian girl from Greece. Welcome to my Orthodox Christian corner! :) Here you can find interesting texts and quotes about Orthodoxy. I made this blog because I want everyone to discover the Orthodox Christianity. This is the ultimate purpose of this blog: to share my faith! Feel free to send me any prayer requests or anything you want. God bless you all! May the Holy Spirit enlighten you always!

PS. I don't own any photos! The majority of them are from weheartit. If I have used your picture without your permission, let me know and I'll add credit or delete it. You can e-mail me at anytime here: kyrieeleison(at)mailbox(dot)gr

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Russian Orthodox Christmas 1/6/11

Advice For Those Living in the West

"Do not be afraid because of your Orthodoxy; do not be afraid because, as an Orthodox in the West, you will be often isolated and always in a small minority. Do not make compromises but do not attack other Christians; do not be either defensive or aggressive; simply be yourself."

Orthodox cross

"Something I found of interest during my initial classes of the Orthodox faith, was to learn that in the history of the Orthodox Christian Church, it wasn’t until the eleventh century when the Bishop of Rome (Western Church) separated himself from the other Bishops of the world (Eastern Church) to form what we now refer to as the Roman Catholic Church. The Church of the East is the Orthodox Church. Then, in the sixteenth century the fragmentation of the Roman Catholic/Western Church began with the Protestant Reformation. Only the Orthodox Church remains as the one, united church for the past two thousand years."

- An Orthodox Christian convert

khatan

This is the way we should see Christ. He is our friend, our brother; He is whatever is good and beautiful. He is everything. Yet, He is still a friend and He shouts it out, “You’re my friends, don’t you understand that? We’re brothers. I’m not…I don’t hold hell in my hands. I am not threatening you. I love you. I want you to enjoy life together with me.”

- Elder Porphyrios

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June 2nd
6:31 AM

The first day of my new life

…I cannot ignore the direction the Holy Spirit has taken me in and I cannot ignore the voice of God when He calls to me and leads me. He has led me to the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, the very Church that Christ founded that has remained unchanged in faith since the days of Christ otherwise known as the Orthodox Church. Despite being a happy Anglican I never felt like I quite fitted in and I didn’t know why until I found Orthodoxy and now I know why; tomorrow (Sunday) morning I will make the biggest step of my life so far and become a member of the Orthodox Church through Chrismation and I know that this is what God wants me to do.

… Today is my last day as an Anglican and tomorrow is the first day of my new life in the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, the Orthodox Church.

- James, talking about his conversion to Orthodoxy

June 1st
1:02 PM

Do not seek the perfection…

Do not seek the perfection of the law in human virtues, for it is not found perfect in them. Its perfection is hidden in the Cross of Christ. 

- St. Mark the Ascetic

May 31st
6:02 AM

One of the shortest ways

Do not regard the feelings of a person who speaks to you about his neighbor disparagingly, but rather say to him: “Stop, brother! I fall into graver sins every day, so how can I criticize him?” In this way you will achieve two things; you will heal yourself and your neighbor with one plaster. This is one of the shortest ways to the forgiveness of sins; I mean, not to judge. “Judge not, and ye shall not be judged.”

- St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent

May 30th
11:58 AM

The keys to our salvation

God leaves keys to our salvation everywhere, a day at a time. He yearns for us to keep praying, to find the keys He lovingly leaves for us.

- Father Raphael

11:13 AM

The Lord is the accomplishment…

The Lord is the accomplishment of everything good that I think, feel and do.

- St. John of Kronstadt

May 29th
2:34 PM

Try to live like this…

We should try to live in such a way that if the Gospels were lost, they could be re-written by looking at us.

- Met. Anthony of Sourozh

2:28 PM

God is present in each and every created human

We need to see the image of God in every person we meet, because God is present in each and every created human, regardless of what they do.  So listening is an important part of our prayer life because as we listen to God and to other human beings we welcome them as we’d welcome Christ. Thus prayer is a conversation with God and through God with our fellow human beings as God empowers us to welcome them.

- An excerpt from “Listening to the Heartbeat of God”, by Hieromonk Peter-Michael Preble

May 28th
3:00 PM

Man needs humility…

Man needs humility and the fear of God as much as he needs the air which he breathes.

- Abba Poimen

May 27th
1:16 PM

Good works

Every day you provide your bodies with good to keep them from failing. In the same way your good works should be the daily nourishment of your hearts. Your bodies are fed with food and your spirits with good works. You aren’t to deny your soul, which is going to live forever, what you grant to your body, which is going to die.

- St. Gregory the Great

May 25th
4:16 PM

On prayer

Prayer rising in a man’s heart will open up the doors of heaven…

- St. Ephraim the Syrian

3:22 PM

Let us rejoice

Even if we are entirely despised in the eyes of men, let us rejoice that we are honoured in the sight of God.

- Abba John

May 24th
6:54 AM

Humility…

Humility is the door of the Kingdom of heaven that introduces those who draw near to it… We who wish to understand this must not cease to examine ourselves; if in the perception of our heart we consider that our neighbor excels us in all things, then Divine mercy is near us.

- St. John Climacus

6:51 AM

In order to enter Paradise…

In order to enter Paradise, one must have a heart as wide as the heavens, a heart that embraces all men. If a heart excludes just one person, it will not be accepted by the Lord because He will not be able to dwell in it.

- Fr. Zechariah

May 22nd
1:29 PM

a message from Anonymous


Is it better to confess our sins to a priest or to a monk and why?

Christ is Risen!

I suppose you are Christian Orthodox, right? Because if you are Catholic, Anglican etc I am not familiar with the rules that exist as far as the confession is concerned.

In my humble opinion, it’s a matter of choice: a priest (especially if he’s married and has his own children and maybe grandchildren) knows better the problems of teenagers, of ordinary people, of the marital life etc. because he lives inside the world. On the other hand, an elder that lives in a monastery can give advice from his personal contact with Christ, his real experience and his monastic wisdom. I personally know many people who have as spiritual fathers monks from Mt. Athos or elsewhere.

So, it’s up to you. But from my experience, monks often say to us to choose a priest as a spiritual father, for the reason I mentioned above.

Thanks for your message, greetings from Greece!

———————-

More information on Spiritual Fathers:

The spiritual father in most cases this is the parish priest, but he may be a starets (Elder, a monastic who is well known for his or her advancement in the spiritual life). Elders have received permission from a bishop to hear confession. While one does not have to be a priest to hear confession, only an ordained priest may pronounce the absolution.

1:09 PM

The Lord is always waiting for us

The Lord is always waiting for us to unite ourselves with Him in love; but instead, we drift further and further away from Him. We know that there can be no life without love. This means that there is no life without God, for God is Love. But His love is not according to the understanding of the world. The love that the world gives us consists of suffering and enslavement, because the spirits of evil interfere with it. There is a little bit of love, but mostly it is just enslavement.

- Elder Thaddeus