Preserving in Peace Thy Rulers and Cities
In preparing the hymnography for the next couple days’ services to celebrate the Church New Year on September 1st, the prayers for God’s blessing on the beginning of this next year immediately took my mind to the accursed events this past weekend here in Bend. It is perfect timing to be asking for God’s blessing […]
Silence is the School of the Soul
First looking at St. Basil’s three hundred and something letters, I was afraid I would not find direction toward the spiritual life for quite some time. Well, I was wrong. In Letter II: Basil to Gregory, that is St. Gregory of Nyssa, a friend of his, I hit a key word that really sparked my […]
Homily on Fasting from St. John Chrysostom
Homily On Fastingby St. John Chrysostom Fasting is a medicine. But medicine, as beneficial as it is, becomes useless because of the inexperience of the user. He has to know the appropriate time that the medicine should be taken and the right amount of medicine and the condition of the body which is to take […]
St. John of Kronstadt:
Firmly purpose in your soul to hate every sin of thought, word, and deed, and when you are tempted to sin . . . “Firmly purpose in your soul to hate every sin of thought, word, and deed, and when you are tempted to sin resist it valiantly and with a feeling of hatred for […]
St. Theophan the Recluse:
. . . if we undertake to cure ourselves, then we will be able to do something about it. “If [the disease of sin] is natural, then it cannot be cured. Thus it would remain always, no matter how hard you worked to rid yourself of it. If you accept this thought, you will lose […]