Icons for the Blind

An Iconostasis for Blind and Poor-sighted Children to be Unveiled in Lipetsk A house-church with a special, three-dimensional wood iconostasis will be opened for the next school year in the Lipetsk specialized (correctional) general education boarding-school of the III-IV type for blind and poor-sighted children reports Blagovest-info with reference to the information agency Lipetsk Regional [...]

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The layman’s kamilavka…

…maybe, if we began to measure our progress and awarded belts in the Church, things would change… (Source)

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Words from the Holy Mountain in Russia

Not commenting on that real estate business that went on recently regarding Fr. Ephrem of Vatopedi, I offer a few statements he has made on his current trip to Russia. In the Moscow Theological Academy he had the following to say about Russian church singing: “Today’s Russian singing tradition is not ancient. The ancient unisonous [...]

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Homily on the Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy

What does it mean that all the anathemas just proclaimed by the Church refer to false teaching and heresy and not one condemns impiety and vice? Is an impious life really less contrary to the Gospel than incorrect faith? No, impenitent vice is more criminal than impenitent unbelief. If a vice was not condemned by [...]

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The eyes of the soul

…what can be said about those who have received Baptism and Chrismation as the two eyes of the soul and, in spite of that, sin as those who are unbaptized? At the Last Judgment, they will not be treated as those who are born blind, rather they will be treated like transgressors who willfully disfigured [...]

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Christmas Message of Patriarch Alexey II

Shortly before Patriarch Alexey had reposed on December 5 he had prepared his Christmas message. Follows my translation of that epistle. Christmas Message of Alexey II, Patriarch of all Russia to the Bishops, Priests, Monastics and All Faithful Children of the Russian Orthodox Church “Glory to God in the highest!” is heard from the incorporeal [...]

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It depends on how one defines “interference”…

Through the centuries, and especially after the Schism, when the Church of Rome ceased to be in communion with the Orthodox, this Throne [of Constantinople] was called — according to canonical order — to serve the unity of the Orthodox Church as its first Throne. And it fulfilled this responsibility through the ages by convoking [...]

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Getting Orthodoxy

I came across an article today that reiterates that ignorant journalist have, at the least, not been getting Orthodoxy for almost 100 years. It is possible that this may even be the fountainhead of the fallacy of the Ecumenical Patri-pope. Metaxakis Elected Greek Patriarch ….The position of Melitios in the ancient Church of the East [...]

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When a schism is called unity, it is a trick

“It may be that the creation of one local Church is a step on the way to the subordination of this Orthodox Church to the more powerful and rich in resources Roman Catholic Church”

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Saying no to sects

“We are receiving a lot of complaints from people and have already forwarded several requests to the relevant authorities asking to restrict the advertising of the false relics”

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Politics + Ecumenism = super bad

All you aspiring political leaders can take a lesson from president of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko and start attending major religious holidays in churches of varying confessions in order to, as Metropolitan Agafangel of Odessa conveys, make unions with heterodox. This could be another step in what one analyst has said may result in a split [...]

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Something more dangerous than the OSB

So during my daily news browsing I came across a certain article claiming to be an “Orthodox” view of the pope-man’s visit to the US. That is something relevant (in the strictest, traditional sense of the word), you may say; and I would agree with you. But alas and alack, the article has been read [...]

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Living like the Fathers

It is one of the rules of politeness at such “ecumenical” gatherings that the heterodox are not informed that the first prerequisite for studying the Fathers is to have the same faith as the Fathers of Orthodoxy.Fr. Seraphim (Rose)

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No light comes from the West

The Eastern light has come to the West — to the uttermost Western end. And blessed be they who, with a clear vision, perceive this light just as it shines in the East. This light, although it came from the East, did not change, but while it shines in the West, it continues to be [...]

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Let us go with Him

As the Lord was going to his voluntary passion, He said to the Apostles on the way, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, And the Son of Man shall be delivered up, as it is written of Him. Come, therefore, let us also go with Him, Purified in mind. Let us be crucified with him [...]

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Podvig

Take away the personal fire for podvig, and you have a shattered cluster of conflicting passions, which destroy a man from within and incite rebellion and chaos with whomever that man encounters.

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