Life in the spirit and the soul begins with one's acceptance of one's neighbour and achieving inner peace. Spiritual life is about simplicity. The first thing that our Saviour and John the Baptist preached to the people was repentance.
We haven't heard about iconoclasm for many centuries now. Icons are no longer destroyed like they were in the 8th and early 9th century. Sadly, the struggle with the image of God is apparently still going on.
Time flies. It is ticking away - week after week, month after month, year after year. The longer we live, and the faster it flows, the closer it brings us to the end of our earthly lives. Wise men will use this time prudently for their greatest…
Are we strong enough to keep our connectedness with God in pain and hardship? Can we resist the temptations of living in the flesh to live in the Lord and do His will? Can we learn not to be selfish? If so, we will have genuine freedom as our…
The Church records the life stories of the saints to encourage us and set an example for us. The stories about martyrs whose arms were cut off one by one read as though it was easy and painless.
We are all connected. Moreover, we are in the same boat, we all have the same helmsman who is setting the course, and we will get to our destination safely if we all stay on board.
We do not exist solely to achieve some worldly goals; we live to please God! It means to be His servants, to do His will; to wish and act in the same way as He would. Sermon by priest Valery Zakharov.
The Lord became flesh to defeat death and sin, but He also came to restore true worship of Him. He worked miracles to bring it home to all the people that He was the true Son of God.
We have two windows on the world - our minds and our hearts. Our eyes and ears tend to see or hear what we want them to. Therefore, we are all learning to pray so we can connect our minds with our hearts.
Apostle Paul gives an apt description of the inner struggle that many of us will have experienced: "For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate to do I do". These words are very true, but in reality, our dilemma lies even deeper.
What is real repentance and how to truly repent and turn to God? Is it only going to a confession and naming our sins? How to depend and be saved?
Let us pray to God so He can let us find the right words and give us the understanding of what we really need to say at our confession. When we come to the Cross and begin to say what is on our mind we should always be mindful of Christ’s invisible…
There is hardly a person or circumstance that we find perfect. Only a peaceful heart makes it possible to accept all turns of life with gratitude. This does not necessarily mean that these circumstances are favourable.
We long for miracles but forget that Christ is near and ready to say to us "Stand up, pick up your mat and walk! Walk after me."
Has it ever occurred to us that with God, nothing is meaningless? Without experiencing a loss, how can we appreciate a gain? How can we embrace joy without knowing any sorrows?
In the pains of our inner struggle, our new selves are born. Perhaps the moment of this rebirth is what likens us to the proverbial Samaritan woman.
May the Holy Spirit always be with you, and so, by strengthening ourselves with the gifts of our Church we will overcome this world that lies in sin.
Our fixation with our moods, grudges and displeasures will not take us far in the way of God. It will not keep us from our sense of despair, frustration, disappointment and failure.
Christ is taking us to a new life, free from all sin, sorrow and illness. We have a whole life to look forward to while we use our time on earth to practise.
Our first step in our journey of Divine Ascent is to overcome our dependence on the material things of this world, to dissociate ourselves from them.
