Today, we commemorate the Icon of the Holy Theotokos "Joy of All Who Sorrow". It sends us a powerful message: joys and sorrows are two sides of the same coin.
Our pleasures in this world are finite, shallow and illusory. They can bring us the sensation of momentary happiness, but to agree to spend the whole eternity in this state of self-deception would be sheer madness.
We still hope to find our way to in heaven. But the kingdom of heaven lives by a different set of laws: love your neighbour as yourself, forgive your enemies, and give your blessing even to those who are piling abuse on us. In heaven, we live…
Bowing before an icon, we do not worship matter or the talent of the painter, but the Creator of Matter. We venerate the Mother of God and the saints. Every human being is an image of God, and therefore an icon.
Sometimes, the magnitude of human suffering, hardship, and pain can throw us into despair. But let remind ourselves that people in worse situations have come out of them successfully, and emerged stronger than before.
There are two worlds of God - the visible and the invisible. The invisible world, the world of the spirit, is lost for us. Instead, we choose to live in a world of illusions.
The feast of the Exaltation of the Cross takes a special place among the Christian feasts. It is our chance to reflect on eternity, the victory of life over death, and the triumph of God's love.
Daniel met God, and to him, it was a life-changing moment. The Lord did not wish to make him poor or homeless. He only wanted him not to pride himself on his goodness and to follow His way.
Our relationship with God starts with love. The Lord went to the Cross for our sake, so what can we do for Him? The best we can do is rejoice at seeing Him like little children do when they see their mother
We are working hard to make our lives better to the best of our ability. We are not wrong. Yet, in a sense, our hard work and our lives tend to lose focus, and we risk losing our direction by not following the goals given to us by our Lord.
Meeting God changes our view of the world. We begin to see it as a whole, not a collection of isolated fragments. Our life and our world extend beyond all imaginable limits.
The short text of the prayer "Lord Our Father" has these precious lines, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors". They remind us that our debtors are not just those who owe us money, but they are also people who we should not judge.
The Mother of God is our Mother in Heaven; she intercedes for us and comes to our help throughout our lives. Her love is salvific and everlasting. Mother of all the world's children, she defeated death in her heart.
A battle is going on for our souls and our everlasting life. To win, we must overcome the resistance of the flesh. We must battle against sin, yet we often find sin pleasing and tempting. We can only win by compelling ourselves.
At the beginning of the Dormition Fast, a liturgy and a holy cross procession on the second-highest point in Belarus has become our good tradition. It reminds the people of their ascent to heaven, it calls on them to rise above their everyday…
Let us be inspired. May we see the light in the darkness and defeat evil with our good works and intentions. Let us smile more often and always find something good to say to one another.
So where has our zeal for God gone? We still see our lives revolve around Christ. We still cannot imagine our world without Him. Why have we lost the ardour?
At Christ's entry to Jericho, the biblical Zacheus, the chief publican, climbed a tree to see Him. Spiritually, we should always be at our high point. By overcoming our old selves, and not pandering to them, we reach new heights.
We know that not a hair of our head will perish without God's will. Realizing our weakness and spiritual poverty should bring us to revise our approach to life and rethink our relationship with God.
The mystery of the Holy Spirit transforms a harlot into a saint, a robber into a righteous man. But the Holy Spirit will not descend on someone who judges because, by judging, we condemn ourselves to an eternity in a place that we would all…