Beginning in the nineteenth century, a remarkable succession of illumined elders residing in Optina Pustyn Monastery helped bring about a spiritual renewal in Russia. Figures from Dostoevsky and Soloviev to Khomiakov and Kireyevsky to Gogol, Tchaikovsky, Turgenev, and even Tolstoy sought their advice. This collection of sayings from the Optina Elders, focuses upon the path … [Read more...] about On Salvation — From the Elders of Optina Monastery
Spirituality
The Problem with Self-Justification: Or, How to Keep Rowing Upstream
If our salvation requires repentance, and if we desire salvation, why do we find it so difficult to repent? St Basil the Hesychast, spiritual father of St Paisius Velichkovsky, explains that the difficulty lies not simply in our commission of sins, for there is no man without sin (John14:4-5), but in our chronic justification of these sins, and hence our blaming others for … [Read more...] about The Problem with Self-Justification: Or, How to Keep Rowing Upstream
Frederica: Annual Dormition Fast Prayer Vigil to End Abortion
Occasions of joy sometimes elicit occasions of sorrow. This is so because the world is fallen, shorn from the full beauty and majesty of God. The world however, is not without hope because of the promise of the restoration of all things through the work of the Son of God, Jesus Christ the Righteous. The fallen world can be made new. The promise of restoration was given … [Read more...] about Frederica: Annual Dormition Fast Prayer Vigil to End Abortion
Marriage: Instructions from a Manual That Does Not Yet Exist
One is the asceticism of the monastic who forsakes all for the Kingdom. The other is the asceticism of the married, the widowed, and the single person who live in the day to day world and actively seek the Kingdom by embracing the Eucharistic heartbeat of creation and so find their being in in the life and the suffering of the other. By Fr. Stephen Siniari Magdalena … [Read more...] about Marriage: Instructions from a Manual That Does Not Yet Exist
The Little Things in Life are More Important than the Bigger Things
Do you think that to live according to the faith and to fulfill the will of God is very difficult? Think again, says St. John Maximovitch. Fulfilling the will of God is very easy if we first pay attention to the little things. St. John tells us how. Source: St. Andrew Greek Orthodox Church By St. John Maximovitch Many people believe that to live according to the … [Read more...] about The Little Things in Life are More Important than the Bigger Things
