This Holy Week and Pascha, the Covid-19 pandemic has given the faithful a hard saying. They will be deprived of celebrating these high and holy days in their parishes. They will be deprived of receiving holy communion. Nevertheless, they need not, now or ever, be deprived of Christ, for nothing, neither death nor life, neither things present nor things to come, can ever … [Read more...] about The Sign of the Prophet Jonah in Our Days
Practical Christian Life
Word of Consolation for the Pandemic
Don't be confused, don't fear, don't panic over the Coronavirus pandemic counsels Archimandrite Zacharias of St. John the Baptist Monastery in Essex, England. Nothing that happens to us falls outside the purview of God, and God does everything in love. So why do difficulties come? Initially they come to draw us closer to God. What must we do? First we come come to know who … [Read more...] about Word of Consolation for the Pandemic
St. Patrick of Ireland: A Saint for Dark Times
In this talk, given to monks and pilgrims at the St. Herman of Alaska Monastery on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 1977, Fr Seraphim Rose shows how St Patrick must be regarded not just as a romantic figure from a bygone era, but also as our own contemporary, enlightening not just the ancient Celts but ourselves as well, who are surrounded by a very different kind of darkness from … [Read more...] about St. Patrick of Ireland: A Saint for Dark Times
How Not To Be An Accidental Iconoclast
The Triumph of Orthodoxy, which we celebrate on the first Sunday of Lent, entails both an affirmation and a negation. It commemorates the restoration, in the year 787, of icons to Orthodox temples and homes, and at the same time it commends what the Seventh Ecumenical Council called their “veneration and honor (timitiki proskynisis)” while reserving their "real … [Read more...] about How Not To Be An Accidental Iconoclast
The Threshold to Lent: Remembering our Explusion from Paradise
First we must remember what we have lost. Indeed, "all mankind weeps and sighs over the first Adam, over the now elusive phantom of happiness.” But we don’t realize that it is paradise itself from which we have been expelled and that this is why we live as exiles. "The whole world, harassed and weary, weeps because of its waywardness, because of its naked soul; … [Read more...] about The Threshold to Lent: Remembering our Explusion from Paradise