#jesus christ
You will not always understand why God brings something into your life, what you can understand is that he is wise, loving, good, kind and full of grace.
— Paul David Tripp
Prayer is powerful because God is powerful.
— Steven Lawson
Not mine
Like a radiant star doth Stephen the protomartyr shine forth on the Nativity of Christ, illumining and enlightening the ends of the earth, but casting a pall of darkness over all the impiety of the Jews. Reproving them with words of wisdom, discoursing from the Scriptures, and persuading them that Jesus, Who was born of the Virgin, is the Son of God, the godly protomartyr Stephen put to shame their impious wickedness.
We ask something of God beseechingly and gently for a certain period of time. If we see that God refuses to give it to us, we stop disturbing Him. The more we want something, the farther away it goes from us. And when we have forgotten it, it will come imperceptibly. God does not forget. He receives our request, and when He thinks that it is time, He answers to it.
St. Porphyrios the New
“Never break the fast on Wednesdays and Fridays, This fast is ordained by the Church, and is well-attested. If, at any time in your life, you break this fast, pray for forgiveness and do not sin again. Devout people do not regard themselves as dispensed from this fast either when traveling or in sickness. St. Pachomius once met some people who were carrying a corpse, and saw two angels in the funeral procession. He asked God to reveal to him the mystery of the presence of the two angels at the burial of this man. What especial good had he done that two angels should escort him to the grave? Then, by the providence of God, the two angels came across to Pachomius and explained to him: ‘One of us is the angel of Wednesday, and the other the angel of Friday. As this man fasted every Wednesday and Friday right up to his death, we are giving his corpse a solemn escort. As he kept the fast up to his death, so we are here to glorify him.’“
St. Nikolai Velimirovic’s Prologue from Ochrid
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“It is the Day of Resurrection, so let us be radiant for the festival, and let us embrace one another. Let us speak, brothers and sisters, also to those who hate us, and in the Resurrection let us forgive everything, and so let us cry: CHRIST IS RISEN FROM THE DEAD, TRAMPLING DOWN DEATH BY DEATH, AND ON THOSE IN THE TOMBS BESTOWING LIFE!”
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“Moses of old prefigured thee, O precious Cross, when he lifted up his arms upon the mountain and put Amalek to flight; and today, as we venerate thee, we overthrow the alien hosts of demons and we sing with faith: O ye priests bless and ye people exalt Him above all for ever.”
Matins for the Monday of the 4th week of Lent
Ode 8 of the Triodion
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Man overcomes death by conquering sin within himself with Christ. If you have lived a day without vanquishing a single sin of yours, know that you have become even more mortal than you are already. Vanquish one, two, or three of your sins, and behold, you have become younger by way of never-aging youthfulness, younger by way of immortality and eternity. Never forget that to believe in the Resurrection of the Lord Christ means to carry out a continuous fight with sins, with evil, with death.
St. Justin Popovich
A brother asked Abba Marcianus, saying, “What shall I do so that I may live?” And the old man answered and said unto him, “He who looketh above seeth not what is below; he who is occupied closely with the things which are below hath no knowledge of what is above. And he who understandeth the things which are above is not concerned with what is below, for it is written, ‘Turn ye, and know that I am God’“
Abba Poemen also said that Abba Anthony said concerning Abba Pambo, “This man feared God so greatly that he made the Spirit of God to dwell in him.”
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“The Voice of the Word, the Candlestick of the Light, the Morning Star and Forerunner of the Sun, cried in the wilderness to all the peoples: ‘Repent and be cleansed while there is yet time. For lo, Christ is at hand, who delivers the world from corruption.’“
Ode 6 of the First Canon of the Holy Feast of Theophany
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literally shaking rn
