#orthodox christian
“Christ’s Love is not like our love. It does not exist because I have done something to generate it.
Christ’s Love is God Himself - the same yesterday, today and in eternity.
It does not exist because of what I do, and it does not die out because of something I cannot do.
Quite the opposite - I exist because this Love brought me into being,
and I shall continue to BE for as long as I do not let go of Him Who is Life.”~Fr. Seraphim Aldea
(Art via giphy)
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“Let’s call out heresy without apology: The evangelical fundamentalist view of salvation - from Reformed Calvinism to Dispensationalism and everything in between - is not that the atoning death of the Cross has saved us, but rather that our intellectual belief in the Cross has saved us. Ergo, they ultimately trust not in a salvation by divine grace, but in a salvation by human works - albeit a cognitive human works. And yet they dare to accuse the Orthodox of the very ‘works of salvation’ of which they are in fact guilty.”
~Gebre Menfes Kidus
(Photo © dramoor 2015 Florence, Italy)
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![“Then [Christ] said to Thomas, ‘Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand h](https://64.media.tumblr.com/564f8c954e960b953b6a0f79ac57a7ea/3b9bf108e8bd1529-10/s540x810/01d13697ef38bdd880f2205c14ef2187bff6fb37.png "“Then [Christ] said to Thomas, ‘Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand h")
“Then [Christ] said to Thomas, ‘Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.’ And Thomas answered and said to Him, ‘My Lord and my God’!”
~John 20:27-28
(Icon: The Touching of Thomas
from the altar of the Church of the Nativity of St John the Baptist (Chesmenskaya), St Petersburg, Russia)
~Via Orthodox Faith~
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The Crucifixion.
The gates of the Cathedral of St. Sophia, Novgorod.
> Photo: Sergei Zubkov(2013).
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“God enters into you with all that is His,
as far as you have stripped yourself of yourself in all things.”
~Meister Eckhart
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The perfection of all spiritual excellencies is for a man not to judge his neighbor. For when the hand of the Lord slew the first-born of Egypt, there was no house wherein there was not one dead person. Then a brother said unto the old man, “What is the meaning of these words?” The old man said unto him, “If we allow ourselves to view closely our own sins we shall not see those of our neighbor. It is folly for a man to forsake his own dead and to lament over that of his neighbor.”
“I confess to Thee, O Savior, the sins I have committed, the wounds of my soul and body, which murderous thoughts, like thieves, have inflicted inwardly upon me.”
—A Stichera from the First Ode of the Great Canon of Repentance by St. Andrew of Crete
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“The Holy of Holies was a forbidden place because it was awaiting the Entry of the Virgin Mary, who became God’s real Temple and gave it greater honor. The Virgin was not honored by that inaccessible place, but the place was honored by the entrance of the Virgin who was to become Christ’s mother.”
—St. Nicholas Cabasilas
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“It was not our fathers that told us, nor our elders that informed us, but we ourselves have seen the miracles that have taken place through thee; we ourselves have experienced the grace that doth pour forth from thee. Our loved ones were healed, they that were dying rose from bed in good health, our every petition was granted through thy prayer. Wherefore, we honor thee as a favorite of God and an intercessor before the Lord.”
Doxasticon from the Aposticha
Great Vespers for St. John of Kronstadt (+Oct 19/Nov 1)
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“About the relics of St. Gervase and St. Protase, St. Ambrose relates how they were revealed to him. One night, two youths and an old man appeared to the wakeful Ambrose. He thought that the last was the Apostle Paul. While the young men kept silent, the old man told Ambrose that they were Christ’s martyrs, that their relics lay in the precise place in which Ambrose was at prayer, and that everything else about them could be learned from a little book that would be found in their grave. The next day, Ambrose recounted his vision, began to dig and indeed found the relics of two men, of whom it was learned from the discovered book that they were Gervase and Protase. In Ambrose’s presence, a blind man, Servirus, touched these holy relics and immediately received his sight.”
—The Prologue from Ochrid (A collection by St. Nikolai Velimirovic)
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“Come, all ye who love God, and beholding the precious Cross uplifted, let us magnify it together and give glory to the one Deliverer and God, crying aloud: O Thou Who wast crucified on the wood of the Cross, disdain not us that pray to Thee!”
From Vespers to Sts. Sophia, Faith, Hope, and Love
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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.
“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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