by St. John Maximovitch This month, we will sing the well-known hymn, “O Lord, save Thy people and bless Thine inheritance. Grant victory to the Orthodox Christians over their adversaries, and by the virtue of Thy Cross, preserve Thy habitation.” St. John of...
by Daniel Manzuk So why do we fast before Dormition? In a close-knit family, word that its matriarch is on her deathbed brings normal life to a halt. Otherwise important things (parties, TV, luxuries, personal desires) become unimportant; life comes to revolve around...
by Fr. Barnabas Powell As we enter a month popular for marriages, Fr. Barnabas Powell explains that sex isn’t sin… as long as it is practiced within a sacred context. Few topics are more guaranteed to offend than sex. I probably needn’t go any further. Merely...
Editor’s Note: The following are excerpts from letters Abbot Nikon wrote to his spiritual children in the 1940s and ’50s while suffering in exile in a Russian prison camp. If you sincerely want to follow Jesus Christ, then there is no other way but the one He...
When a person—crushed with grief—sins, then what benefit does he receive from this grief? The point is that the reason why we sin is because we are impatient and do not want to endure anything that goes against our will. However, God would never send us anything...
