In 1925 I was treated by a well-known doctor from the USA who was later in Paris. The treatment lasted a long time, and we talked about many things. It was said of him that he was initially an unbeliever, as are the majority of today’s doctors and naturalists. But then his beloved wife fell mortally ill. His medical colleagues declared that treatment was pointless. Then he began fervently to pray:... 

On New Year’s Eve we feel the mystery of time more powerfully than at any other time. We feel, in other words, that its flow – in which we live and in which everything constantly vanishes as the “past” and constantly places us face to face with the unknown future – essentially contains within itself the main question that everyone is called to answer with their lives. “Vain gift, chance... 

The following is an excerpt from the lecture “Orthodoxy in America,” delivered by Aleksei Shipovalnikov on September 28, 2011, at St. Tikhon’s University in Moscow. Mr. Shipovalnikov is a composer of church music who makes extensive use of the tradition of znamenny chant. In 1984 he composed one of his most well known pieces, Ave Maria in five movements. He is currently the choir conductor at... 

In December 2010 an interview with Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) conducted by Ivan Semenov on the subject of St. Nicholas was broadcast on the program “Church and World” on the “Russia 24” station. We offer below a translation of the transcript of the program. Metropolitan Hilarion: On December 19 the memory of one of the most venerated saints, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, Archbishop of... 

The Apostles, sent by the Savior of the world “to the ends of the earth,” did not reach its end. Their successors, the missionaries of the following centuries, picked up the baton. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the words of Christ reached the heart of John Veniaminov, a young priest in Irkutsk and the son of a simple sexton, and he accepted the call to his heart. This call led him... 

Have you ever noticed that it is easier to organize someone else’s space than your own? I remember when I was in college, I needed a part-time job. I had formerly worked in a customer-service role, and was eager to find something that didn’t require being in front of dozens of people every day. After all, I interacted with people at school all day, and wanted to be able to do some work by myself.... 

Sermon on the Feast of John the Theologian and of Hiero-confessor Tikhon In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove... 

Below is an abridged version of the sermon delivered by Metropolitan Hilarion, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s department for external church relations, on August 1, 2010, the Day of the Founding of St. Seraphim of Sarov’s Relics. Why do the Russian people love St. Seraphim so much? Why has this saint who showed forth in the recent times proved so dear to our hearts? – For many reason. St.... 

Ahmed was born in the seventeenth century to a Muslim family in Constantinople. By profession he was a copyist in the Great Archives. In accordance with Ottoman law, since he did not have a wife, he had a slave instead, a Russian woman. Another captive from Russia lived together with her, an old woman, also a slave. Both these women were very pious. On feast days the old woman would go to church. Taking... 

Each of us feels that our earthly life, full of complexities, pains and passions, puzzles and ambiguities is a mystery, which can hardly be solved by the human mind. Why? Because the drama of the temporal existence in this world becomes transparent and understandable only “sub specie aetertitatis” — that is in the framework of eternity. Saint Providence, God’s will combined with the...