Holy Fathers
No Impossible Deed Should Be Undertaken… Advice of the Elder Alexis Mechev
No matter what sin you committed, repent, and God will be eager to accept you with open arms. Be like a child in everything you do: both in matters of faith and matters of life.
Jul 24, 2008, 10:06

Our Faith : In the Church
12 Things I Wish I’d Known…
Orthodox worship is different! Some of these differences are apparent, if perplexing, from the first moment you walk in a church. Others become noticeable only over time. Here is some information that may help you feel more at home in Orthodox worship—twelve things I wish I’d known before my first visit to an Orthodox church.

Jul 23, 2008, 10:02

Family life : Bringing up children
Children and Television
Mythological television characters replace parents, relatives, the Saints, and Christ as role models. A normal American fourteen-year-old girl talks with her mother (in terms of actually discussing a subject in an intelligible way and in a sensible context) only about four minutes a week! Listen to your family's dinner conversations. Can they compete with hours of TV? Or for that matter, what do Church services mean to your children in terms of the thousands of hypnotic, mindless hours before the television? As family communication decreases, television watching increases. And as the TV devours more and more hours in young children's lives, almost nothing can compete with it for attention.
Jul 22, 2008, 10:01

Our Faith
WHAT IS MAN?
Most of the time we think we know who we are. But do we, in fact, know in the full and profound sense who we are? One text that is very important for the Orthodox understanding of the human person is Psalm 64:6 [LXX 63:7]—"The heart is deep." That means the human person is a profound mystery. There are depths—or if you would like, heights—within myself of which I have very little understanding.
Jul 21, 2008, 10:00

Sermons, Lectures
THE FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
Today's Gospel concerns the casting out of demons from two possessed men, their entry into a herd of swine and the suicide of those swine. There are several things that we can learn from this Gospel.
Jul 20, 2008, 10:00

Our Faith
How to Read the Holy Scriptures
IT IS WELL known that Protestants spend a great deal of time on Holy Scripture, because for them it is everything. For us Orthodox Christians the Scripture also holds an essential place. Often, however, we do not take advantage of it, and do not realize what importance it has for us; or if we do, we often do not approach it in the right spirit because the Protestant approach and Protestant books about the Scriptures are widespread, while our Orthodox approach is quite different.
Jul 19, 2008, 10:01

Our Faith
Past Cannot Be Recalled
They often say that time heals, pain passes with time. Not quite right. My pain isn’t over, it has changed, as if it sank deep inside. With the lapse of time you begin to take the death of your only child as a tragedy, you understand that a part of you has also died. This part that broke away from you hurts like an amputated arm or leg, though you know that your child’s soul is alive, that it cannot die. But still we miss our son so much. We have no other child to console us, to give our love to.
Jul 18, 2008, 10:00

Our Faith
Rublev's "Old Testament Trinity"
Of course it is not obvious to all that beauty always leads us to God. I once was interviewed by a reporter for National Public Radio, who questioned this point of view. She asked, "Doesn’t all the music and painting and artwork in your church distract you from focusing on God?" and I responded, "Tell me this. If your husband takes you out for an anniversary dinner, and there is candlelight and roses and violins, does that distract you from feeling romantic?"
Jul 17, 2008, 10:11

Our Faith
Raising Children Who Believe
Central to everything we tried to do as a family was going to church Sunday morning. Even through the struggles of the teenage years, there was never a question as to what we did Sunday morning. I was not a priest during the teenage years of our older children, but regardless of that, as a family we were in church on Sunday morning. And if we traveled, we went to church wherever we were.
Jul 16, 2008, 10:01

Our Faith
Why Orthodoxy is the True Faith
We would like to acquaint you with the lecture "Why Orthodoxy is the True Faith," delivered on September 13, 2000, at the Meeting of the Sretenskaya Lord's School in Moscow by A.I. Osipov, a professor of the Moscow Theological Academy.

Jul 15, 2008, 10:07

Family life
Marriage and Possible Alternativees: The Pursuit of Wholeness and Holiness
A few decades ago the term "open marriage" entered our vocabulary. We also learned about "prenups," i.e., marriage qualified in various ways by formal prenuptial agreements. These days we barely blink when we hear about couples living together or when we encounter marital breakdown ending divorce – divorce often followed by remarriage and (then even more frequently) by another divorce. (A frightening statistic: At this point the average length of a marriage in the United States is five years.) If TV ratings and star salaries offer any indication, we as a society see nothing amiss in sex and marriage as these are presented on Friends, where sex has become a recreational activity and marriage a running joke.
Jul 14, 2008, 10:00

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
About the Apostles Peter and Paul
The day of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul is the culminating feasts of the Gospel. Although the last event in the life of Christ which is related in the Gospel as His Ascension into heaven (Mark 16:19 ; Luke 24:51), the preaching of the Apostles is closely bound up with the Gospel. The Gospel tells us of their being chosen, and the Gospel indicates beforehand the end of Apostolic activity.
Jul 12, 2008, 10:01

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
The Apostle Peter and Orthodox Conscience
Among the many passages that describe characteristic aspects of St Peter's life, the most moving is neither his confession at Caesaria of Philippi, which we have already mentioned, nor his bitter tears after the momentary betrayal at the courtyard of the high priest. For both the confession and the repentance were within the immediate logic of things for all the Apostles who lived the mystery of the direct presence of the God-Man. What was beyond this "logic of things", which constitutes perhaps the even more moving biographical element of St Peter, is the fact that at a certain time he felt his unworthiness to humiliate him.
Jul 12, 2008, 09:29

Family life : Before marriage
To Meet Your Love
Many boys and girls think they must lose their virginity as soon as possible, as if it were something unnecessary and unfashionable. They boast of their “first time” among themselves. And the one who “hasn’t yet” is often mocked in a company where the rest “already have”. But for a believer, it is very important to keep chastity not only during teenage years, but until marriage. Sex affects your future, the life of your partner, as well as the lives of your children. For those who tell their stories here, these are more than just words; their experiences have given them important knowledge.
Jul 8, 2008, 10:00

New Russian Martyrs
Life of Father Arseny.
Father Arseny ran to Sazikov and begged him, "Help! Please help, Ivan Alexandrovich! They are cutting people up. There is blood everywhere. I ask you in the name of God to stop this! The criminals will listen to you!" Sazikov only laughed and said, "Sure, they will listen to me, but why don't you help with your God? Ivan the Brown has already killed two of your friends, and now he is going to kill Avsenkov. Your God seems not to notice this!"
Jun 27, 2008, 22:05

Our Faith
Started without a Prayer
"It occurred because she boasted," my spiritual father explained. "One should never do it, especially aloud. Demons cannot stand it when a man feels good; they are spiteful and envious. But if a man keeps silent, according to St. Macarius of Egypt, the demons may guess a lot, yet don't know everything. If a man boasts aloud, they will know and become annoyed, and then they try do him some harm. People's bliss is unbearable to them."
Jun 21, 2008, 10:11

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Fast of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul. June 23 - July 11
Fasting consists not just of eating rarely, but also of eating little. And not just in eating only one meal, but in not eating much. Foolish is the faster, who waits for a specific time [to eat a meal], but then at the time of the meal is completely consumed, body and mind, with insatiable eating.
Jun 21, 2008, 09:55

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Pentecost 8th Sunday after Pascha Explanation and Typicon
This first Christian sermon was simple and brief, but since the Holy Spirit spoke through the mouth of the Holy Apostle Peter, his words penetrated the hearts of the hearers and won over their obstinacy. "Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, 'Men and brethren, what shall we do?' (Acts 2:37) . "Repent", the Holy Apostle Peter answered them, "and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ" and you will not only be forgiven; but you shall also "receive the gift of the Holy Spirit". For the promise of the Holy Spirit is given" Then those who gladly received his word" that is of the Apostle Peter immediately repented, believed, and were baptized (Acts 2:41) , and the new Church has grown from 120 (Acts 1:15) to 3000 men.
Jun 15, 2008, 10:03

Sermons, Lectures
Sermon on Sunday between Ascension and Pentecost
During the Last Supper our Lord Jesus Christ told His disciples that separation was near, that He was to ascend to His God and to His Father as He would repeat again to the women who came to the grave. And when their hearts were filled with sorrow at the thought that they will not see Him again, He said, “Your hearts are full with sorrow and yet, you should rejoice for Me that I am returning to My Father. But I will not,” he added, “leave you orphan, I will send you the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father, whom I will send to you and who will teach you all things.” And so do we here now while we are still in the light of the Ascension.
Jun 8, 2008, 09:05

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
The Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ (40th Day after Pascha)
On the 39th day after Pascha we celebrate the Leavetaking of the Feast of Feasts, commemorating the last day of the Risen Christ's earthly sojourn. The day following is celebrated as His Leavetaking - His Glorious Ascension into Heaven.
Jun 8, 2008, 01:38

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
On the sunday of the Samaritan woman
It is on this Sunday that the Church commemorates Christ's discussion during which Our Lord revealed His Divine identity to a simple women. During the Church service, as I listened to the Gospel narrative, I realized that through my mother, another simple women, the Lord had revealed to us, to her relatives and acquaintances, the mystery of death and life, and the profound meaning of faith in His Resurrection and in life eternal. Her experience of death revealed to us that, for the faithful, there truly was no death, but that rather, there was life in the bosom of Abraham.
May 27, 2008, 21:30

Our Faith
There Is No Death
On the 26th of May, in Cleveland, Ohio, my mother, Parasceva Ivanovna Potapov, nee Golikov, reposed. Her physicians had predicted that she would live between two weeks and two months from the date on which her cancer was discovered. She lived exactly two weeks from the date of that oncological evaluation.
May 27, 2008, 10:03

Orthodoxy in the World
A Hidden Life: A Short Introduction to Chiune Sugihara
Oskar Schindler and Raoul Wallenberg are among the most commonly known people who have been recognized as taking extra-ordinary personal risks to help Jews and others targeted for extermination by Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist Worker’s Party in Germany , 1933-1945.
May 20, 2008, 10:16

Our Faith : Feasts. Calendar
Sermon on the Sunday of the Holy Myrrhbearing Women
Now, we know the triumph of Christ. We know the end of the story. We know this even as we walk with these women to the tomb, as they despair, hopeless. Yet still in our lives, we also may deal with despair. Why am I stuck in this job? Why can't I pay my bills? Why can't I be patient with my children? Why do I feel so alone? When we are abandoned, when we try to follow God's will but can't see the way, when we lose someone or something we don't think we can live without, when we suffer, perhaps that is when we experience Christ as dead.
May 12, 2008, 10:03

Our Faith
Pascha (Easter) in Dachau
In the entire history of the Orthodox Church there has probably never been an Easter service like the one at Dachau in 1945. Greek and Serbian priests together with a Serbian deacon adorned the make-shift "vestments" over their blue and gray-striped prisoners uniforms. Then they began to chant, changing from Greek to Slavonic, and then back again to Greek. The Easter Canon, the Easter Sticheras - everything was recited from memory. The Gospel - "In the beginning was the Word" - also from memory.
May 7, 2008, 10:06