Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give Thine angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for Thy love’s sake. Amen.

Suddenly the Judge shall come, and the deeds of each shall be laid bare; but with fear do we cry at midnight: Holy, Holy, Holy art Thou, O God; through the Theotokos, have mercy on us.

Icon: Most Holy Theotokos “Of Tender Feeling” of Diveyevo, cell icon of St Seraphim of Sarov.

With oil from the vigil lamp that burned before it, St Seraphim anointed the sick and they would be healed. He was praying to the Mother of God in front of this Icon when he reposed on January 2, 1833.

So you should continually keep in mind the great humiliation which the Lord took upon Himself in His ineffable love for us: how the divine Logos dwelt in a womb; how He took human nature upon Himself; His birth from a woman; His gradual bodily growth; the shame He suffered, the insults, vilification, ridicule and abuse; how He was scourged and spat upon, derided and mocked; the scarlet robe, the crown of thorns; His condemnation by those in power; the outcry of the unruly Jews, men of His own race, against Him: 'Away with him, away with him, crucify him' (John 19:15); the cross, the nails, the lance, the drink of vinegar and gall; the scorn of the Gentiles; the derision of the passers-by who said: 'If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross and we will believe you' (cf Matt. 27:39-42); and the rest of the sufferings which He patiently accepted for us: crucifixion; death; the three-day burial; the descent into hell.

Then keep in mind all that has come from these sufferings: the resurrection from the dead; the liberation from hell and from death of those who were raised with the Lord; the ascension to the heavens; the enthronement at the right hand of the Father; the honor and glory that is 'far above every principality and power . . . and above every name that is named' (Eph. 1:21); the veneration of the Firstborn from the dead by all the angels, because of the sufferings He had undergone.

As the Apostle says: 'Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Though He is in the form of God, He did not insist on clinging to His equality with God; but He emptied Himself and took upon Himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of man. Being in this likeness. He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God has highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, things on earth and things under the earth' (Phil. 2:5-10). See to what a height of glory the Lord's human nature was raised up by God's justice through these sufferings and humiliations. ☦️ St. Mark the Ascetic

Drive Prayerfully

A holy icon of St. Nektarios is written on the back panel of a moving company truck, owned by the Kephalas family, relatives of the Saint.

To the Champion Leader, our Mistress, the Theotokos do we, thy servants, offer hymns of praise, as ones who have acquired a mighty shield, an insuperable rampart and an ever-vigilant guardian through the arrival of thy precious image. As thou art possessed of invincible might, protect and defend us, O Mistress, from all enemies, visible and invisible, and deliver us from all harm of body and soul, that we may cry out to thee: Rejoice, O good Gatekeeper, who openest the portal of paradise unto the faithful!

Grumbling is caused by misery and it can be put aside by doxology (giving praise). Grumbling begets grumbling and doxology begets doxology. when someone doesn’t grumble over a problem troubling him, but rather praises God, then the devil gets frustrated and goes off to someone else who grumbles, in order to cause everything to go even worse for him. You see, the more one grumbles, the more one falls into ruin.

Sometimes the devil deceives us and makes us unable to be pleased with anything; however, one can celebrate all things in a spiritual manner, with doxology, and secure God’s constant blessing.

☦️ St Paisios of Mt. Athos

Glory to the great God and Lord!
Chant my spirit with joy,
My heart longs for your holy church
Where is the Sweetest Lord Jesus!
You are my life the only hope,
You enliven me in my afflictions and illnesses.
Be always for me joy, cover and hope,
I hand into Your hands my whole life.
Oh my most beautiful Savior,
Give me Your grace!
You are the wonderful guardian of my life,
My good father and my tender mother.
I admire Your heavenly glory,
Far is the vanity of this earthly world!
My spirit and my heart long for only one thing
The Kingdom of the Heavens with its beauty…
There in the heavens the choirs of saints
The myriads of angels
Chant with one mouth the beautiful hymn
“Holy, Holy, Holy Lord of Sabaoth!”
You are the joy of my heart
Creator, God and my Father.
My soul burdened with sins longs for heaven
Where the afflictions and the illnesses will stop.

Glory to the great God and Lord!
Chant my spirit with joy,
My heart longs for your holy church
Where is the Sweetest Lord Jesus!

☦️ Our venerable and God-bearing Father Seraphim of Vyritsa (1866-1949)

Father Seraphim was a monastic known especially for his gifts of prophecy and miracle-working. He was proclaimed a Saint by the Russian Church in 2000 and is commemorated on March 21.

We shall be filled with the good things of Thy house; holy is Thy temple, wonderful in righteousness. — Psalm 64:4a

“You can deeply comprehend many things with the mind, but if they don't touch the heart, there's no benefit. But when the feeling of the heart combines with the enlightenment of the mind, then you feel the grace of God working in your whole being.”

☦️ Elder Marcu Dumitrescu of Sihastria (Romania)

Of all the demons, the one that catches the most men and prevents them from being happy is that of "What could have been and was not".

The past is left to the mercy of God and the future to his Providence. Only the present is in our hands.

"When we are stricken with sorrows, pain, suffering of body or soul; when our sins have overtaken us, and when we come to despair; when we feel abandoned by God and men; when we are afflicted by our own passions and by the piercing attacks of the demons; and when we have stubbornly kicked against God’s good-will, isolated ourselves and have wandered astray into spiritual death and hell—

Then, when all hope is lost, and all we have is the slightest turning of our thoughts and hearts to heaven, seeking wordlessly the salvation of Christ, then it is that we should and must turn to His Mother."

Excerpted from a sermon by a monk of Holy Cross Monastery, Wayne, WV, on the Feast of the Protection of the Theotokos.

Into Thy hands, O Lord Jesus Christ my God, I commend my spirit: bless me, have mercy on me and grant me eternal life. Amen.

His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry: It Is Not “Supermen” Who Become Saints

“We think that we are powerful and strong, but any passion will defeat us if God does not help us. We can defeat something or someone only with God’s power. When we realize that God is everything, and we are nothing, that I can do everything – I can live, I can do good, I can overcome sins and shortcomings – only with God’s power, then we realize that God is everything for us. This awareness of one’s insignificance and God’s omnipotence is the first step, which is spiritual poverty and on which everything is based."

- sermon during the Divine Liturgy at the Dormition Cathedral of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, Sept. 10, 2020 bit.ly/3hqsvTl

The only icon in the world that depicts the Most-Holy Mother of God holding in her hands not the Christ Child, but the Cross containing with our crucified Lord.

This miraculous icon is called Panagia tou Harou, which in Greek means “The Virgin of Death."

The icon can be found in the monastery church of St John the Divine on the island of Leipsoi, Greece, and in the church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin on Vasilievsky Island in St. Petersburg.

Every year, this image on the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin takes place the so-called "miracle with lilies."

In the 1940s, a woman prayed before this icon and was healed. In gratitude she left a simple bouquet of lilies on the icon. These lilies withered, but remained on the icon. A year later, these lilies blossomed again. Since then, this miracle occurs every year in the church of St John the Divine on the day of the feast and the island of Leipsoi fills with pilgrims who join in the procession of the icon around the entire island.