When you have lost faith in your family and friends and feel alone in this vast world, or have grown weary from a long, lonely journey, remember the name of God and it will be for you a support for your heavy and tired hands and feet.

+St. Nikolai Velimirović

I remember once I told Saint Porphyrios: "I'm afraid of what is to come, the ugly times."

He looked at me puzzled and giving me a swift slap on the hand he said: "Who can do you harm, my child, if you have Christ inside your heart. Turn your eyes towards Christ. You don't become saints by chasing away the evil. Forget about the evil. You should actually turn your eyes towards Christ and He will save you. Instead of standing at the door and shooing away the enemy, despise him. When you see evil approaching from one direction, you softly give your attention to something else. So, when the evil is coming to offend you, give your interior strength to good, to Christ. Plead: "Our Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me." He knows how to give you His mercy and in whatever way that is best for you. And after you are full of good, then you no longer turn your attention towards the evil. With the grace of God, you become good. And then the evil is unable to find a place to stand and disappears."

—Bishop George Schaefer

We, American bishops and priests, for seventy years have wanted to attract people to the Church through festivals. That is, we arranged holidays and festivities, treated people with drinks, food and entertainment. We forgot about prayer, confession, fasting, prayer rope - about everything that makes up the Tradition of our Church. We even prevented the establishment of monasteries, as we thought that they were not necessary, and they could not give anything to our Church.

And then a tiny man came, without worldly education and theological diplomas, without innovative and bold ideas (which we had in abundance) and reminded us of the most important thing - our Orthodox Tradition. He did not call for dancing and entertainment but called for fasting and participation in hours-long vigils. And people responded to his call, came to the old man and supported him.

The number who come to Father Ephraim is beyond description.

America, which sought to break the deadlock in the culture of consumption and slavery of material values ​​through various social movements and eastern religions, discovered the True undistorted Christianity - Orthodoxy.
☦️Priest Anthony Moskhonas

A miraculous event has occurred at St George’s Monastery in Suruceni, Romania. After touching the relics of Saint Dionisie, a recently canonized 20th-century hierarch, a young boy named Mihai began to talk and walk again. Mihai had lost ability to speak and walk after receiving a measles shot at age two. After futile visits to medical experts in Romania and the U.S., Mihai’s mother, Maria, took him to venerate the relics of St Dionisie at the suggestion of local priests.

St Dionisie’s relics were found to be incorrupt in July 2018 and he was canonized in October of that year.

While venerating the relics, Maria heard her son say: “St. Nisie.” When they went to get prosphora and holy water, the child exclaimed: “Yes, holy water!” Through Holy Communion and the intercession of St Dionisie, young Mihai was healed.

https://orthochristian.com/140426.html

The Conception by St Anna of the Most Holy Mother of God (Dec 22/Dec 9)

Today the universe rejoices, for Anna has conceived the Theotokos through God's dispensation, for she has brought forth the one who is to bear the ineffable Word!

On Mother's Day (U.S.) 2004 an Icon of St. Anna, the Mother of the Holy Virgin Mary, in the Russian Orthodox Church of Our Lady of All Who Sorrow in Philadelphia began to stream myrrh. The Icon was completed, blessed at the Sepulchre of our Lord in the Jerusalem Church of the Resurrection in 1998. The icon -- which now resides at St. Tikhon's Monastery -- is not currently weeping but exudes a heavenly fragrance and continues to work miracles.

"We are all responsible for the Church, and not only the bishops, for the Church is not someone else's private property. . . . Often, when patriarchs and hierarchs fell into error, only the elders and monks stood up to protect the Church from all kinds of heresies, and the faithful people have for centuries been generally recognized as the guardians of Orthodoxy." "Holy disobedience is absolutely necessary when heresy and moral decay take on enormous proportions, when the Church, in the person of the hierarchy, falls into error . . ." —Archpriest Theodore Zisis https://russian-faith.com/explaining-orthodoxy/blessed-disobedience-or-evil-obedience-chapter-2-n3320

Receive joy O Forefathers of old,
Beholding Christ the Messiah drawing near.
Rejoice Abraham, for you have been shown to be the great-grandfather of Christ.

The Sunday of the Holy Forefathers of Christ (the Sunday that falls between Dec 11-17) is resplendent with Saints, including many holy women. Among the righteous men and women commemorated along the with Patriarch Abraham are:

--the Righteous Priest Aaron, the elder brother of the Prophet Moses the God-seer
-- the Righteous Benjamin, the youngest son of Jacob
-- the Righteous Isaac, second of the Old Testament Patriarchs, and the son of Abraham and the husband of Rebecca
--the Righteous Noah, who found favor with the Lord during a time of exceeding wickedness, when God was provoked to destroy man and beast from the earth. But the Lord spared Noah, along with his sons and their wives.

Among the righteous women honoured this day are Abraham's wife Sarah, praised in the New Testament for her faith (Hebrews 11:11) and for her obedience (I Peter 3:6). The three men who visited Abraham at the oak of Mamre told Sarah that she would conceive and have a son (Genesis 18:10). She did not believe them at first, but God did as He had promised (Genesis 21:1-3).

Also among the women commemorated are the Righteous Miriam, sister of Moses and Aaron; the Righteous Rebecca, the Righteous Ruth; and the Righteous Mary, mother of St Anna, the grandmother of the Theotokos.

Holy King Solomon is also commemorated on the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers. The Church praises him in the hymn (Exapostilarion) on this day. His sin is clearly described in the sacred texts, but his repentance is also evident. According to St Cyrill of Jerusalem and a number of other Holy Fathers, Solomon indeed repented and is honoured with the Saints.

To Thee is due praise, O God, in Sion; and unto Thee shall a vow be rendered in Jerusalem.
Hearken unto my prayer, for unto Thee shall all flesh come.
The words of lawless men have overpowered us, but to our ungodliness shalt Thou be merciful.
Blessed is he whom Thou hast chosen and hast taken to Thyself; he shall dwell in Thy courts.
We shall be filled with the good things of Thy house; holy is Thy temple, wonderful in righteousness.
Hearken unto us, O God our Saviour, Thou hope of all the ends of the earth and of them that be far off at sea, Who settest fast the mountains by Thy strength, Who art girded round about with power, Who troublest the hollow of the sea; as for the roar of its waves, who shall withstand them?

from Kathisma 9, Psalm 64, Tuesday Vespers

My hope is the Father,
my refuge is the Son,
my protection is the Holy Spirit:
O Holy Trinity, glory to Thee!

Serbian Orthodox Bishop Photius: Our freedom is being taken away by the “digital concentration camp” being forced upon us.

https://twitter.com/serbiabased/status/1470704066250559496?s=21

He who neglects the commandment to pray is comprehended by the most serious violations of other commandments, passing it on to another as a prisoner.

+St Mark the Ascetic

The Psalms are medicine.

Unto the Lord in mine affliction have I cried, and He heard me.
http://bit.ly/kathisma18

Friday Vespers: read Kathisma 18
(Psalms 119-133)

Saturday Matins: Kathisma 16 (Psalm 109-117) and Kathisma 17 (Psalm 118)
http://bit.ly/kathisma16

The Lord said unto my Lord: Sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies the footstool of Thy feet.