Ternopil Diocese is one diocese hit particularly hard by church seizures over the past several years. But new churches have already been built in Butin, Katerinovka, Kolosova, and Rakhmanov.

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Happy New Year!

Let us resolve this new year to be holy and acceptable to the Lord! September 1 marks the beginning of the Church Year, when, according to Holy Tradition, Christ entered the synagogue with a proclamation from Isaiah 61:1-2:

“The spirit of the Lord is upon me; because He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent me to proclaim release to captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord...” (Luke 4:16-22)

September 2 marks the repose of the righteous Hieromonk Seraphim Rose (1982).

It is only out of delusion we believe we do not need others to see, understand, and treat our spiritual sickness. Anyone who believes that he alone can cure his spiritual diseases has isolated himself from a Mystery of the Church and will come to ruin. —Abbot Tryphon

https://t.me/the_morning_offering/1282

The Nativity of the Most Holy Virgin Mary (Sept 8/ Sept 21) is a day of universal joy, a day chosen before the ages by Divine Providence to bring about the Mystery of the Incarnation of the Word of God. She is revealed as the Mother of the Saviour of the World, Our Lord Jesus Christ.

"O greatly desired and long awaited one,
O Virgin, thou hast been obtained from the Lord with tears!
A bodily temple of the Most-holy Spirit shalt thou become,
And shalt be called Mother of the Eternal Word."

It has reached my ears that you, it seems, consider my sermons very strict and suppose that nowadays no one should think like that, no one should live like that and, therefore, no one should teach like that. Times have changed!

How I rejoiced, having heard this. It means that you listen attentively to what I say — and not only listen, but are prepared to fulfill it. What more could be desired for us who preach as we were commanded, and what we were commanded?

Despite all this, I can in no way agree with your judgment, and I consider it my duty to comment on it and correct it.

…

Christianity should remain eternally unchanging, not in the least dependent on or governed by the spirit of the times.

…

Woe … to those who prescribe every kind of preferential treatment and propose such a soft regimen that no one should feel the slightest unpleasantness, neither from above nor from below, disregarding whether this is unto salvation or destruction, pleasing to God or repugnant to Him. Woe to such as these, for “thus saith the Lord . . . , your pillows and kerchiefs,” that is, your smooth-tongued, comfort-laden teaching, “wherewith ye confound souls” I will tear from your arms, and I will set at liberty the souls perverted by this teaching and I will destroy you, seducers (cf. Ezekiel 13: 20-21). Such is the benefit of preferential treatment and indulgences, the kind you wish to hear from us preachers! Taking this to heart, you ought not to wish that we, out of a false desire to please you, make any concessions in Christian doctrine. On the contrary, you should insistently demand that we adhere to it as strictly and unwaveringly as possible.

… Being confirmed in this understanding, do not grieve if something in our doctrine seems strict; wish only to make certain whether it is of the Lord. And once you have made certain that it is of the Lord, receive it with all your soul, however strict or constraining it may be. Not only do not desire preferential treatment and indulgences in doctrine and mores, but flee from them, as from the fire of Gehenna, from which there is no escape for all who concoct such things, and by them entice the weak of soul to follow after them. Amen.

— from a homily by Saint Theophan the Recluse, Bishop of Tambov, Russia (+1894) 29 December 1863, Sunday After the Nativity of our Saviour, translated by lakov Tseitlin and Maria Goetz, St. Petersburg https://englishflowersoforthodoxy12.blogspot.comes

☦️ Keep my thought in Thy humility, and raise me up at the proper time for Thy glorification. For most glorified art Thou together with Thine unoriginate Father, and the Most Holy Spirit, unto the ages. Amen.

O Most Holy Theotokos, save us!

Through the intercession of the Most Holy Mother of God and the protection offered by a wonder-working icon, Moscow was delivered from the Invasion of the fearsome Khan Tamerlane in 1395. This event and the icon associated with it is commemorated on the Julian Calendar date of Aug 26 (Sept 8).

The “Vladimir” Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos was painted by the Evangelist Luke on a board from the table at which the Saviour ate together with His All-Pure Mother and Righteous Joseph.

The icon was brought from the city of Vladimir to Moscow as Khan Tamerlane was preparing an invasion of Russia. Along the way, on both sides of the road, countless people prayed kneeling: “O Mother of God, save the land of Russia!” At that same hour, Khan Tamerlane had a dream of a Radiant Lady commanding him to leave the domains of Russia. His experts explained that the Radiant Lady was the Mother of God, the great Protectress of Christians. Tamerlane then gave the order for his troops to retreat.

See you in church!

Your Nativity, O Virgin, has proclaimed joy to the whole universe! The Sun of Righteousness, Christ our God, has shone from You, O Theotokos! By annulling the curse, He bestowed a blessing. By destroying death, He has granted us eternal Life.

☦️ Troparion for the Nativity of the Theotokos, Tone 4

☦️ St Paisios on the dispassionate lives of The Holy and Righteous Ancestors of God, Joachim and Anna (Sept 9): “From a young age I had great reverence towards the Holy Ancestors of God. Indeed, I had told someone that, when they make me a monk, I would want them to give me the name Joachim. How much I have benefited from them!... As soon as a dispassionate couple was found, which is how God created man and as he wished men to be born, the Panagia was born, this pure creation, and then Christ became incarnate. My thoughts tell me that Christ would have descended earlier to earth, if there was a pure couple, such as were Sts. Joachim and Anna."

"Contemporary people, even when they come to the Church, do not wish to genuinely change their mindset. They do not wish to genuinely repent (for 'repentance' in the biblical sense is a change of mindset). They want at once to be both Orthodox and friends of this world. People have absolutely no desire to make this choice, and so they begin to want to 'sanctify everything.' This gives rise to the invention of new virtues, foreign to the holy fathers (such as 'tolerance of spiritual delusion'). The old terms, such as 'love' and 'marriage', take on entirely new meanings. And we begin to encounter the opinion that since there are many 'good' or 'nice' people outside the Church, Christianity isn't something they really need after all. Christianity becomes something that is desirable but not essential.”

☦️ Hieromartyr Daniel Sysoev, “Marriage to a Non-believer?”