St Porphyrios of Gaza, pray for the new martyrs of the church that bears your name!
The ancient St Porphyrios Orthodox Church, where hundreds of Christians and Muslims have been sheltering from Israeli airstrikes, has itself been hit by an airstrike. Reports vary widely as to the number of the number of dead, wounded and trapped but prayers are needed for all. Lord have mercy!
O wise Porphyrios, you were excellent in word and deed, healing many and strengthening all with the grace of godliness. Since you always serve Christ, do not cease to pray for the world!
The ancient St Porphyrios Orthodox Church, where hundreds of Christians and Muslims have been sheltering from Israeli airstrikes, has itself been hit by an airstrike. Reports vary widely as to the number of the number of dead, wounded and trapped but prayers are needed for all. Lord have mercy!
O wise Porphyrios, you were excellent in word and deed, healing many and strengthening all with the grace of godliness. Since you always serve Christ, do not cease to pray for the world!
“Wherever James traveled, he left a wonder:
Spiritual vessels full and overflowing with honey,
Inexhaustible, life-creating honey:
Holy churches, full of pure, sweet richness.” ☦️ St Nikolai Velimirovich
The Holy Apostle James (Jacob) (Oct 9/ Oct 22), Son of Alphæus, and brother of the Holy Apostle Matthew, is called the “Divine Seed” for sowing the seed of the word of God in people's hearts. With the First-Called Apostle Andrew, he made missionary journeys to Judea, Edessa, Gaza, Eleutheropolis, preaching, healing, driving out demons, smashing idols, destroying pagan temples, and bringing a multitude of people to Christ.
St James finished his apostolic work In the Egyptian city of Ostrachina, where he was crucified by pagans.
“O Holy Apostle James, entreat the merciful God that He grant to our souls remission of transgressions.”
Spiritual vessels full and overflowing with honey,
Inexhaustible, life-creating honey:
Holy churches, full of pure, sweet richness.” ☦️ St Nikolai Velimirovich
The Holy Apostle James (Jacob) (Oct 9/ Oct 22), Son of Alphæus, and brother of the Holy Apostle Matthew, is called the “Divine Seed” for sowing the seed of the word of God in people's hearts. With the First-Called Apostle Andrew, he made missionary journeys to Judea, Edessa, Gaza, Eleutheropolis, preaching, healing, driving out demons, smashing idols, destroying pagan temples, and bringing a multitude of people to Christ.
St James finished his apostolic work In the Egyptian city of Ostrachina, where he was crucified by pagans.
“O Holy Apostle James, entreat the merciful God that He grant to our souls remission of transgressions.”
As the prophets beheld,
As the Apostles have taught,
As the Church has received,
As the teachers have dogmatized,
As the universe has agreed,
As grace has illumined
As truth has revealed,
As falsehood has been dispelled,
As wisdom has presented,
As Christ has triumphed:
This we believe,
This we declare,
This we preach:
Christ our true God, and His saints we honour in words, in writings, in thoughts, in sacrifices, in temples, in icons, on the one hand bowing down and worshipping Christ as God and Master, on the other hand honouring the saints as true servants of the Master of all, and offering to them due veneration.
This is the faith of the Apostles!
This is the faith of the Fathers!
This is the faith of the Orthodox!
This is the faith that has established the Universe!
+ Acclamation of the 7th Ecumenical Council
As the Apostles have taught,
As the Church has received,
As the teachers have dogmatized,
As the universe has agreed,
As grace has illumined
As truth has revealed,
As falsehood has been dispelled,
As wisdom has presented,
As Christ has triumphed:
This we believe,
This we declare,
This we preach:
Christ our true God, and His saints we honour in words, in writings, in thoughts, in sacrifices, in temples, in icons, on the one hand bowing down and worshipping Christ as God and Master, on the other hand honouring the saints as true servants of the Master of all, and offering to them due veneration.
This is the faith of the Apostles!
This is the faith of the Fathers!
This is the faith of the Orthodox!
This is the faith that has established the Universe!
+ Acclamation of the 7th Ecumenical Council
Icon: Synaxis of the Holy, Glorious and All-praised Twelve Apostles: Peter, Andrew, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James, the son of Alphæus, Jude, the brother of James, Simon the Zealot, and Matthias
“At some time, St. Anthony the Great thought to himself, ‘I wonder with whose spiritual achievements my spiritual life can be compared with’. God, however, in order to humble this thought, revealed to him in a dream that superior to him was a shoemaker who had a store in the back streets of Alexandria.
Once it was daybreak, the saint headed off to the city. He wanted to meet in person this virtuous shoemaker. With great difficulty he discovered his store, sat down at the counter and began asking questions about his life.
The shoemaker was a simple man and it didn’t even occur to him who this elderly monk was that had come so unexpectedly into his store querying him. The man, while continuing to work and without taking his eyes off the shoes he was working on replied gently;
Once it was daybreak, the saint headed off to the city. He wanted to meet in person this virtuous shoemaker. With great difficulty he discovered his store, sat down at the counter and began asking questions about his life.
The shoemaker was a simple man and it didn’t even occur to him who this elderly monk was that had come so unexpectedly into his store querying him. The man, while continuing to work and without taking his eyes off the shoes he was working on replied gently;
‘Elder, I don’t know if I have ever done anything good. Every morning after waking up, I pray and then I start work. First, I think to myself how every person in this city, from the smallest to the greatest will be saved, and only I will be condemned due to my countless transgressions. And in the evening when I go to sleep, I have the same thoughts.’
The Elder rose with wonder and embraced and kissed him. He said emotively: ‘You, my brother, like a good merchant, have gained the priceless pearl without toil. I have grown old in the desert, sweated and toiled but have not reached your level of humility.’”
☦️ From the gerantikon
The Elder rose with wonder and embraced and kissed him. He said emotively: ‘You, my brother, like a good merchant, have gained the priceless pearl without toil. I have grown old in the desert, sweated and toiled but have not reached your level of humility.’”
☦️ From the gerantikon
Right Glory. Right Worship. A simple explanation of the meaning of Orthodoxy
[https://youtube.com/shorts/Gy2k2OofF2I](https://youtube.com/shorts/Gy2k2OofF2I
[https://youtube.com/shorts/Gy2k2OofF2I](https://youtube.com/shorts/Gy2k2OofF2I
YouTube
Orthodoxy = CORRECT Worship ☦️🙏
Elder Joseph the Hesychast on Judgemental Thoughts
“Justify everyone and take all the blame yourself. As soon as you start having negative thoughts about someone … interrupt the thoughts and say to yourself: ‘What he is saying and doing is right. My ego is making me think evil about my brother, and so there’s no point trying to analyze it.’”
“Justify everyone and take all the blame yourself. As soon as you start having negative thoughts about someone … interrupt the thoughts and say to yourself: ‘What he is saying and doing is right. My ego is making me think evil about my brother, and so there’s no point trying to analyze it.’”
Halloween, as we know it today, is a demonstration of how “modern man feels perfectly comfortable to join the demons to teddy-bears and unicorns; to mix the sinister with the trivial. This is because he has lost the sense of how powerfully our idle ‘play’ affects the inner disposition of the heart. We think that if we don’t take something ‘seriously’, it cannot seriously affect us—but look how much woe and despair there is in the world, as the result of this delusion!
No, it is time to stand fast against this ridiculous trend. God has given you children; and now, in this very dilemma you are feeling in your heart, He is asking you how you will look after them. Will you, for the sake of “social norms”, start them at so precious and tender an age down the path of considering the spiritual world a realm of partying and jest, toying with images of evil as if they were of no consequence? Or will you spend this night teaching them of the joy of the spiritual life as it really is?”
—Bishop Irenei (Steenberg)
No, it is time to stand fast against this ridiculous trend. God has given you children; and now, in this very dilemma you are feeling in your heart, He is asking you how you will look after them. Will you, for the sake of “social norms”, start them at so precious and tender an age down the path of considering the spiritual world a realm of partying and jest, toying with images of evil as if they were of no consequence? Or will you spend this night teaching them of the joy of the spiritual life as it really is?”
—Bishop Irenei (Steenberg)
Holy Apostle, heal the wounds of our souls, and pray for our salvation!
As a compassionate physician, the holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke (Oct 18/ Oct 31), gave a doctor's help to St Paul when Paul was beaten, stoned, or nearly drowned.
St Luke was the only Gentile to have written books included in our Bible. Only in Luke's gospel are the stories told of the Annunciation of the Theotokos, her visit to Elizabeth, the Magnificat, the Presentation, and Jesus' remaining in Jerusalem.
Only in Luke's gospel are the words spoken by the angel to Mary at the Annunciation recorded. "Hail Mary, full of grace." We also hear Elizabeth's words to Mary, "Blessed are you and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus."
As a compassionate physician, the holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke (Oct 18/ Oct 31), gave a doctor's help to St Paul when Paul was beaten, stoned, or nearly drowned.
St Luke was the only Gentile to have written books included in our Bible. Only in Luke's gospel are the stories told of the Annunciation of the Theotokos, her visit to Elizabeth, the Magnificat, the Presentation, and Jesus' remaining in Jerusalem.
Only in Luke's gospel are the words spoken by the angel to Mary at the Annunciation recorded. "Hail Mary, full of grace." We also hear Elizabeth's words to Mary, "Blessed are you and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus."
“Halloween” (18th / 31st October) coincides with the eve of the feast day of our beloved pastor and illumined Father in the faith, St John of Kronstadt; and it is also the feast day of the pious virgin St. Frideswide of Oxford. Look, how God has planted for you two spiritual trees that can bear fruit in your family’s life on this very night. Take your children to the Divine Services; encourage them precisely in the fact of doing something that others are neglecting—that while the world outside plays about in the frivolities of delusion and mixes demons with daydreams, you will enter into the Holy Temple where the God of all spirits dwells, to receive the Holy Spirit and be joined into a life that turned a parish priest into a clairvoyant miracle worker and a meek young woman into a wonder-working healer! And teach your children that He longs to do the same for them, that He desires to make of them great saints whom the whole world will know, if only they, and you, will let Him.