“Now therefore, listen to me, my children, for blessed are those who keep my ways. Hear instruction and be wise, and do not disdain it. Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. For whoever finds me finds life, and obtains favor from the Lord;" Proverbs 8:32-35

Basilica of St. George's Cathedral, Veliky Novgorod

Orthodox Preaching With No Sugar Coating

Even though virus fears have caused authorities to restrict the Holy Liturgy and other services in many places, we are still able to receive Holy Communion yet, we don't go. "We not only ignore God but we reject Him", thinking that somehow our self-made "cheap knockoff" Christianity entitles us to heaven. https://youtu.be/8tADWKy-eVk?t=77

Our main duty in life

When you have an important message to deliver, run.

The Archangel Gabriel appears with his feet apart, as if running. This, combined with the posture of his body "captures the urgency and great joy of his message" depicted on the icon of the Annunciation of the Most-Holy Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary. (March 25)

A video with a detailed explanation on this holy icon can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIDNxjgSlbQ

St Gregory, pray for us, that we will come to a deeper understanding of God in all circumstances of life.

St Gregory Palamas, whose teachings we celebrate on the second Sunday of Lent) defended the Orthodox doctrine that we can know God not only through our intellect but through experiencing His uncreated energies. "Every day we should stand in awe of Him, as He is with us, and do what is pleasing before Him. If we are unable now to perceive Him with our physical eyes, we can, if we are watchful, see Him continuously with the eyes of our understanding, and not just see Him, but reap great benefits from Him. This vision destroys all sin, demolishes all evil, and drives away everything bad. It gives birth to purity and dispassion and bestows eternal life."

“Let us flee from those who reject patristic interpretations and attempt by themselves to deduce the complete opposite. While pretending to concern themselves with the literal sense of the passage, they reject its godly meaning. We should run away from them more than we would from a snake, for when a snake bites it kills the body temporarily, separating it from the immortal soul, but when these evil men get their teeth into a soul, they separate it from God, which is eternal death for that soul. Let us escape as far as we can from such people, and take refuge with those who teach piety and salvation in accordance with the traditions of the Fathers.”

+ St Gregory of Palamas, Homily 34, On the Holy Transfiguration of Our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus

Let not one think, my fellow Christian, that only priests and monks need to pray without ceasing and not laymen No, no; every Christian without exception ought to dwell always in prayer.

+ St Gregory Palamas

The Lord came to send fire upon the earth (cf. Lk. 12:49), and through participation in this fire He makes divine not just the human substance which He assumed for our sake, but every person who is found worthy of communion with Him. + St Gregory Palamas (2nd Sunday of Great Lent)

The Stench of Ecumenism

"I went to my cell and prayed, asking Christ to inform me what Ecumenism is. I received His reply, which was that Ecumenism has a spirit of wickedness and is dominated by unclean spirits...

...after praying, my cell became filled with an unbearable stench, which caused my soul to feel asphyxiated; I couldn’t breathe spiritually."

+Elder Efraim Katounakiotis (1912-1998), Athonite monk, hesychast
http://www.impantokratoros.gr/C54EBF09.en.aspx

"Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner."

The hesychastic life taught and lived by St Gregory Palamas calls us to move beyond our senses and withdraw inwards to pray the Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner". Hesychasm involves acquiring an "inner stillness" in prayer-- an obedience to Christ's injunction in the Gospel of Matthew to "go into your closet to pray."

"O wonder-working Gregory, glory of Thessalonica and preacher of grace, always intercede before the Lord that our souls may be saved."

"My heart, beset by passions, hath been weakened by the evil one ... Do Thou by Thy lifegiving Cross by which Thou hast enlivened all those in Hades, awaken me and grant me life."

Saint Basil the Great says that we should "let not a single day pass without singing from the Psalter. If, for some reason, you are obliged to set it aside, mark the place, and begin again the next morning, not stopping out of slothfulness. ... Today, there is sun, and, tomorrow, darkness, and rain, and snow. Today, there are parties and weddings, and, tomorrow, weeping and despondency. But if you take action to save your soul, you will correct your speech and learn the commandments of God, and He will open your eyes, so that you might understand the wonders of the Law of the Lord."

“Nothing in life is accidental. Whoever believes in accidents does not believe in God.

Fr. Alexander Elchaninov, The Diary of a Russian Priest

Tuesday Vespers
Kathisma 18 (Psalms 119-133)

Unto the Lord in mine affliction have I cried, and He heard me.
https://bit.ly/3ubaJua

Wednesday Matins
Kathisma 10 (Psalms 70-76)
Kathisma 11 (Psalms 77-84)

In Thee, O Lord, have I hoped, let me not be put to shame in the age to come; in Thy righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline Thine ear unto me and save me. https://bit.ly/3ubbMdA

Wednesday Vespers
Kathisma 12 (Psalms 85-90)

Bow down Thine ear, O Lord, and hearken unto me, for poor and needy am I.
Preserve my soul, for I am holy; save Thy servant, O my God, that hopeth in Thee.
Have mercy on me, O Lord, for unto Thee will I cry all the day long; make glad the soul of Thy servant, for unto Thee have I lifted up my soul.
bit.ly/3fvIPoh

Thursday Matins
Kathisma 13 (Psalms 91-100)
Kathisma 14 (Psalms 101-105)

It is good to give praise unto the Lord, and chant unto Thy name, O Most High, To proclaim in the morning Thy mercy, and Thy truth by night, on a psaltery of ten strings, with an ode upon the harp.
For Thou hast gladdened me, O Lord, by Thy deeds, and in the works of Thy hands will I rejoice.
bit.ly/Kathisma13

The Church of Our Saviour on Spilled Blood in St Petersburg was built between 1883 and 1907 on the spot where the Emperor Alexander II was mortally wounded and is officially called the Resurrection of Christ Church. When the Bolsheviks went on an offensive against religion and destroyed churches across Russia, the church was closed. It remained closed from the 1930s until it re-opened in 1997, after a 30-year restoration.

Pray for the Canonical Church in Ukraine Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov), a disciple of St. Siluoan of Mt. Athos: “At the present time, in the bowels of our Holy Church, a great danger has appeared that threatens to pervert the dogmatic teaching on it... You ask: In what is this distortion now seen? We reply: In Constantinopolitan neopapism” Pray for the protection of Ukraine from the unholy fruits of this neopapism.

Pray for faithful Orthodox clergy and parishioners under repeated attack. Pray for churches and monasteries which have been threatened with seizures and incursions by schismatics, aided by radical nationalists. Even such holy places as the Kiev Lavra, and the Holy Dormition Cathedral at the Lavra have suffered incursions in recent years. The attacks against the canonical Orthodox Church in Ukraine are the tragic results of the Neopapism of the Patriarch of Constantinople, which is, sadly, not a new thing.