"When It's Safe" Means Never. "That day will never come. You will either make up your mind to live as a Christian and return to church, or you won't."

"At every liturgy in the Orthodox Church, just before the singing of the Nicene Creed, the priest or the deacon intones the words, "The doors! The doors!" This call dates back to the earliest times, when the doors of the church had to be barred shut, to prevent outsiders (in those days, Roman soldiers) from entering the church, witnessing those who confessed the faith, seizing them, and killing them. ...

'I will return to church when it is safe again."Curiously, one does not hear the same phrase repeated in relation to the liquor store - i.e. I will return to the liquor store when it is safe again. Nor does one hear it applied to the purchase of groceries: grocery stores seem somehow protected from all sicknesses, and remained so throughout the recent worldwide crisis.

Neither does one hear this phrase when it comes to the workplace - i.e. I will refrain from making an income, because the risk to my health is too high. I will return to work when it is safe again.

No, it seems only churches suffer from the unique level of danger - just as they did throughout the earlier part of this year, making them more risky than public transport and dollar stores combined. ...

Brethren, attending the holy services of the Orthodox Church - Sundays or feast days - has never been safer than it is today. The truth is, however, it has never been safe to be a Christian. ...

So please, kindly set aside the idea that you will return to the holy services "when it's safe". That day will never come.

You will either make up your mind to live as a Christian and return to church, or you won't.

-excerpt from a message from Father Geoffrey Korz, Archpriest, All Saints of North America Orthodox Church, Hamilton, ON, Canada

asna.ca/articles/202007-01.html

Pass on the left and make the sign of the cross. The icon is St Nectarios of Aegina.

The closer we approach God, the closer we approach each other, just as the closer rays of light are to each other, the closer they are to the Sun. In the coming Kingdom of God there will be unity, mutual love and concord. The Holy Trinity remains eternally unchanging, all-perfect, united in essence and indivisible.

+St John of Shanghai and San Francisco

Have you prayed to your Guardian Angel today?

"O Holy Angel, who stand by my wretched soul and my passionate life: do not abandon me, a sinner, neither depart from me because of my lack of self-control. Leave no room for the evil demon to gain control of me through the violence of this mortal body. Strengthen my weak and feeble hand, and instruct me in the path of salvation. O holy Angel of God, the guardian and protector of my wretched soul and body: forgive all the sorrows I have caused you, every day of my life. If I have sinned in this past night, protect me during this day. Keep me from every adverse temptation, that I may not anger God by any sin. Pray to the Lord for me, that He may establish me in His fear and make me, His servant, worthy of His goodness. Amen."

“When we think of the saints, the saints also think of us and help us. ... So a person makes friends with the saints and such friendship is more reliable than any other ... a person living alone can live together with all the saints, the angels, and the world at the same time.”+St Paisios

“Happiness and unhappiness depend on how much Love you have.” - Monk Simon of Mt. Athos

"Have love; for what salt is to food, love is to every virtue."
+St. Euthymius the Great

"Cheerfulness is not a sin. It drives away weariness, and it is from weariness that despondency comes." +St Seraphim of Sarov

"Remember the one who has ridiculed you, who has grieved you, who has wronged you, who has done evil to you, as your physician, your healer. Christ sent him to heal you; don't remember him with anger."
☦Abba Zosima

I come to You, O Christ, Blind from birth in my spiritual eyes, And I call to You in repentance:
You are the most radiant light of those in darkness!

The miracle described in the Gospel reading (John 9:1-38), for the Sunday of the Blind Man (Sixth Sunday of Pascha), is even more remarkable than it might seem at first.

St Basil and other Fathers tell us that our Lord didn't just give sight to a blind man born "who was blind from his birth" (John 9:1). He placed clay in the man’s empty sockets and told him to wash in the pool of Siloam. When the blind man, did this, the eyes of clay became living eyes!

St Demetrius of Rostov, in his Great Synaxarion, mentions that the blind man's name was Celidonius. One tradition ascribes to St Celidonius the founding of the Christian church at Nîmes in Gaul (present-day France).

“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." Prov. 22:6

“If you truly value the souls of your children, and you want to see them spend eternity in heaven, then you have to make your children’s souls your top priority. You put their souls first, and then you bend every other aspect of your life around that one goal.” - Fr. Joseph Gleason, American Orthodox priest living in Russia

Do not help the Devil to spread his kingdom. Hallow the name of your Heavenly Father by your actions; help Him to spread His Kingdom on earth. ‘For we are laborers together with God.’

Be zealous of the fulfillment of His will on earth, as it is in heaven. Forgive them that trespass against you with joy, as a good son rejoices when he has a chance of fulfilling the will of his beloved father.

+ St. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ