Orthodox Christianity

Righteousness Is Not A Part Time Job

June 17, 2022June 23, 2022 by Orthodox Editors

by Abbot Tryphon –
The quest for righteousness is not a part time job.

Teachers and parents routinely remind children of the importance of refraining from giving in to peer pressure, knowing that good behavior can often be undermined by the desire to fit in with their friends and schoolmates.

We adults need to remember that we, too, are often subject to peer pressure. When we are surrounded by people who always take the moral high road, who are honest in their business practices, and respectful in the way they treat other people, our own adherence to the commandments of God is made easier. [Read more…]

Lukewarm and Fearful Christians Are the Devil’s Playground

June 14, 2022June 23, 2022 by Orthodox Editors

Lukewarm and Fearful Christians Are the Devils Playground by Jackie Morfesis –
The darkness revels at Christians afraid to shine their light. In fact, a fearful Christian is the devil’s playground.

I was blessed to have a mother, Lucia, memory eternal, who had the boldness to speak scriptural truth to me. She knew exactly what to say that would plant a seed in my heart that took root and would grow for years to come. I vividly remember her looking down at me as a child standing in our kitchen in New Jersey and telling me that God does not want the lukewarm.

“So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:16). Powerful words that every single one of us must take to heart. [Read more…]

The Good Leaven from Outside the Supposed Goodness

May 24, 2022May 27, 2022 by Orthodox Editors

Jesus Christ and the Samaritan Woman at the Well by Metropolitan Silouan (Muci) –

The believer never stops drawing near the Resurrection until the Resurrection itself snatches him from the way he is approaching it. Furthermore, it drives him towards its true approach to man, whoever he may be, under the light of the dispensation that Christ inaugurated amidst our sinfulness which is still deeply rooted within us.

There is no more obvious example than what happened before the eyes of the Apostles themselves when they came across Christ’s encounter with the Samaritan woman and there are no more effective words, until our present day, than those uttered then [Read more…]

Christians Must Have Courage in the Face of Deceitful Compromise

May 17, 2022May 27, 2022 by Orthodox Editors

Christians Must Have Courage in the Face of Deceitful Compromise by Fr. Zechariah Lynch –
The tribulations of our days will become more intense. The temptations to compromise will become more pronounced.

“Be of good courage and let us be strong for our people and for the cities of our God; for the Lord will do what is good in His sight” (2 Kingdom/Samuel 10:12).

The Lord calls His people to be strong and courageous in Him. St. Paul commands, “Keep on watching, standing fast in the faith, conducting yourselves in a courageous way, and being strong. Let all your things be done with love” (1 Cor. 16:13). This command is dynamic and active. Keep on doing these things. The implication is that we could grow tired and fearful. Therefore it is written elsewhere, “And let us not be losing heart while doing that which is good; for in due time we shall reap, if we faint not” (Gal. 6:9). [Read more…]

Living in Apocalyptic Times: Be Vigilant, Take Courage, Have Hope, Be Merciful

April 11, 2022April 14, 2022 by Orthodox Editors

Living in Apocalyptic Times: Be Vigilant, Take Courage, Have Hope, Be Merciful by Fr. Gabriel (Hieromonk) –
Christians are coming to the conclusion that the times are not merely troubling, but apocalyptic.

There is no question that we live in troubling times. The 20th century witnessed an unparalleled persecution of Christianity across the entire world – primarily through revolutionary violence in the East, but primarily through worldly seduction in the West (if you doubt that the two are comparable, I will simply point to the witness of Alexander Solzhenitsyn who had ample occasion to experience both for himself).

Such persecution was prophesied to us by our Lord: “Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for My name’s sake” (Matthew 24:9). And before this He had warned of the rise of false prophets, of wars and rumors of wars, of plagues and famines and troubles of many kinds – [Read more…]

Will Our Children Keep the Christian Faith?

April 2, 2022May 28, 2023 by Orthodox Editors

Will Our Children Keep the Christian Faith? by Fr. Gabriel (Hieromonk) –

The Catastrophe of Modern Education
I have already written on multiple occasions of the urgent necessity of creating Orthodox parish schools in America.

Our nation’s public schools have degenerated into prison-like institutions which have outlawed all mention of Truth (the Second Person of the Trinity), which forbid any public prayer to the Lord God, which teach sexual propaganda and promote infanticide to kindergarteners, which lead students to believe that they will likely be brutally massacred by their own peers, and which on top of everything else no longer even educate our children in any meaningful sense of the word at all. [Read more…]

Why Does God Put Us Through Trials?

March 15, 2022March 19, 2022 by Orthodox Editors

God put us through trials so that we finally believe in Him by Vladimir Basenkov –
So that we finally believe in Him.

The unit for measuring faith has not been invented yet, but its value determines the degree and the character of a person’s closeness to God. There are fewer convinced atheists than we think. When asked whether or not they recognize the existence of God, most of your personal respondents will answer in the affirmative, even if they are not Christians or actively practicing representatives of any religion in general.

What kind of God they would bear in their minds and how actively they are growing in the knowledge of Him is another story, which ultimately determines the clarity and depth of faith. [Read more…]

Parents Must Fight to Prevent the Fallen World from Stealing Their Children

February 21, 2022March 19, 2022 by Orthodox Editors

Parents Must Fight to Prevent the Fallen World from Stealing Their Children by Fr. Octavian Moşin –
Our main duty is to surround the children with care and prevent any harmful influence from entering their souls or stealing them from us.

To create a family is about denouncing oneself for the sake of the love of your neighbor. On the whole, I think that family is akin to a monastery. A monk at his tonsure takes three vows: to live in chastity, poverty, and obedience. If these principles were kept in family life, we would have a completely different outcome than the one we are facing today.

One should keep his desires at bay, preserve physical and spiritual purity; money should be a shared resource, with no one furtively trying to stash it away, because both the husband’s and the wife’s major goal is to acquire [Read more…]

Cultivate the Spiritual Discipline of Gratitude

December 24, 2021December 26, 2021 by Orthodox Editors

Cultivate the Spiritual Discipline of Gratitude by Fr. Luke A. Veronis –
The spiritual discipline of gratitude helps us to discover life from the perspective of God.

Gratitude as a spiritual discipline. Gratitude as a choice. Let’s think about this. Sometimes, we look at gratitude as a spontaneous response to something someone has done for us. That’s nice. Yet, gratitude as a spiritual discipline means consciously cultivating a spirit of gratitude in all circumstances – for whatever we perceive as good as well as for the blessings we receive even in the midst of difficult, unfortunate or challenging experiences.

Cultivating a spirit of gratitude means opening our hearts to see God’s Presence everywhere in all things and at all times. That’s surely hard to do at times and it may take serious discernment. Yet it is possible. [Read more…]

Don’t Lose Heart in the Troubling Times We Live In

December 18, 2021December 26, 2021 by Orthodox Editors

Dont Lose Heart in the Troubling Times We Live In by Fr. Dimitry Shishkin –
Whatever may happen, we must not succumb to melancholy, but on the contrary, we must resist it with faith, courage and patience

According to statistics, about seventy-five percent of our compatriots [in Russia] were baptized in the Orthodox Church. But the spirit that many of us possess, alas, is far from Christian. This is the spirit of this world with its lack of faith, relaxation and pride.

Now, succumbing to the influence of this spirit, Christians are gradually losing courage, the sense of belonging to the spirit of Christ; and when faced with inevitable problems of life, they begin to grumble, complain and plunge headlong into the abyss of their sufferings. This is also facilitated by the ideology of extreme individualism (which has spread recently), when a person considers himself, his moods and feelings to be the most important thing in life. [Read more…]