Beauty of Orthodoxy

Come, rest your soul, find your way.

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,,Humility and obedience help in acquiring various virtues, especially those related to the flesh, but if there is pride, everything is in vain.[..] And further, the man who has great virtues but is proud is like an immense ship, filled with precious things, which does not enter the port but sinks in the waters of the sea.

So great and destructive is the vice of pride on one hand, and on the other hand, so saving is humility. And to whom shall I look, but to him who is humble and gentle and who trembles at My words (Isaiah 66, 2), says the Lord. "

-Saint Venerable Barsanuphius of Optina

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Sometimes, when the love of Christ penetrates us, we feel eternity. This cannot be understood through rational means.

God acts in His own way, which escapes our power of perception. We must not be too rational in Christian life. There are external signs that help us assess at what distance we are from Christ. Do we follow the evangelical word? Have we reached perfection, that is, love for the whole world, without distinction between friends and enemies?

-Archim. Sophrony, From Life and Spirit

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"A monk is one who is separated from all and united with all."

-Saint Evagrius Ponticus

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"As the devil conquered man by a tree in Paradise, so Christ conquered the devil by the tree of the Cross."

-Saint John Chrysostom

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"No matter how great our sins may be, prayer made with faith and a humble spirit erases them all." -

-Saint Isaac the Syrian

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,,Know that there is no soul under heaven that has placed its hope in the Mother of God and remained put to shame in the end! Through her prayers, every soul will have in this present age peace, comfort, protection, and support, and at the hour of death, the mercy of the Mother of God will not abandon it; and on the Day of Judgment, the All-Holy Mother will kneel before her All-Holy and Most Sweet Son and our God Jesus Christ and will say: "Lord, God and my Son, this troubled soul, even if it has sinned, yet it always asked me to pray to Thee. Forgive it and have mercy on it!". And thus, through the prayers of the Mother of God, we will gain mercy, both in this present age, and at the hour of death, and on the Day of Judgment."

-St. Cleopa Ilie

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"Prayer is the breath of the soul; it is its life and its food."

-Saint John of Kronstadt

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,,In a secularized world, where plagues such as despair, false religions, stress, and passions scourge the body of humanity, in a society that is in profound suffering and which cannot leave us indifferent, the priest, as one taken from among men and ordained for men, has an overwhelming role, namely that of sacrificing himself and demonstrating a moral heroism to change the face of the world.

He has the task and the mission to make Christ dwell through the Holy Spirit in the hearts of men and to make man a partaker of the bliss from above. The Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts through the invocation of and participation in the Holy Mysteries, where all Christians become members of the Church."

-M.Parfeni

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Miracles of the Mother of God

,,A frivolous Christian, namely Peter, went with his plow to the field on the feast of Saint Mary Magdalene, whose church was celebrating its patronal feast. Having arrived there, he began plowing, uttering various vain words.

While he was plowing like this, with much stubbornness and insolence, a powerful flash of lightning came down from heaven and struck him. The lightning burned: the plow, the oxen, and Peter. The lightning burned Peter to his veins and bones. The unfaithful Peter, in that severe illness and suffering, ordered that they take him to the church of Saint Mary Magdalene, whose feast day he had dishonored with his plowing. There, through the prayers made by the priests of the church before God and Saint Mary Magdalene, the fire that burned in his body subsided somewhat, but he still did not return to his former health.

Then those close to him counseled together to take him to the church of the Most Holy Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary, in which many miracles were performed. In the night that followed after they had brought him into the church, the Holy Mother appeared to him, together with Saint Hippolytus. She commanded the Hierarch Hippolytus to heal Peter. According to the command of the Mother of God, Saint Hippolytus healed him at once."

-Protos. Nicodim Măndiță, Miracles of the Mother of God

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,,The more measured one's life is, the happier they are. For they do not worry about many things: about servants, about workers, about lands, and the wealth of livestock. For by pinning ourselves to these, we will drown in the hardships linked to them and we will blame God. Behold how death is watered by our own voluntary desire and how we wander in the darkness of a sinful life, not knowing ourselves."

-St. Athony the Great

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Saint Paisios recounted the below miracle from his time on the Holy Mountain:

“It was Sunday. Again, I felt exhausted, and it occurred to me then that some fish for lunch would be good for me. I did not desire it out of gluttony, but only as medicine, l went to a neighbouring cell, and on my way back, I saw a huge bird that looked like an eagle. It was flying so low above the ground that I bent down to avoid a collision. I feared that the bird could be a temptation from the devil, so l hurried straight into my cell. After some time, I needed to exit my cell. Where the bird had nearly hit me, I saw a big live fish. It was still trembling. I crossed myself, gave my thanks to God and picked up the fish. But after the miracle that happened, how could l eat it?”

The sight of the miracle gave Elder Paisios strength. He put on his shoes and took the God-given fish to Elder Philaret and Father Bartholomew to receive their blessing. To remind himself about this gift and the providence of God for him, St Paisios drew on his bed an eagle with a large fish in its claws.

(excerpt from his biography)

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,,Pride is the surest way to close yourself off, because it convinces you that you are already complete, that you need nothing outside of yourself. Pride is a monolithic closure that leaves no room for grace to enter. Only humility can create cracks that make us permeable to the working of grace."

-Fr. Paul Siladi

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