Orthostrength

"I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me." Phil. 4:13. [Christian Orthodox. Lawyer. Gym enthusiast.]

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Missionary Logic: Too Little, Too Late - Journey To Orthodoxy

by Fr. Barnabas Powell “Jack” was a missionary to Ethiopia providing free education, but his subtler task was to convert the locals from the ancient Ethiopian Orthodox Church to his modern form of American Christianity. There was just one problem. He found himself drawn to the beauty of the faith that the apostles brought to …

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Blessed feast to all celebrating Saint Gregory the Theologian!

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O Heavenly King

This is a clip taken from the Akathist of Thanksgiving, beautifully chanted by the choir of St. Ignatius Antiochian Orthodox Mission in Madison, WI. http://w...

Please listen. This is beautiful.

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An Unnecessary Salvation | Glory to God for All Things

One of the oddest thoughts to have crept its way into the Christian mind is the notion of what is “necessary to salvation.” The simple questions within the New Testament, “What must we do to be saved?” quickly become the stuff of bumper-stickers and a reduced version of Christianity unable to sustain a genuine spiritual ... Read More →

For anyone wondering about salvation, or afraid that they won’t make it; read this.

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by George Demacopoulos Politics may make for strange bedfellows but the political alliances forged by many American Christians are worse than strange—they are ironic and self-contradictory. On the ...

“In the second century, when Christians first intervened in the public arena, they stressed that their contribution was superior to ordinary Roman citizens because they were motived by faith in God, rather than political advancement. For authors like St. Justin Martyr, Christians sought the public good, for the sake of the good, regardless of whether the state looked favorably upon Christianity. This is a profoundly important insight.” Worth the read!

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Follow the Mediterranean Diet with these easy but specific steps. I'll show you how to accomplish them and get you on the Mediterranean diet in no time!

Looking to make some positive changes to your eating habits?

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The garden that we have undertaken to tend and watch over is the field of our own heart; the harvest is eternal life. Eternal, because it is independent of time and space and other external circumstances: it is the true life of freedom, the life of love and mercy and light, that has no bounds whatever, and for just that reason is eternal. It is a spiritual life in a spiritual dominion: a state of being. It begins here, and has no end, and no earthly power can coerce it; and it is to be found in the human heart. Persecute yourself, says Isaac of Syria, and your enemy is routed as fast as you approach. Make peace with yourself, and heaven and earth make peace with you. Take pains to enter your innermost chamber and you will see the chamber of heaven, for they are one and the same, and entering one you behold them both. The stairway to the kingdom is within you, secret in your soul. Cast off the burden of sin and you will find within you the upward path that will make your ascent possible. The heavenly chamber of which the saint speaks here is another name for eternal life. It is also called the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, or quite simply, Christ. To live in Christ is to live in eternal life.

Tito Colliander, The Way of the Ascetics, via http://www.asna.ca/articles/200407-01.html

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Be patient

Be patient with your own passions and be patient with mine. Then you’ll become a saint. » Elder Ephraim of Katounakia

Amen!

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Blessed feast and many years to all celebrating their nameday on the day of Sts. Athanasios and Cyril, Patriarchs of Alexandria!

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This is by no means the only story of its kind. There are human rights challenges against the public display of Christian symbols and expressions of faith across the United States and the rest of the Western world.

[lightoforthodoxy]

To repent is to smile, not to frown—to look up, not down. It is not just the recognition that things have gone wrong, but the realization that through Christ they can be put right. It is not the sight of our own ugliness but the vision of God’s beauty.

Metropolitan Kallistos of Diokleia (via lightoforthodoxy)

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Blessed feast and many years to all celebrating their nameday for St. Anthony the Great!

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I no longer have the original source for this picture, but it translates like this (though the picture is fairly self-explanatory!): “False Evolution (versus) True Evolution”