Web Browser Confessions

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and of earth, and of all things visible and invisible; And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Only-begotten, Begotten of the Father before all ages, Light of Light, True God of True God, Begotten not made; of one essence with the Father, by whom all things were made; Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man. And He was crucified for us also under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried; and on the third day He rose again, in accordance with the scriptures; He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father, and He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, Whose kingdom shall have no end. And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life, Who proceedeth from the Father, Who with the Father and the Son art worshipped and glorified, Who spoke by the Prophets; In One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins. I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the Life of the world to come. Amen.

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Prayer for Mental Health

O Master, Lord my God, in Whose hands is my destiny: Help me according to Thy mercy, and leave me not to perish in my transgressions, nor allow me to follow them who place desires of the flesh over those of the spirit. I am Thy creation; disdain not the work of Thy hands. Turn not away; be compassionate and humiliate me not, neither scorn me, O Lord, as I am weak. I have fled unto Thee as my Protector and God. Heal my soul, for I have sinned against Thee. Save me for Thy mercy's sake, for I have cleaved unto Thee from my youth; let me who seeks Thee not be put to shame by being rejected by Thee for mine unclean actions, unseemly thoughts, and unprofitable remembrances. Drive away from me every filthy thing and excess of evil. For Thou alone art holy, alone mighty, and alone immortal, in all things having unexcelled might, which, through Thee, is given to all that strive against the devil and the might of his armies. For unto Thee is due all glory, honor and worship: To the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

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Today, mankind is in need of true, genuine, Christian Orthodox love. We do not love correctly. If we did, our deeds would attest to it. Our deeds reveal the truth about our life and our thoughts. The basic constituent known as selfless and sincere love for our brothers (not only the living but also the deceased) must not be absent from our hidden work--the spiritual work which every Christian must carry out. The pain of the person who is suffering from either a physical illness or depression, and the agony of the person whom God has condemned and sentenced to jail must become our own pain. When this pain becomes part of us, God will heal us.

The Art of Salvation by Elder Ephraim of Arizona

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“The priests are bad, the state is not good, everything is bad. You would like to have the Holy Queen Saint Tamara as president, and Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker to serve as priest in your parish. And what about you - what are you really like? Who are you?”

St. Gabriel of Samtavro

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tendonitus in my wrist so i cannot type

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A Prayer for those in Mental Darkness

O Heavenly Father, we beseech Thee to have mercy upon all Thy children who are living in mental darkness. Restore them to strength of mind and cheerfulness of spirit, and give them health and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

From the Saint Andrew Service Book

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O Lord and Master of my life! Take from me the spirit of sloth, faint-heartedness, lust of power, and idle talk. But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to Thy servant. Yea, O Lord and King! Grant me to see my own errors and not to judge my brother; For Thou art blessed unto ages of ages. Amen.

The Lenten Prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian

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'But,' you will say, 'I cannot endure insult from my enemies.' Why is that, pray? For, if what is said be true, you ought to show compunction even in his presence, and to be grateful to him for the charges. If, on the contrary, it be false, treat it with scorn. Does he call you poverty-stricken? Laugh at him. Does he say you are low-born or foolish? Groan for his future lot. For 'Whoever says to his brother, "Thou fool!" shall be liable to the fire of Gehenna' (Matt. 5.22) Therefore, when he insults you, think of the punishment which he has in store for him, and not only will you not feel angry, but you will even shed tears for him. Indeed, one does not become angry with a fever patient or someone suffering from inflammation, but one pities and grieves for all such unfortunates. The soul inflamed with anger is in truth like them.

Commentary on Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist by Saint John Chrysostom

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Saint John probably did understand, but man: fasting from food is by far the easy part. If I could achieve every Christian success so easily, I could probably survive on a few pieces of bread a day for the entirety of Lent. I could waste away until every bone showed if that's all it took, but the law has been fulfilled, that's not how God operates. He had the Israelites operate in that way for a while, but not any more. Christ gives us a burden that's paradoxically both easier and harder: it really is as simple as having your heart in the right place, but somehow just saying a few words to my priest on Sunday is infinitely more effort than subsisting on microwaved potatoes a third of the year.

And you want to know a secret? Fasting from food has no real benefit in itself whatsoever. People around you aren't getting much out of it, even in a famine, don't you know that the Lord takes care of them? God sure isn't getting anything from your fast, and you're just getting weaker, in the body. The point is for your benefit, the point is, ideally, to fall flat on your face every hour of every day, then get up again, until you stop lying on the floor saying ow ow I think I broke something and start getting up before you even realize you've fallen. The point is to arrive at Easter realizing that even though you haven't had a scrap of meat for the entire season, you are the man who waited until the eleventh hour, then hear the priest say, you sober and you heedless, and finally get it in the way that a post online could never confer and listen to your voice crack as you yell CHRIST IS RISEN.

[rabbits-of-negative-euphoria]

saying "I'm a Christian, but not that kind of Christian" is a bit like telling someone you're a lady/a powerful man/a genius. if you have to say it, it's probably not true.

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If you ("you" being "me" in this case) are Orthodox: don't think you're exempt.

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[fillyreports]

Pray for me y'all, I'm about to visit my grandma for what will probably be the last time

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X X

Proofread a friend's story, the hero temporarily avoids death by pretending to have a change of heart and side with the villain. The villain says he knows the hero is merely pretending, but that pretending to side with him for long enough will achieve the same result regardless.

Then I had the same thing happen to me in real life, and it did work.

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It is easy indeed to confess that I have no fasted on prescribed days, or missed my prayers, or become angry. It is quite a different thing, however, to realize suddenly that I have defiled and lost my spiritual beauty, that I am far away from my real home, my real life, and that something precious and pure and beautiful has been hopelessly broken in the very texture of my existence. Yet this, and only this, is repentance, and therefore it is also a deep desire to return, to go back, to recover that lost home. I received from God wonderful riches: first of all life and the possibility to enjoy it, to fill it with meaning, love, and knowledge; then--in Baptism--the new life of Christ Himself, the gift of the Holy Spirit, the peace and the joy of the eternal Kingdom. I received the knowledge f God, and in Him the knowledge of everything else and the power to be a son of God. And all this I have lost, all this I am losing all the time, not only in particular "sins" and "transgressions," but in the sin of all sins: the deviation of my love from God, preferring the "far country" to the beautiful home of the Father.

Great Lent: Journey to Pascha by Fr. Alexander Schmemann

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