click on photos to enlarge Any good parent knows that he must love all his children equally. No favoritism should be displayed when raising children if we want them to know they are loved. Troubled children often get more attention from a loving parents because mom and dad know this
and All Russia’sLetter to Patriarch Shenouda III of the Coptic Church To: His Holiness SHENOUDA III His Holiness SHENOUDA III Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the Throne of St. Mark in All Africa and the Middle East Your Holiness, It has deeply grieved me to learn about the new
God is Heard in the Silence of the Heart The very heart of Orthodox monasticism is found in hesychia, that is, keeping stillness.The hesychast denies in order to affirm. Based on Christ’s injunction in the Gospel of Saint Matthew to “go into your closet to pray”, hesychasm in tradition has
God Infuses His Energies into the Icons The Old Testament God was revealed to us by Christ Jesus. Prior to the incarnation of the Logos, God’s people were forbidden to make any image of Him, for no one had seen His face. Yet when Christ said to His disciples, “he
Christ’s Resurrection Paves the Way The fact that we Orthodox do not accept the doctrine of original sin as espoused in the West, does in no way suggest that we do not need to be born again (born anew). We believe, as did the Early Church Fathers, that we inherit
All is Sent Down by You When we hear the words, “all is sent down by you” this does not mean that God wills anything evil to happen but only that we always need to be open to God’s presence, grace and mercy, no matter what. God allows difficulties to
Sharing Orthodoxy at the Puget Sound Zen Center The Wellspring of Life It is unfathomable for me to think what my life might have been like had I never become Orthodox, never entered the monastic life. The joy I feel at having tasted from the ocean of grace that is
The Life of my Patron Saint Saint Tryphon, Abbot of Vyatka Commemorated on October 8/21 Saint Tryphon, Archimandrite of Vyatka, came of pious parents, living in the Archangelsk diocese. His parents intended to marry Tryphon off, but from his youth, he desired the monastic life, and he secretly left his
Creating a Christian Environment in the Home Creating a Christian home begins with the icon corner. The bright corner becomes the center for every domestic church, where the family devotions take place. This is also the family’s way of declaring to visitors that this is a Christian home, where Christ
Being Orthodox in a Non-Orthodox World In this pluralistic society there are many Orthodox individuals who’ve found themselves sharing their lives with non-Orthodox family members. Sometimes these families are not even practicing Christians, so the struggle to keep to the traditions and practices of the Orthodox Faith can be difficult.