Рейтинг: 9,3|Голосов: 3
Fr. Ted Bobosh
Things around us change, and we change in this process as well. This is what makes repentance and forgiveness possible. We are journeying to the Kingdom of God, to the eschaton, to heaven, to God’s Paradise.
St. Augustine
Let not your fasting be of the kind condemned by the Prophet when he said: Not this fast have I chosen, saith the Lord. For He denounces the fasts of quarrellers; He seeks those of the devout. He denounces those who oppress and seeks those who release. He denounces those who stir up hostilities and seeks those who set free. For, during these days, you restrain your desires from lawful pursuits that you may not do what is unlawful.
His Holiness Patriarch Kirill
This is why repentance is at the center of our Great Lenten endeavors. To help man repent before God, the Church introduces him to the special, grace-filled power of the Lenten services and prayers, and of the frequent communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. The time of Lent is the time of purifying the soul; it is the time when we prepare ourselves for receiving the Kingdom of God.
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Fr. Stephen Freeman
The teaching of the Orthodox spiritual fathers is that we should forgive everyone for everything. Only in this can we be “like our Father in heaven.” But make no mistake: it is scary, hard, and without promise of safety or reward.
Рейтинг: 7,8|Голосов: 5
Today we enter upon the observance of Lent, the season now presented to us in the passage of the liturgical year. An appropriately solemn sermon is your due so that the word of God, brought to you through my ministry, may sustain you in spirit while you fast in body and so that the inner man, thus refreshed by suitable food, may be able to accomplish and to persevere courageously in the disciplining of the outer man. For, to my spirit of devotion, it seems fitting that we, who are about to honor the Passion of our crucified Lord in the very near future, should fashion for ourselves a cross of the bodily pleasures in need of restraint.
