Rating: 6|Votes: 2

Hieromartyr Basil Sokolov. "To all who love and remember me!"

Igumen Damascene (Orlovsky)

One day after another dragged on in death row--from the sentence to martyric end. From prison he wrote to his natural and spiritual children. These letters were written over the course of the two weeks preceding the executions of the priests sentenced to be shot, and are a priceless monument of Christian epistemology of latter times, proceeding from the pen of a great pastor and holy martyr.

Rating: 10|Votes: 2

Emperor Constantine the Great (306–337). The Importance of His Faith in the History of the Church

V. Rev. Fr. Thaddaeus Hardenbrook

St. Constantine the Great, Equal to the Apostles, First Christian Emperor of Rome, builder of Constantinople and founder the Byzantine Empire. He is a military victor, effective ruler and glorified saint. There is no doubt that his contribution to world history and that of the Orthodox Church is indeed spectacular.

Hieromartyr Basil Sokolov. Part 1. "Her Prayer Was Granted!"

Commemorated May 13/26

Igumen Damascene (Orlovsky)

Fr. Basil recognized that life cannot go so smoothly. This is not natural, he thought. It is written: In the world ye shall have tribulations, and of course it was not said in vain. One cannot avoid tribulations, just as a calm sea cannot escape storms. A storm is dangerous and terrifying after a long, pleasant calm. So are tribulations difficult for those who are not accustomed to them, especially after a long, unruffled, happy life. "Would that the Lord would send us a cross to try us," Batiushka secretly prayed, "not too heavy, but just so that we would not be forgetful of man's earthly lot.

Rating: 10|Votes: 1

Sunday of the Samaritan Woman

So, here we see Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, immediately breaking two of the laws that were binding on the Jews. This woman—whose name, by the way, was Photini—was taken aback and challenged Christ in a tone of voice that said, “Who do you think you are, you, a Jew, speaking to me?” And He responded: “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that says to you, Give me to drink; you would have asked of Him, and he would have given you living water.”

Rating: 9,9|Votes: 8

On the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman

Archimandrite John (Krestiankin)

This single meeting between Christ and the Samaritan woman turns into a meeting with the living God for both the sinful woman and for the entire world, inasmuch as here, at the well of temporal water, the hitherto unknown source of Eternal Life was first secured. Here Christ for the first time reveals Himself to be the new, inexhaustible well of living water, flowing into Life Eternal.