Hieromonk Job (Gumerov)
The custom of adorning the church with tree branches, flowers, and grass goes back to ancient times. The Old Testament Pentecost was the feast of the first harvest (Ex. 23:16). People brought the first fruits of their harvest and flowers into the court of the Temple. In New Testament times, the trees and other plants in the church symbolize the renewal of people through the power of the Holy Spirit which has descended.
St. John of Shanghai
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not three gods, but one God, since They have one nature. But not only because of this. People also have one nature, one essence. But with people one cannot say that two or three persons are one person, no matter how close and amicable they may be. People not only have separate bodies, but each one also has his own will, his own tastes, his own moods.
Very Rev. Dr. Edward Pehanich
St. Sophia was born as Sophia Saoulidi in 1883 in the village of Trebizond in present-day Turkey. In 1907 she married Jordan Hortokoridou but in 1914 he disappeared (likely against his will) leaving her as the single mother of a new born son. She faced another tragedy shortly after the loss of her husband when this her only child died. Sophia became totally dependent upon God and began to spend increasing amounts of time in prayer on a nearby mountain.
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In view of Moscow's ascendancy as leader of Russia, it was a favorable marriage, but the young princess was not to be envied. These were turbulent times for the grand duchy, as one crisis spilled into another: Moscow was swept by a plague, ravaged by fire, besieged by the Lithuanians, engaged in a protracted war with Tver, and constantly at the mercy of the Tartars.
Fr. Geoffrey Korz
It is often said that Canada is a nation of immigrants. More than perhaps any nation in the history of the world, the Canadian population is made up of those born outside her borders, those whose first loyalties were (and even still are) in another place, and whose homeland - the "Old Country" - is far, far away.
