St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov)
Rating: 8|Votes: 1
And I set my face to the Lord my God, to pray and make supplication with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes. And I prayed to the Lord my God, and I made my confession (Dan. 9:2-4). The state to which fasting and prayer brings a person makes him especially capable of receiving Divine benefactions and Divine revelation.
Archimandrite John (Krestiankin)
Rating: 10|Votes: 1
The Patriarch was the spiritual leader of the Russian people during a very difficult time. He continues to be so during our difficult time in Russia—a time of schism, separation, and falls. The Church's duty in such trials is to inspire and unite the people for the sake of saving their native land, faith, and truth, serving for unification.
Archbishop Dmitri (Royster)
Rating: 10|Votes: 2
The Cross is our badge and emblem as Christians. Remove the Cross from our lives and we have nothing. Without the Cross, both in Christ’s life and in ours, there is no genuine Christianity and consequently, no reason to observe Lent or any other sacred season. This fact may seem self-evident. Yet ours is a time in which words like sin, repentance, sacrifice, the Cross and crucifixion, are misunderstood, being viewed even by some Christians with suspicion, as "negative" terms, at least when applied to our own lives.
“In former times, God, being without form or body, could in no way be represented. But today, since God has appeared in the flesh and lived among men, I can represent what is visible in God. I do not worship matter, but I worship the creator of matter who became matter for my sake … and who, through matter accomplished my salvation. Never will I cease to honor the matter which brought about my salvation.”
On the day of the Meeting of the Lord, an encounter occurred between the Old and New Testaments. Old Testament humanity in the person of the Elder Simeon and the Prophetess Anna saw with it's own eyes, in the Person of the Child Jesus, the realization of all its expectations and the meaning of its own existence. Old Testament humanity, although it was not deprived of Divine Revelation concerning the meaning of life and even had communion with God to a limited extent, all the same, became increasingly more conscious of the limited degree of this communion.
