Remember this and you will no longer judge: Judas was an Apostle, and the thief crucified at Christ’s right hand was a murderer.
– St. John Climacus (John of the Ladder)
Featured image: The Ladder of Divine Ascent, fresco on the north wall of the Chapel of Sucevita Monastery in Romania. Painted by the brothers Ioan and Sofronie of Suceava in 1595.
The ringing of bells is a call to converse with God, of children with their Father – a call to appear before Him.
During the first 1,000 years of its history, the Church create images, either of people or of events of salvation history, which express its theological vision. As the Church through bitter disputes formulated the verbal and conceptual language of its faith, it also developed an artistic vocabulary and language that expressed the same faith, but in colors, lines, and forms.
This historical development, this creative process, resulted in what is called canonical iconography- that is, a common artistic and theological treasure, which before the schism between the East and the West, was shared by the whole of the Christian world…It is not that the iconic tradition of the Orthodox Church has not known various “styles.” We can certainly identify different manners of making images, and we can identify their specific period and country. The description of these manners is the work of art historians. A canonical icon from the Paleologan period is not exactly the same thing as the same icon painted in Novgorod, Macedonia, Crete, or Serbia at various periods. But the Orthodox Church claims that there is a universal, canonical iconography that is expressed by each of these historical and geographical “styles.”
– Fr. Steven Bigham, from “The Icon: Sign of Unity or Division?” pt. 4. Orthodox Arts Journal, 2012
Featured image: In the icon studio of the St. Elizabeth Convent
Christian compromise in thought and word, and negligence in deed, have opened the way to the triumph of the forces of the absurd, of Satan, of Antichrist. The present age of absurdity is the just reward of Christians who have failed to be Christians.
Do not say that you love God and seek His Kingdom, while you wake up in the morning, and you first remember your work and worries, and then thank God.
– Hieromartyr Seraphim (Chichagov)
Featured image: St. Seraphim Chichagov, Metropolitan of Leningrad, in Soviet prison Taganskoye, before being sentenced to death and shot.
Prayer in church is important. The best thoughts and feelings come in church, yes, and the enemy attacks more violently in church, but with the sign of the Cross and the Jesus Prayer, you drive him away. It is good to stand in some dark corner in church and to pray to God. Let us lift up our hearts! the priest exclaims, but our mind often creeps along the ground, thinking about indecent things. Fight against this.
Featured image: source
The cross is not merely a sort of beautiful spiritual meditation. It is also enduring suffering in order to stand against the sinful world.
Featured image: Side-chapel in the Dormition Cathedral in Moscow. Photographer Sergeĭ Mikhaĭlovich, 1911. Prokudin-Gorskiĭ Collection. Library of Congress
Trust God, Who is good, powerful, living and He will bring you to rest. After trials there follows spiritual joy. The Lord watches over all those who for His love endure trials and sorrows. So don’t cower and don’t be fainthearted.
Brethren, let us plant ourselves upon the rock of faith and the tradition of the Church, removing not the landmarks set by our holy fathers, nor giving room to those who are anxious to introduce novelties and to undermine the structure of God’s holy and apostolic Church. For if everyone were allowed a free hand, little by little the entire Body of the Church would be destroyed.
Featured image: The Mar-Saba Monastery (Monastery of St. Sava the Sanctified) where St. John of Damascus served as a hieromonk, and reposed. source