In English

‘For the son of man did not come to be served but to serve’ On the 5th Sunday of Great Lent, our Church presents and honors the sacred memory of a holy woman, our blessed mother, Mary the Egyptian, who began from a life in the shadows and was made perfect in asceticism. Her life is an extreme story of sanctity, a tale of Adam’s nakedness, of physical and spiritual lack of passion, divestment of human properties, abandonment of personal ideas and will, recovery of the ancient health of the soul, a story of virginity of the body and of the spirit. It’s a tale of plunging into the infinite depths of the grace of God. Her memory is accentuated towards ...

Let’s acknowledge that not sinning at all is beyond human powers and is a characteristic of God alone. But if you remain untreated, that’s a characteristic of a wicked nature and of the forces that come from that nature, which is contrary to God. The return of those who have sinned is a characteristic of humankind, but of good people, who belong to the portion of those who are saved. Saint Gregory the Theologian

Words which aren’t the outcome of prayer are like dried mud. They don’t adhere to anything, no matter how much wisdom and sense they appear to show. Words that are the result of prayer, on the other hand, ‘stick’. They go straight into other people’s minds and so these people are helped. Dimitrios Panagopoulos, preacher

If, out of love for God and for the sake of a life of virtue, people don’t take undue care of themselves, believing rather that God will look after them, this trust in God’s providence is both practical and sensible. Saint Seraphim of Sarov

We stand on the threshold of Holy Week. The Lord Jesus Christ triumphally enters Jerusalem to raise us and save us through His Holy Crucifixion and Glorious Resurrection. The “hour” has come, and the Lord prays in the Garden of Gethsemane: “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour” (John 12: 27). In these days, we remember another “hour,” the hour of Metropolitan Paul Yazigi’s kidnapping in Aleppo. It was about three o’clock in the afternoon of April 22, 2013, when His Eminence courageously entered Aleppo, accompanied by Archbishop Youhanna Ibrahim, in order to free two innocent priests held as ...

Advance registration is required. Register HERE. Join myOCN Interactive Virtual Community will be offering 30 minute virtual crafting activities for children every day of Holy Week beginning with Palm Sunday, in partnership with Orthodox Pebbles learning materials. Join us for Holy Week Crafts for Kids, every day of Holy week (April 25-May 1) at 3:30 pm EST. These simple crafts will engage children around each day of Holy Week and prepare them for a joyful Pascha at home. Advance registration is required. IMPORTANT NOTES FOR PARTICIPATION:  Advance registration is required. Please register as early as possible, as participants will receive a list of suggested materials in advance of Holy Week. Materials will not be provided. We recommend purchasing materials in advance and following along with your children during the sessions. Crafts are ...

Avarice causes a diminution of love. It sows hatred within us against others for embezzling or stealing what’s ours. Heartfelt goodwill, on the other hand, makes us love those towards whom we’re generous. Forced generosity provokes antipathy. Avarice comes from the devil, whereas generosity is of God. Saint John Kronstadtskij

After those who came to be baptized in the ancient Church, the whole of their life was imbued with a godly passion for holy communion. Allegorical symbols of the heavenly food of the faithful filled places of worship, especially in the catacombs. Images of the true vine, of the panting hart which runs to ‘the springs of water’. In the crypt of Lucina there are depictions of fish and baskets with bread for holy communion. An epigraph in Latin states: ‘Love, pour me wine’. In the Greek chapel of the catacomb of Priscilla, a wall-painting from the 2nd century depicts the ‘breaking of the bread’. The priest is dividing the bread. Before him is a chalice and around him six ...

Jealousy and envy are the cause of every evil and the enemy of every good. They were the cause of Cain’s murder of Abel, the reason why Esau wanted to get rid of Jacob and why Saul hounded David. Jealousy and envy blind the intellect, besmirch the soul, darken the soul, sadden God, bring joy to the demons, close the heavens and open hell. Saint Dimitri of Rostov

My soul, my soul arise. Why are you sleeping? The end draws nigh and soon you will be troubled. Take heed, then, that Christ your God may spare you. For he is everywhere present and fills all things. In parishes, the Great Canon is sung independently of Matins, on the evening of Wednesday in the fifth week of Lent. We begin by reading Small Compline and immediately thereafter start to sing the Great Canon with each verse followed by the refrain ‘Have mercy on me, Lord, have mercy on me’. The Great Canon was composed by Saint Andrew of the Jerusalem brotherhood, Archbishop of Crete, and is one of the most wonderful hymns of our Church, a hymn of profound contrition and ...

Don’t show off with eloquent words, nor embellishments in singing. Don’t give conceited and pompous speeches, but rather remove hyperbole from everything you do. Saint Basil the Great

It’s impossible to love and know the Lord if we don’t live in accordance with his commandments. We’re not able to observe God’s commandments on our own. This is why Jesus said: ‘Ask and it will be given to you’ (Matth. 7, 7). If we don’t ask, we torture ourselves and lose the grace of the Holy Spirit. Saint Silouan the Athonite

The body and soul are like a pair of scales: if you load one of the plates, the other one necessarily becomes lighter. So, if the body’s having a good time, the soul becomes inert and listless. On the other hand, when the soul is elevated with virtue, the desires of the flesh wither. Elder Cleopa Ilie

Sorrow that brings joy is from God. Sorrow that begets melancholy and despair is from the devil. When the devil brings this sorrow of despair, make sure you sing hymns and pray, so that you get rid of it. Elder Germanos Stavrovouniotis

Wherever God is there’s no evil. Everything that flows from God has peace within it and leads us to self-criticism and humility. Saint Seraphim of Sarov

In a marriage, if the wife regards her role towards her husband as servitude, she’ll want to be liberated and show herself superior to him. If the husband considers the wife’s love for him to be a weakness and dependence, he’ll abuse it and be domineering towards her. But this is all wrong. Elder Iosif Vatopaidinos  

In the eyes of God, Who knows our heart, if you try to do something and can’t, it’s as if you actually did do it. That’s true of both good and evil. Saint Mark the Ascetic

Hope in God never leads to despair. Temptations bring humility. God knows how much each of us can bear and allows temptations commensurate with our strength. But we should also be vigilant and careful so that we don’t put ourselves into the path of temptation of our own volition. Saint Nektarios of Pentapolis

In the wonderful book The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Saint John the Sinaite speaks of the struggle against the passion of telling lies. And in presenting the disastrous consequences thereof he says: ‘Lying is the obliteration of love, and false testimony is the denial of God’. An incomparably worse deed than mere lying to other people, then, is the use of a false oath, because if we mock God in this way, we are in essence denying him and estranging ourselves from him. The concession of the divine oath The oath was a means of confirmation which was allowed under Mosaic law because of the spiritual infancy of the people of God. In his love for us, God agreed to be called ...

‘Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief’ This phrase shows the real struggle which Orthodox Christians are called upon to wage. Faith isn’t a philosophical construct nor an abstract concept but an actual experience. The Creed which we say isn’t simply something we read; it’s something we first experience and then confess. In the Gospel excerpt which is read on the 4th Sunday of Lent (Mark 9, 17 – 31), the likely consequences of a lack of faith on our part are revealed. Today’s world may seem very different from that of the time of the Gospel, but if we examine it more closely, it has the same passions and the same misguided mindset. The technological and philosophical achievements may have changed, but ...