Orthodox Wisdom

St. Maximos the Confessor answers the following question:   If, according to Saint John, “he who is born of God does not sin, because God’s seed is in him, and he cannot sin,” and if he who is “born of water and Spirit” is himself born of God, then how are we who are born of God through baptism still able to sin?   An excerpt from his answer: “So even if we should possess the Spirit of a...

Excerpt from "Holy Scripture and the Church" by St. Hilarion Troitsky   St. Hilarion offers much clarity and foundational argumentation to help both Protestants and Orthodox come to a truly Christian approach to these central matters.    This except is from part II. Listen to all three parts here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLz...   Read the full text here: https://www.n...

Metropolitan Philaret of New York, third First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, and towering figure in the great cloud of 20th century witnesses. An ardent defender of the Truth, both the Person of Christ and the dogma and ethos of His Body, the Orthodox Church, Vladyka Philaret’s ascetic and prayer-filled heart guided ROCOR from 1964 until his repose in 1985. He is well...

This homily was given on February 23, 1903 at the Cathedral Church of San Francisco, California when St. Tikhon was Bishop of the Aleutian Islands and Alaska.   “This Sunday, brethren, begins the week of Orthodoxy, or the week of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, because it is today that the Holy Orthodox Church solemnly recalls its victory over the Iconoclast heresy and other heresies and gratefully...

The Great Fast is upon us. Let us attend!   “You see, God gave us these holy days so that by diligence in abstinence, in the spirit of humility and repentance, a man may be cleansed of the sins of the whole year and the soul relieved of its burden. Purified, he goes forward to the holy day of the Resurrection, and being made a new man through the change of heart induced by the fast, he can ta...

The third of twenty-two sermons specifically on the subject of the Divine Liturgy, preached by New Martyr St. Seraphim (Zvezdinski). Learn more about yet another inspiring martyr under the Soviet antichrists here: https://orthochristian.com/7426.htm   “In the flow of nineteen centuries there has not been one day in which the Divine Liturgy was not offered; and it will not cease as long as the...

On the second Sunday before Great Lent the Church commemorates the Last Judgment when all will be judged according to their love and faith. The great Wonderworker of the latter times, St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco, offers a message ever timely and sobering, with the sole purpose of rousing our sleeping souls to watchfulness, to stand worthily before the dread judgment seat of Christ at th...

St. Ignatius teaches, “The prayer rule, chosen prudently to suit one’s strength and manner of life, offers great support to those seeking to attain salvation. Observance of the rule at the proper times of day and night turns into a habit, into a natural and indispensable requirement. And as soon as the one who has acquired this happy habit comes near the place where he usually performs the rule, h...

Have you wanted to learn more about The Jesus Prayer? Have you wondered, “How do you use a prayer rope?” This short text explains the basics of the what the prayer rope is and the meaning it has in the Holy Tradition of the Church. When it comes to details of praying the Jesus Prayer, please speak with your spiritual father as he can guide you on the specific rule you will have. With Great Lent ap...

Archbishop Averky speaks to our times in the context of a frequently neglected saying of Christ. His peace is not the peace of the world, His truth both unites and divides. As he said to His disciples after his tough sayings led many to leave Him: “Do you also want to go away?” Let us respond like the Apostle Peter, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Archbishop Averky...

“In the face of what has thus been said one might rightfully wonder why the holy Second Ecumenical Council in its seventh Canon, but still more so why the Sixth Ecumenical in its ninety-fifth Canon, failed to disapprove the baptism of all heretics, in accordance with the Apostolical Canons and St. Cyprian's Synod and all the other great God-bearing Fathers aforcmentioned whose writings were confir...

A sermon given in 1971 by Elder Aimilianos of Siminopetra, Mount Athos on Holy Matrimony and the life of husband and wife in Christ.   “Christ says, "wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am among them" (Mt 18.20). And whenever two people are married in the name of Christ, they become the sign which contains and expresses Christ himself. When you see a couple who are...

“Let us correct our lives in order to avoid eternal Hell and instead acquire (through God’s mercy and compassion) the Kingdom of Heaven. We must take a long, hard look at our salvation and realize that it is not a game; it is not something we can ignore; it is not a joke.”   “May our good God enlighten each one of us and give us the strength to settle and arrange any outstanding debts. Let us...

The Venerable Bede sheds patristic light on this passage which not a few have stumbled over. He clearly presents a harmony of faith and works, of the Apostles James and Paul, of how seemingly contradictory teachings in the Scriptures find their balance while retaining their intended weight. All will do well to head his words, especially Protestants so convinced their teaching matches what was “onc...

Chanted in English from the Holy Transfiguration Monastery Prayer Book   Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me!   This channel is dedicated to sharing the writings and lives of the Saints of the Orthodox Church. Glory to Jesus Christ!

This is the first of twenty-two sermons specifically on the subject of the Divine Liturgy, preached by New Martyr St. Seraphim (Zvezdinski). Learn more about yet another inspiring martyr under the Soviet antichrists here: https://orthochristian.com/7426.html “In the Church we have the hands of Christ, His mouth, and His eyes, and also His Divine heart. His hands are the sacred rites; the language...

“It’s Time to Prepare…” is an archived letter (dated 1929) written by St. Damascene to his flock, two years after the Declaration by Met. Sergius. St. Damascene writes, “How dangerous it is to deceive ourselves and lull the vigilance commanded by Christ by the possibility of accepting compromises with the enemies of Christ's faith and the Church. All such compromises will only cause greater divisi...

See NOTE below. Very important!"Once again I write these things to give you courage so that you do not fear illnesses, even if they make you suffer for life. Since God is continuously present, why do you worry? For in Him we live and move. We are carried in His arms.""Since our sweet Jesus is so good, compassionate, and kind, why should you despair? We seek one small thing from Him, and He gives u...

“Denial of the incarnation, denial of the Lord Jesus Christ’s divine dignity is unthinkable to a member of the Church, and any denier of it has of course already thereby apostatized from the Church. Who is the liar if not he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son (cf. 1 Jn. 2:22).”“Listening to the modern religious pulse beat, you involuntarily noti...

Elder Athanasios Mitilinaios, a dynamic and beloved preacher, abbot of the Monastery of Komnineiou and Saint John the Theologian in Stomion, Larisa, Greece, gave 104 consecutive lessons of Revelation to thousands of faithful. This beloved elder, venerated by many in Greece and around the world, reposed in the Lord in the year 2006. This homily is recorded with the blessing of Constantine Zalalas,...

Fr. Daniel Sysoev (+2009) was a priest, husband, confessor, and martyr. His great love for God and man led him to write many texts and convert many to the Orthodox Faith, including personally baptizing over 80 Muslims. Because of this great missionary effectiveness, he was murdered in his own mission church. Fr. Daniel is not yet canonized as a Saint but his witness, both before and after his repo...

St. Seraphim (Sobolev) of Sofia (+1950) gives an exemplary defense of the ecclesiology of the Church and on this basis, why the Russian Orthodox Church (and all local Orthodox Churches) should not participate in the Ecumenical Movement. Delivered euring the proceedings of the Congress of the Orthodox Churches at the celebration of the Quincentennial of the autocephaly of the Russian Orthodox Churc...

St. Seraphim (Sobolev) of Sofia (+1950) gives an exemplary defense of the ecclesiology of the Church and on this basis, why the Russian Orthodox Church (and all local Orthodox Churches) should not participate in the Ecumenical Movement. Delivered during the proceedings of the Congress of the Orthodox Churches at the celebration of the Quincentennial of the autocephaly of the Russian Orthodox Churc...

"The Saints — those who appear from generation to generation, from time to time, following the Saints who preceded them — become linked with their predecessors through obedience to the divine commandments, and endowed with divine grace, become filled with the same light. In such a sequence all of them together form a kind of golden chain, each Saint being a separate link in this chain, joined to t...

Christ is born! Glorify Him! Merry Christmas to you all!“This is the festival of the virgin birth! Our address must be exulted therefore in accordance with the greatness of the feast, and enter into the mystery, as far as this is accessible and permissible, and time allows, that something of its inner power might be revealed even to us. Please strive, brethren, to lift up your minds as well, that...