April 1, 2019 Benefits of Our Prayers for the Dying Fragment of a homily by Saint Gregory the Pope of Rome about a monk who was almost swallowed by a serpent but was released…
March 31, 2019 Where to Arrange Icons at Home: Why the East Is So Important? Traditionally, icons are placed on the east wall of a building. We can see it in Orthodox churches where the iconostasis is made in…
March 31, 2019 Is It Necessary for the Orthodox to Always Wear a Cross? Question: “Is it necessary for an Orthodox Christian to always wear a Cross?” Answer: The practice of wearing a cross is very ancient, and…
March 29, 2019 The Most Suitable Time for Changing Ourselves Father Alexander Volokhov is the rector of the Nikitskaya church of the Domodedovsky deanery. We’ve asked Fr Alexander to share his thoughts on how…
March 29, 2019 The Unction: Whom Is It For, How to Prepare for It, and What to Do with the Oil, the Candles, and the Grain? Archimandrite Spyridon (Khodanich) on the rules of the Unction. The Sacrament of Unction is performed in all Orthodox churches during the Great Lent. However,…
March 28, 2019 Theotokos of the Sign: the Explanation of the Icon This is the icon most likely to confront any visitor to an Orthodox church or cathedral, as it is usually present in the upper…
March 28, 2019 On the Sharp Question of Female Priesthood Extract from “Orthodoxy and Western Christianity. Contemporary Protestantism. On Female Priesthood.” The issue of ordination of women arises from the Protestant attitude to priesthood…
March 27, 2019 “The Uncomfortable Book”: How Classical Literature Helps in Understanding Our Faith Thus, though exiled to the earth, we ascend to the heaven by love… – Valery Bryusov Apart from the works of spiritual literature, it…
March 27, 2019 On Finding Time for God, for Yourself and for Others during Great Lent As I prepared for my first confession some years ago, I was given a rubric that I still follow. It asks me to reflect…
March 27, 2019 Why Orthodoxy Is not a Religion According to Fr. Alexander Schmemann, Orthodox Christianity is not a religion. In his For the Life of the World, he wrote, “Christianity is in a…
March 26, 2019 Seven Deadly Sins: Gluttony and What It Leads Us to C.S. Lewis, in his book Screwtape Letters, Chapter XVII, imagined a senior devil writing to a junior devil about how to tempt a certain Englishman: “One of our…
March 26, 2019 On Breaking and Cutting the Bread, or Why Did the Knife Appear? The knife has been used for cutting the Bread for a long time. Priests in Constantinople started to use it in the early 8th…
