February 17, 2020 The Divnogorskaya Sicilian Icon of the Mother of God Stops Deadly Epidemic The Divnogorskaya Sicilian Icon of the Mother of God was named after the place of its original location and its glorification in the Holy…
February 17, 2020 A Monk from a Samurai Family Hierodeacon Nikolai (Ono) comes from an old family of priests of the Japanese Orthodox Church. His great-great grandfather’s name—Priest John Ono—is often mentioned in…
February 16, 2020 They Want Me To Go To Church Not So Much For My Sake As For Their Sake A child once told me, “Father, I would like to go to church in the morning. I really want to go.” “Great,” I tell…
February 15, 2020 St. Nicholas of Japan on Buddhism Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Archbishop Nicholas (Kasatkin; 1836-1912), an outstanding missionary to Japan where he labored for over fifty years, was the founder of the Japanese…
February 13, 2020 Atheists’ Killer Argument: Why Do Babies Suffer? Perhaps this is the most vulnerable point of our faith. The opponents of Christianity love to muzzle us with this question, while we are…
February 13, 2020 Christian Love and Human Eros on Valentine’s Day Valentine’s Day is a big deal in America and I am not going to try to diminish that. Even though trying to trace back…
February 12, 2020 An Icon as a Profile Picture: Is It Blasphemy or Not? Question: Can I use an icon as my profile picture? Is it blasphemy or not? Answer: An icon is a sacred image. It is…
February 12, 2020 St. Basil the Great: “Do Not Sink Back!” Make the effort to rise from the ground. Remember the good Shepherd who will follow and rescue you. Whether you are wounded in both…
February 11, 2020 Why Do Some Saints Have Square Halos? Indeed, we can see such images of saints, mainly of the Byzantine period, on the walls of ancient temples. Standing or kneeling figures with…
February 11, 2020 “I Was Offended and Decided to Leave the Temple Without Getting Baptized” – The Story of An Artist Who Painted More Than Fifty Paintings About St. Xenia of Petersburg One day, my life started to remind me of a broken record. One more spin, and it’s the same. It’s like you exist in…
February 11, 2020 The Marks of the Church: the Church as Apostolic We come at last to the final adjective in the Creed’s description of the Church: apostolic. The word “apostolic” comes from the Greek word apostello,…
February 10, 2020 The Icon of the Mother of God Assuage My Sorrows This image got its name after the lines from the following sticheron dedicated to the Mother of God, “Assuage the sickness of my greatly…
