Sin Not More

"Behold, thou art made whole; sin not more. Experience proves that sins and passions destroy the health of the soul and the body, whilst the victory over the passions affords heavenly tranquility and health both of the soul and the body."

-St. John of Kronstadt

The Miracle of the Holy Fire

Relics of St. Sabbas the Sanctified Given New Vestments, Palestine, October 13, 2018

The Two Commandments

"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

-St. Matthew 22:36-40

Dome of the Royal Chapel of the Treasure of St. Januarius, Naples

St. Elizabeth the New Martyr

The Orthodox Church is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the discovery of the relics of Holy Grand Duchess Elizabeth on October 11, 2018.

In February 1905, the terrorist Ivan Kalyaev killed her husband, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. The carriage he was in had not yet driven far from their home when it exploded, and the Grand Duchess heard it and ran out of the house.

On the blood-spattered snow, she saw fragments of clothing and the carriage, and of the body of her husband, whom she said goodbye to only moments earlier. The Grand Duchess personally collected the body parts of her husband and put them on a stretcher. Three days later, she came to Butyrsky Prison to tell the arrested terrorist that she forgave him.

She brought a Gospel to the jail cell along with an icon, and asked the terrorist to repent, to spare his own soul. For the first time since the death of Sergei Alexandrovich, a smile appeared on her lips when she was told that Kalyaev put the icon she gave him under his pillow.

The terrorist was later hanged despite the appeal of Grand Duchess Elizabeth to pardon him. Thirteen years later she would likewise ask the Lord to have mercy on the drunken Red Army soldiers who struck her with their rifle butts and threw her into an abandoned mine near the city of Alapaevsk.

The relics of the Grand Duchess were discovered on September 28/October 11, 1918, in the Alapaevsk mine and brought to Jerusalem through China by Hegumen Seraphim (Kuznetsov), former abbot of Belogorsky Monastery in the city of Perm. The crypt containing the saint’s relics are housed in the “Royal” Church of St Mary Magdalene, Equal-to-the-Apostles, in Gethsemane Convent of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia in East Jerusalem.

Divine Liturgy is celebrated at the Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ, Riga, Latvia

On October 7, 2018, the 19th Sunday After Pentecost, His Eminence Metropolitan Alexander of Riga and All Latvia; His Grace Bishop Nicholas of Manhattan, Vicar of the Eastern American Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, the caretaker of the Kursk-Root Icon of the Mother of God "of the Sign;” His Grace Bishop Alexander of Daugavpils and Rezeknes, and His Grace Bishop Ioann of Jelgava, Vicar of the Riga Diocese of the Latvian Orthodox Church, celebrated Divine Liturgy at the Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ in Riga, Latvia, which is now graced with the presence of the Kursk-Root Icon. The hierarchs were joined by numerous clergymen of the diocese and of the delegation of ROCOR.

Khabib!

27-0.

Worms

"Oh, if you only knew what joy, what sweetness awaits a righteous soul in Heaven! You would decide in this mortal life to bear any sorrows, persecutions and slander with gratitude. If this very cell of ours was filled with worms, and these worms were to eat our flesh for our entire life on earth, we should agree to it with total desire, in order not to lose, by any chance, that heavenly joy which God has prepared for those who love Him."

-St. Seraphim of Sarov

Guard

"Provide things relating to the body no further than absolute need requires, as meat, drink, clothing, house, retinue. But cut off everything that looks toward show and luxury. Before marriage guard yourself with all your ability from unlawful intercourse with women.

"If you are dazzled by the semblance of any promised pleasure, guard yourself against being bewildered by it; but let the affair wait your leisure, and procure yourself some delay. Then bring to your mind both points of time — that in which you shall enjoy the pleasure, and that in which you will repent and reproach yourself, after you have enjoyed it — and set before you, in opposition to these, how you will rejoice and applaud yourself if you abstain. And even though it should appear to you a seasonable gratification, take heed that its enticements and allurements and seductions may not subdue you, but set in opposition to this how much better it is to be conscious of having gained so great a victory."

-Epictetus

Have Mercy on Us, Poor Sinners

It's incredible, isn't it?  To know that that after a lifetime of sin, penance, fasting, prayers, we shall meet the LORD  and the Theotokos one day.  We must believe it.  They are looking at us here in this life and we shall surely see Them one day.

How incredible is this?  How incredible is it to know that every longing will be answered once we see them!  How every sorrowful thought will find its true meaning when we see them!  How every tear will find its answer in front of Christ our Savior!   How sublime this meeting will be!

Pray for Indonesia

Over 1400 people have been found dead since the earthquake/tsunami and that number is only rising each day.

Lord please grant peace to those who died and their families.

Iglesia de Santa Bárbara de Samaná, Dominican Republic

May the Theotokos protect the Catholic Church in the Dominican Republic from the Protestant disease that has grown in the Latin American lands.

Vespers, Simonpetra, Mount Athos