Just as the thought of fire does not warm the body, so faith without love does not actualize the light of spiritual knowledge in the soul.
- St. Maximos the Confessor
With the Saints give rest, O Christ, to the soul of Your servants where there is no pain, nor sorrow, nor suffering, but life everlasting.
May their memory be eternal!
When I became Christian I voluntarily crucified my mind, and all the crosses that I bear have only been a source of joy for me. I have lost nothing, and gained everything.
- Taken from the book: “Father Seraphim Rose: His Life and Works”
:) Fr. Seraphim puts things so clearly.
Russian Orthodox depiction of Holy Archangel Michael
This icon makes me love St. Michael so much! That’s why I wanted to share it with all of you… Please Archangel Michael pray for all of us and keep us under your protection!
@forgivemeasinner :)
“We no longer knew whether we were in heaven or on earth,” said an emissary of Vladimir, the pagan Prince of Kiev, after seeing the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. Vladimir converted to Christianity the next year, in 988. The magnificence of this one church may be responsible for Russia being a Christian rather than a Muslim nation.
Photograph by willigula, 2010
It’s hard to describe in words or pictures the immense weightlessness of the central dome of the Hagia Sophia - an engineering marvel made even more incredible by unfathomable antiquity.
The Hagia Sophia was already a thousand years old when Francisco Pizarro conquered the Inca Empire.
(photograph by Billy Knox, 2010)
To some people your love will be expressed with joy and to others it will be expressed with your pain. You will consider everyone your brother or your sister, for we are all children of Eve. Then, in your prayer you will say: ‘My God, help those first who are in greater need, whether they are alive or reposed brothers in the Lord.’ At this point, you will share your heart with the whole world and you will have nothing but immense love, which is Christ.
-Elder Paisius of Mount Athos