Orthodox prayers of saints and the Mother of God

Orthodox and church holidays and fasts

Today is an Orthodox church holiday: * Great Martyr Euphemia the All-Praised (memory of the miracle by which Orthodoxy was established, 451). * Equal to the Apostles Grand Duchess Olga of Russia, in holy baptism Helena (969) and other saints whose names we remember on this day... Tomorrow:

* Martyrs Proclus and Hilary (c. 98-117).
* St. Michael Malein (962) and other saints whose names we remember on this day... Holidays are expected: 07/26/2021
- * Cathedral of the Archangel Gabriel.
* St. Stephen Savvait (794) and other saints whose names we remember on this day... 07.27.2021
- * Apostle Aquila of the 70 (I) and other saints whose names we remember on this day...
07.28.2021
- * Martyrs of Kirik and Julitta, his mother (c. 305). *** Equal to the Apostles Grand Duke Vladimir, in holy baptism Vasily, Baptist of Rus' (1015) and other saints whose names we remember on this day...

All Orthodox and church holidays and fasts...

Born

• Angelika Kaufmann (1741-1807) - German artist, graphic artist.

• Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816) - Anglo-Irish writer and politician (comedy “The School for Scandal”).

• Alfred Sisley (1839-1899) was a French artist of English origin.

• Louise Abbema (1853-1927) - French artist, sculptor and designer of the Belle Epoque.

• Emile Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1929) - French sculptor.

• Paul Valéry (1871-1945) - French poet, essayist, philosopher.

• Claude Lelouch (born 1937) - French film director, screenwriter, cameraman, actor, producer (film “A Man and a Woman”).

Louise Abbema. “Flora” Photo: Wikipedia Emile Antoine Bourdelle. "Hercules". Photo: Wikipedia

Orthodox Saints of God

The holy saints of God show special love and mercy to those who honor their holy memory.

It seems to many that the saints are far from us. But they are far from those who have withdrawn themselves, and very close to those who keep the commandments of Christ and have the grace of the Holy Spirit.

The holy saints in their earthly life turned to God for help in healing their ailments, sorrows and deliverance from temptations, asking God that even after death He would honor them with the gift of helping people in various cases of life.

The saints have reached the Heavenly Kingdom and there they see the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ; but by the Holy Spirit they also see the suffering of people on earth. Many holy saints of God received special grace from God, and He deigned them to be intercessors before Him for deliverance from our sorrows and bodily ailments, in which they themselves were tempted.

The saints rejoice at our repentance and mourn when people leave God and become like foolish cattle. They feel sorry that people live on earth, not knowing that if they loved each other, then there would be freedom from sin on earth: and where there is no sin, there is joy and gladness from the Holy Spirit, so that, wherever you look, everything sweet, and the soul wonders why it feels so good, and praises God. The saints hear our prayers and have the power from God to help us. The entire Christian race knows about this. We must remember: in order for a prayer to be heard, one should pray to the holy saints of God with faith in the power of their intercession before God, in words coming from the heart.

In our prayers we turn to the Lord God, to His Most Pure Mother - our Intercessor and Helper, to the holy Angels and holy people - the saints of God, because for their sake the Lord God is more likely to hear us sinners, our prayers. The Saints have different names: prophets, apostles, martyrs, saints, saints, unmercenaries, blessed, righteous, confessors. more>>

The Lord says: “When you light a candle, you do not put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it gives light to everyone in the house. So let your light shine before people, so that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:15-16). Saints are bright stars that show us the way to the Kingdom of Heaven.

Let us treasure the closeness of the holy saints of God to God and turn to them for help, remembering that they love us and care about our salvation. It is good to pray to the holy saints of God on those days when the Church celebrates their memory.

«Holy Saints of God, pray to God for us!»

Saints: life, memory, suffering...

Historical events

1888 - John Loud received a patent for a ballpoint pen.

1907 - Russian physicist B. Rosing, in response to an application submitted by him on July 25, received patent No. 18076 for “Method of electrical transmission of images over a distance,” a prototype of television.

1938 - in the USA, the CBS radio station broadcast a radio version of H. G. Wells’s science fiction novel “The War of the Worlds,” stylized as a live report from the scene. Many Americans believed in the reality of events, which caused unprecedented panic.

1961 - The USSR exploded the most powerful bomb in world history: a 58-megaton hydrogen bomb (“Tsar Bomba”) was detonated at a test site on the island of Novaya Zemlya.

1967 - for the first time in space, automatic docking of ships was carried out; these were devices of the Cosmos series - Cosmos-186 and Cosmos-188, which were prototypes of the Soyuz spacecraft.

Angelica Kaufman. Portrait of Louise Leveson. Photo: Wikipedia Alfred Sisley. "Lawns in spring." Photo: Wikipedia

Orthodox prayers and icons of the Mother of God and saints

The word “icon” comes from the Greek language and means “image”, “image”. The image of the icon is consecrated with holy water and special prayers, through this consecration the grace of the Holy Spirit is imparted to the icon, and the icon is already revered by us as holy. According to the Orthodox dogma of icon veneration, approved by the VII Ecumenical Council, “the honor given to an icon relates to its prototype, and the one who worships the icon worships the hypostasis of the person depicted on it.” The Council especially emphasizes that we give veneration to icons, and not the worship that is due to God alone. “The icon mysteriously contains within itself the presence of the one whom it depicts, and this presence is the closer, more grace-filled and stronger, the more the icon corresponds to the church canon.”

All Icons of the Mother of God and Saints

Died

• Charles Robert Maturin (1782-1824) - Irish Protestant minister and writer (novel Melmoth the Wanderer).

• Imre Kalman (1882-1953) - Hungarian composer, author of operettas.

• Irina Vilde (1907-1982) - Ukrainian Soviet writer (epic novel “The Richinsky Sisters”).

• Juan Antonio Bardem (1922-2002) - Spanish film director and screenwriter (films “Death of a Bicyclist”, “Revenge”).

• Claude Levi-Strauss (1908-2009) - French anthropologist and ethnologist (work “Race and History”).

Prayer in the Christian life. What is prayer? About prayer

Prayer is the most important part of the spiritual life of every believer. Through prayer, a person turns to God, asks him and asks for forgiveness from him. In other words, prayer is nothing more than a person’s way of talking with God. About prayer...

The basis of the life of an Orthodox Christian is fasting and prayer. Prayer, said Saint Philaret of Moscow, “is a conversation between the soul and God.” And just as in a conversation it is impossible to listen to one side all the time, so in prayer it is useful to sometimes stop and listen to the Lord’s answer to our prayer.

Prayer does not require a specific time, place, circumstance or form. It can be verbose - long, and laconic - short. The prayer can be said at any time of the day or night, and anywhere. A person can pray under all circumstances of his life: when he is sick or healthy, when he is happy or sad, when he succeeds or fails, when he is in the company of his enemies or in the circle of his friends, when he is abandoned by everyone, or when he in the midst of your beloved family. But God’s temple serves as a special place of prayer. On Sundays, as well as on weekdays, if time permits, we should go to church to pray, where our brothers and sisters in Christ - Christians - gather to pray together, all together. This kind of prayer is called church prayer.

Every Orthodox Christian must pray daily, morning and evening, before and after eating food, before starting and at the end of any task (for example: before teaching and after teaching, etc.).

In the morning we pray to thank God for preserving us last night, to ask for His Fatherly blessing and help for the day that has begun.

In the evening, before going to bed, we also thank the Lord for a successful day and ask him to keep us during the night.

Before and after meals we pray to thank God for His gifts and ask Him to bless and sanctify the food.

In order for the work to be done successfully and safely, we must also, first of all, ask God for blessings and help for the upcoming work, and upon completion, thank God.

Unfortunately, many people forget about the necessity and importance of prayer, and resort to it only in cases of feeling hopeless. However, even in these cases, as practice shows, God does not forget about the person and gives him his love and support. But not a single prayer will bring anything good to a person if he simply reads it without thinking about what is said. Therefore, it is extremely important, when turning to the Creator in prayer, to truly feel every word.

God is the best of interlocutors; he will always hear a person and help him. You should not be embarrassed to talk to God even about the most secret things that are in your soul. The main thing is to do it with true faith in God.

“True prayer does not consist in words and saying them, but true prayer consists “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23). When we pray to God, we must stand before Him not only in body, but also in spirit; and say prayer not only with your lips, but also with your mind and heart; and not only bow our heads and knees, but also our hearts before Him; and raise our intelligent eyes to Him with humility. For all prayer must come from the heart; and what the tongue says, the mind and heart must say.” Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk.

And no matter what happens during the day, everything happens according to the will of God; all, without exception, are circumstances in which the Lord wished to place you, so that you could be His presence, His love, His compassion. His creative mind, His courage... And, besides, whenever you encounter this or that situation, you are the one whom God put there to carry out the ministry of a Christian, to be a part of the Body of Christ and the action of God. If you do this, you will easily see that sometimes you will have to turn to God and say: “Lord, enlighten my mind, strengthen and direct my will, give me a fiery heart, help me!” At other times you will be able to say, “Oh my God, thank you!”

In the Christian catechism, that is, in the instruction on the Christian faith, it is said about prayer this way: “Prayer is the offering of the mind and heart to God and is a person’s reverent word to God.” Prayer has extraordinary power. “Prayer not only defeats the laws of nature, not only is it an insurmountable shield against visible and invisible enemies, but it even holds back the hand of the Almighty God Himself, raised to defeat sinners,” writes Saint Demetrius of Rostov.

In the New Testament, prayer is a living connection between the children of God and their infinitely good Father, with His Son Jesus Christ and with the Holy Spirit. The grace of the Kingdom is “the unity of the entire Holy Trinity with the entire spirit.” Thus, prayer life is a constant and natural presence in the presence of the Trisagion of God and in communion with Him. Such vital communion is always possible because through baptism our being has become one with Christ. Prayer is Christian because it is communion with Christ and grows in the Church, which is His Body. Its dimensions are the dimensions of Christ's love.

“Prayer is not telling God our needs. Prayer is the condition under which Divine power can contact our spirit and act in us. God is omniscient and knows us better than we know ourselves.” Archimandrite Rafail (Karelin) (XX century).

Siege of Zbarazh

The battle of the Zaporizhian army led by Hetman Bogdan Khmelnitsky and allies, the Crimean Tatars led by Khan Islam Giray III, with the Polish army went down in history as the siege of Zbarazh.

The siege began on June 30, 1649 and lasted until August 12 of the same year, accompanied by heavy fighting with numerous losses on all warring sides. After crushing defeats in battles with Ukrainian Cossacks in the Bratslav region and Volyn, Polish troops under the command of Jeremiah Vishnevetsky, numbering up to 15 thousand soldiers, retreated and took refuge in the fortifications of Zbarazh. On June 30, 1649, on the first day of the siege, the Poles' convoy was surrounded, and about a thousand people were captured. On July 1, Ukrainian Cossacks subjected the camp to heavy shelling using heavy artillery. However, attempts to take the fortress remained unsuccessful.

After heavy fighting on July 20, the Polish army had to leave the last fortified area of the castle, they no longer had anything to shoot back with, and their forces were practically exhausted. And on July 21, the Cossacks burst into the castle. On July 27 and 29, the fighting continued, but the Poles did not leave and continued to resolutely fight back. Ukrainians and Tatars suffer serious losses - up to two and a half thousand people wounded and killed.

Time passes, the nobles begin to starve, encircled, they have not received reinforcements and food for weeks. Help is coming to the besieged - a huge army of thirty thousand well-armed soldiers led by the Polish king John II Casimir. Bogdan Khmelnitsky with fifty thousand of his soldiers advances to meet the approaching Poles. A bloody battle takes place near the city of Zborov, in which the Ukrainian army wins a long-awaited victory.

Only on August 13, after the signing of the “Treaty of Zborov”, the siege of Zbarazh was lifted and the Poles retreated. The siege of the Zbarazh fortress is described in detail in the novel by the Polish writer Henryk Sienkiewicz “With Fire and Sword,” and in 1999, the Polish director Jerzy Hoffman directed a feature film of the same name.

Holy Fathers on Prayer

“Prayer is a great weapon, an unfailing treasure, wealth that never runs out, a serene haven, a foundation of peace; prayer is the root, source and mother of countless blessings and is more powerful than royal power.” St. John Chrysostom.

“Prayer in its rank is higher than alms.” St. Isaac the Syrian.

“Prayer is the emergence in our hearts of one after another reverent feelings towards God.” St. Feofan, the Recluse of Vyshensky.

“During prayer, let our speech and supplication be combined with decorum, calmness and modesty. Let us think about the fact that we stand before the face of God and that we must please the eyes of God both by the position of the body and the sound of the voice.” Sschmch. Cyprian of Carthage.

“You must abstain from marital affairs in order to engage in prayer; to abstain from worries about wealth, from the desire for earthly glory, from the enjoyment of pleasures, from envy and every evil deed against our neighbor, so that when our soul is in silence and not disturbed by any passion, in it, as in a mirror, God’s purity and uncloudedness will be insight." St. Basil the Great.

“When starting a prayer, leave yourself, your wife, your children, part with the earth, pass through heaven, leave every creature visible and invisible, and begin by praising Him who created everything, and when you praise Him, do not wander your mind here and there, do not talk about fabulous things. pagan, but choose words from the Holy Scriptures.” St. Basil the Great.

“Every place and every time is convenient for us to pray.” St. John Chrysostom.

Orthodox prayers to the holy saints. Holy saints of God.

Orthodox prayers for those in need for various needs and infirmities.

Asteroid Day

June 30 is International Asteroid Day. It would be officially established by the UN General Assembly, and the initiators were Brian May and Gregory Richters. Brian May is known all over the world as the guitarist of the legendary rock band Queen, but not everyone knows that he is also an astrophysicist.

In 2014, May began working with director Grig Richters on a film about a fictional asteroid that fell on London and the consequences of such an event. The film premiered in 2014 at the Starmus international festival dedicated to astronomy, space exploration, related sciences, music and art. In October of that year, May and Richters spoke at a press conference and announced the creation of Asteroid Day.

Prominent figures who supported the creation of Asteroid Day included NASA astronaut Russell Schweickart, scientist and science communicator Richard Dawkins, television presenter and science communicator Bill Nye, musician Peter Gabriel, cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, physicist and astronomer Kip Stephen Thorne, cosmologist and astrophysicist Martin Don Rees , physicist Brian Edward Cox and many others. The Natural History Museum in Vienna, the American Museum of Natural History, the Science Museum in London, the European Space Agency, the UK Space Agency, the SETI Institute and other institutions and organizations became involved. But only two years later the UN General Assembly gave in to the public and officially recognized Asteroid Day.

What a Christian Should Remember

There are words of Holy Scripture and prayers that it is advisable to know by heart.

1. The Lord's Prayer “Our Father” (Matthew 6:9-13; Luke 11:2-4). 2. The main commandments of the Old Testament (Deut. 6:5; Lev. 19:18). 3. The main gospel commandments (Matt. 5, 3-12; Matt. 5, 21-48; Matt. 6, 1; Matt. 6, 3; Matt. 6, 6; Matt. 6, 14-21; Matt. 6, 24-25; Matthew 7, 1-5; Matthew 23, 8-12; John 13, 34). 4.Symbol of Faith. 5. Morning prayers and evening prayers according to a short prayer book. 6. The number and meaning of the sacraments.

The sacraments must not be mixed with rituals. A ritual is any outward sign of reverence that expresses our faith. A sacrament is a sacred act during which the Church calls on the Holy Spirit, and His grace descends on the believers. There are seven such sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation, Communion (Eucharist), Repentance (Confession), Marriage (Wedding), Blessing of Anointing (Unction), Priesthood (Ordination) ...

International Day of Parliamentarism

On June 30, the International Day of Parliamentarism recently appeared in the UN system of international and world days. The General Assembly established it to highlight the role of national parliaments in the implementation of national plans and strategies.

In states where the division of state power into three independent branches is established - legislative, executive and judicial, parliament plays the role of the highest representative and legislative body. According to the requirements of modern democracy, at least one of the houses of parliament must be elected directly by the population. By the way, out of 193 UN member states, 114 countries have unicameral parliaments, and 79 have bicameral parliaments. The Icelandic Althing is considered the oldest functioning parliament in the world.

The date for the holiday was chosen because on June 30, 1889, British politician William Randall Creamer and French politician Frédéric Passy created the Inter-Parliamentary Union, an international organization serving to coordinate the actions of the world's parliaments.

Strong parliaments are the basis of democracy, because they make laws based on the opinions of the people and make corresponding demands on national governments. Until recently, Ukraine also heard something like this, but our parliaments, as a rule, were based only on the opinion of their employers - that is, the Ukrainian oligarchs.