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...
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 But they are far from those who have withdrawn themselves, and very close to those who keep the commandments of Christ and have the grace of the Holy Spirit.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...
Why does John not report such important events as the Nativity of the Savior or His Transfiguration?
Because he did not want to re-tell all the events associated with Christ, but only to complement the other evangelists, whose memories had already been written down by that time. John’s goal was to convey the most important thing that, for some reason, Matthew, Mark and Luke, who in biblical science are usually called “forecasters” (from the Greek Συνοπτικός - describing something together), were silent about. This is why the Gospel of John may seem almost thematically unrelated to the other three. There are only a few plot “intersections”: the feeding of five thousand people, the walk on the waters, the Last Supper, the denial of Peter, the trial by Pilate, the crucifixion - that, by and large, is all... And these events are described significantly differently than those of the “weather forecasters” .
For example, in the story about the Last Supper there are no words: Take, eat, this is My Body... This is My Blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins (Matthew 26 : 26, 28). But John remembers how Jesus Christ washed the disciples’ feet before the meal and commanded them to follow this example of love. And then he retells in detail the Savior’s farewell conversation with the apostles.
John’s goal was not just to tell how everything happened, but to emphasize the main thing: Jesus Christ is not just a Teacher, but the Son of God, equal in everything to God the Father.
“I and the Father are one,” Jesus says to the Jews arguing with Him. – When you do not believe Me, believe My works, so that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me and I in Him (John 10: 30, 38).
One of the disciples, Philip, turns to Jesus with the words: Lord! Show us the Father, and that is enough for us, and in response he hears: I have been with you for so long, and you do not know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how do you say, show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you, I do not speak from Myself; The Father who abides in Me, He does the works (Jn. 14: 6-11).
God the Father. Artist Viktor Vasnetsov
Concluding his conversation with his disciples, Christ offers a prayer to God: Glorify Me, Father, with You, with the glory that I had with You before the world was (Jn. 17: 5).
He does not correct the Apostle Thomas, who, having become convinced of His resurrection, exclaims: My Lord and my God! On the contrary, the Savior confirms his rightness: You believed because you saw Me; Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed (John 20: 28, 29).
There are many similar passages in the Gospel of John.
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
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).
Why does the author of the fourth Gospel call himself Jesus' "beloved disciple"? After all, this is immodest!
The fact that he does not reveal his name is rather a sign of modesty. And if you answer the question on the merits... It is unlikely, of course, that the Savior had “favorites.” Most likely, He, as the Knower of the Heart, discerned in John some special depth, a mystical gift, the ability to see and understand what not everyone sees and understands. That’s why I brought him closer to Himself.
John calls himself a beloved disciple, simply to explain how it happened that it was he who reclined closest to the Lord Jesus at the Last Supper and was able to slowly find out from Him the name of the traitor Judas. Or - how did it happen that it was to him that Christ, already nailed to the Cross, entrusted the care of His Mother.
Jesus Christ with the Virgin Mary and John the Evangelist. Artist Rebecca Dulcibella
And, of course, it was important for John to declare that his story about Christ is the story of an eyewitness: This disciple testifies to this, and wrote this; and we know that his testimony is true (John 21:24 ). The fact is that by the time the fourth Gospel was written, serious misconceptions about Christ had already spread among the Jews (and not only). They began to say, for example, that Jesus was not fully human, but appeared as a disembodied ghost, so that His crucifixion on the Cross was apparent and His death was illusory...
John the Theologian fought diligently against such heresies. That is why in his Gospel the details are so important, indicating that the Lord Jesus was a living man of flesh and blood. He spends half a day on the road, gets tired and asks the woman for water (John 4 : 6,7); comes to the tomb of Lazarus and weeps (John 11:35 ); having risen, he invites the Apostle Thomas to put his fingers into the wounds from the nails and from the blow of the spear on His body (John 20 : 27). He clearly wasn't a ghost.
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.
Then Pilate took Jesus and ordered him to be beaten. And the soldiers wove a crown of thorns, placed it on His head, and dressed Him in purple, and said: Hail, King of the Jews! And they beat Him on the cheeks.
Pilate went out again and said to them: Behold, I am bringing Him out to you, so that you may know that I do not find any guilt in Him. Then Jesus came out wearing a crown of thorns and a scarlet robe. And Pilate said to them: Behold, Man!
When the high priests and ministers saw Him, they shouted: Crucify Him, crucify Him!
Pilate says to them: Take Him and crucify Him, for I find no guilt in Him.
The Jews answered him: We have a law, and according to our law He must die, because He made Himself the Son of God.
Pilate, hearing this word, became more afraid. And again he entered the praetorium and said to Jesus: Where are you from? But Jesus did not give him an answer.
Pilate says to Him: Do you not answer me? Don’t you know that I have the power to crucify You and the power to release You?
Jesus answered: You would not have any power over Me if it had not been given to you from above; therefore there is greater sin on him who delivered Me to you.
From that time on, Pilate sought to release Him. The Jews shouted: if you let Him go, you are not a friend of Caesar; Anyone who makes himself a king is an opponent of Caesar. Pilate, having heard this word, brought Jesus out and sat down at the judgment seat, in a place called Liphostroton, and in Hebrew Gavvatha. Then it was the Friday before Easter, and it was six o’clock. And Pilate said to the Jews: Behold, your King!
But they shouted: take him, take him, crucify him!
Pilate says to them: Shall I crucify your king?
The high priests answered: We have no king except Caesar.
Then finally he handed Him over to them to be crucified. And they took Jesus and led him away.
And, bearing His cross, He went out to a place called Skull, in Hebrew Golgotha; there they crucified Him and two others with Him, on one side and the other, and in the middle was Jesus. Pilate also wrote the inscription and placed it on the cross. It was written: “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” This inscription was read by many of the Jews, because the place where Jesus was crucified was not far from the city, and it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Roman. The chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate: Do not write: “King of the Jews,” but that He said: “I am the King of the Jews.”
Pilate answered: What I wrote, I wrote.
When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took His clothes and divided them into four parts, one for each soldier, and a tunic; The tunic was not sewn, but entirely woven on top. So they said to each other: “Let us not tear it apart, but let us cast lots for it, whose it will be, so that what is said in Scripture may be fulfilled: “They divided my garments among themselves, and cast lots for my clothing.” This is what the warriors did.
Standing at the cross of Jesus were His Mother and His Mother’s sister, Mary of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. Jesus, seeing His Mother and the disciple standing there, whom He loved, said to His Mother: Woman! Behold, Your son. Then he says to the disciple: Behold, your Mother! And from that time on, this disciple took Her to himself.
After this, Jesus, knowing that everything had already been accomplished so that the Scripture might be fulfilled, says: I thirst. There was a vessel full of vinegar. The soldiers filled a sponge with vinegar and put it on hyssop and brought it to His lips. When Jesus tasted the vinegar, he said, “It is finished!” And, bowing his head, he gave up his spirit.
But since it was Friday then, the Jews, in order not to leave the bodies on the cross on Saturday - for that Saturday was a great day - asked Pilate to break their legs and take them off. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who was crucified with Him. But when they came to Jesus, when they saw Him already dead, they did not break His legs, but one of the soldiers pierced His ribs with a spear, and immediately blood and water flowed out.
And he who saw it bore witness, and his testimony is true; he knows that he speaks the truth so that you may believe. For this happened, that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Let not His bone be broken.” Also in another place the Scripture says: “They will look at Him whom they have pierced.”
After this, Joseph of Arimathea - a disciple of Jesus, but secretly out of fear from the Jews - asked Pilate to remove the body of Jesus; and Pilate allowed it. He went and took down the body of Jesus. Nicodemus, who had previously come to Jesus at night, also came and brought a composition of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred liters. So, they took the body of Jesus and wrapped it in swaddling clothes with incense, as the Jews usually bury. In the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden there was a new tomb, in which no one had yet been laid. They laid Jesus there for the sake of the Friday of Judea, because the tomb was close.
a) 19.13:
Stone platform.
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) ...
