"Whoever wants to become a Christian must first become a poet. The soul must learn to love everything beautiful."

+ St Porphyrios of Kavsokavilia

Psalms 41:3-4
The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness. 4. I said, Lord, be merciful unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee.

Our pride can make us believe we are the most important and smart people who have a right to be angry. But this is a trap. “Anger enslaves the intellect, and makes you regard your brother with bestial cruelty; it fetters the conscience with uncontrolled impulses of the flesh, and surrenders you for a time to be chastised by the evil spirits to whom you have yielded.” - St Mark The Ascetic

The beauty of Orthodox Christianity ☦

God doesn’t force us to anything. His providence can help us to get saved, but our free will is needed.
“In the Mystery of Baptism and Chrismation a man “puts on Christ” and the Holy Spirit (Gal. 3:27), and it depends on his free will, through living in according to the Gospel commandments, whether he “leav ens” himself with the leaven of the Holy Spirit and firmly becomes a new man in the Image of Christ, or stifles all this by a life according to the fallen man.”
Abbot Nikon Vorobiev

Psalms 41:5-7
Mine enemies speak evil of me, When shall he die, and his name perish? 6. And if he come to see me, he speaketh vanity: his heart gathereth iniquity to itself; when he goeth abroad, he telleth it. 7. All that hate me whisper together against me: against me do they devise my hurt.

"If you have everything else but love, you have nothing. If you hate even a single person, you are disgusting before God."

+ St Gabriel of Georgia

☦️ Blessed memory mitred Archpriest Dmitry Smirnov ☦️
Someone once asked me the question, “Why ask God for something when God knows what we need?”
— The most important thing in our requests is communication itself. It pleases God to communicate with us. But we are like little children who ask for something all the time, not quite realizing whether it is useful for them or not. Parents know better whether they should buy it or not. And so does God. He knows much better what is good for us and what is not.
Children often even beg their parents for things. And we adults are very much like them. But God is the source of all virtues. He is longsuffering and merciful. And He, of course, does not take offense at His annoying children.
And in general, if we trust God, if we have faith, then all we need to ask God is: “Lord, have mercy!” Because we need God's mercy. And we also need to ask that He give us His Spirit.

"If you want to help someone, give them your heart, not just your words."

+ St Paisios of Mt Athos

Psalms 41:8-10
An evil disease, say they, cleaveth fast unto him: and now that he lieth he shall rise up no more. 9. Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me. 10. But thou, O Lord, be merciful unto me, and raise me up, that I may requite them.

☦️☘️ At Babel a false unity established out of pride led to a scattering of all men, confusion among the citizens of the earth. Diverse "tongues," in this case, became indicative of divisions, man’s inability to understand God, his fellow man and environment. On Pentecost, however, the many "tongues" of the Divine Spirit became a sign and source for unity, a profound unity established through love for Christ that can only be granted by God Himself.
St. Dmitri Royster

🔥☦️🌟 Everything that we have now in the Holy Church — all of its spiritual riches, all the grace coming from its prayers and Sacraments — all of it originates from the holy day of Pentecost.
Elder Kirill Pavlov

📜☘️☦️ The true Judaism of the Scripture is strongly trinitarian, it's very clear from the very first chapter of Tanakh, and more. God is not only called in plural, Elohim, but is often intentionally mentioned, using different names, three times in the logical piece of text. An example, there are two triplets in Ps 29(28), that is groups, each of THREE verses starting with "the voice of God", "qol Yahweh".

Today we commemorate the day when the Holy Spirit descended on the first disciples of Christ. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance (Acts 2:1–4).


🎥 Pyatigorsk

By the grace of the Most Holy Spirit, we have been vouchsafed to celebrate Holy Pentecost—the descent of the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ said of this descent: Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter (that is, the Holy Spirit), will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth. (Jn. 16:7, 13). This, His promise and benefit, is so great that we cannot even comprehend it: for the Lord promised to send not an Angel, not a man, but the Holy Spirit Himself.


🎥 Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Simferopol (Russia)

Happy birthday Church!

The Day of the Holy Trinity, the feast of Pentecost, is called the birthday of the Church. It was from that moment, after the Descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles, that they grasped everything the Lord had told them, and everything He had taught them. And now, encouraged by the Holy Spirit, they were ready to go and preach. They were no longer afraid of anything, for the Lord Himself was with them, and the Truth was with them.

Every day the Church experienced significant growth, and more and more new members joined it. At first the apostles taught among the Jews, and then their preaching spread to the gentiles, to other peoples. What is the kontakion of today’s feast about?

“When the Most High came down and confused tongues, He divided the nations. But when He distributed the tongues of fire He called all to unity. Wherefore, with one mind we glorify the All-Holy Spirit.”

The kontakion speaks of two actions of the Holy Spirit. When the people madly building the Tower of Babel, the Lord confused the tongues to bring people to reason, confusing their single language so that they would cease to understand each other and stop—at least for a minute—what they were doing. And now the Lord, by distributing tongues of fire, is calling for unity of all in His Church, where the wondrous Divine gifts are kept as in a receptacle—primarily of course, these are the Sacraments and the teachings of our Lord.

Interestingly, in Church Slavonic the word “yazyk”, in addition to meaning “tongue” and “speech”, also means “people”, or “nation”; so the Lord calls for unity of not just some single, God-chosen people, but of all nations who will believe in Him.

🎥 Moscow today

#Holy_Spirit #Pentecost #Reflection #History #Original_Faith #God_Jesus #Knowing_Jesus

https://youtu.be/jlsFllgrS5g