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St.Tikhon of Zadonsk

Timofey Savelyevich Sokolov (1724, Novgorod region –1783, Zadonskiy Nativity Virgin Monastery).
Russian Orthodox bishop and spiritual writer whom the Eastern Orthodox Church glorified (canonized) as a saint in 1861.
He forbade corporal punishment of the clergy, cared about education,  opened many schools.

Prayer does not consist merely in standing and bowing your body or in reading written prayers….
It is possible to pray at all times, in all places, with mind and spirit.
You can lift up your mind and heart to God while walking, sitting, working, in a crowd and in solitude.

His door is always open, unlike man’s.
We can always say to Him in our hearts Lord, Lord have mercy.

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Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh
 
Andrei Borisovich Bloom  
(June 6, 1914, Lausanne — August 4, 2003, London) was a bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan of Sourozh. In 1965-1974 - Patriarchal Exarch of Western Europe, author of numerous books, memoirs and articles about spiritual life and Orthodox spirituality. One of the most popular Orthodox preachers of the 20th century.

We are called to be children of God…yet no man can attain any of this through his own efforts. Neither by our own efforts or by our own desire can we become a part of the body of Christ…nor can we become partakers of the divine nature simply by our own efforts…
The way in which any of this can be realized are through the sacraments of the Church [in Her Liturgical Life].
The sacraments are the actions of God within the Church in which God grants us His grace by means of this material world.
It is in the sacraments [such as baptism, confession and communion] that brings us the grace which we  cannot acquire by any other means,…
She brings grace to us as a gift through the material substance of this world, the water of baptism, the Bread and Wine of the Eucharist, and the  myrrh of Chrismation…the world even though it is enslaved  to corruption is itself pure and without sin.
And God takes this world, the matter of this material creation, and unites it in an incomprehensible way with Himself, and this material world brings to us the grace which we are unable to raise    ourselves up to.

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Sergey Iosifovich Fudel

(December 31, 1900 (January 13 1901, Moscow — March 7 1977, Pokrov, Vladimir Region).
A literary scholar, Orthodox thinker, and spiritual writer, creator of numerous religious-philosophical and theological writings
He was repeatedly repressed for political reasons, was in camps and exiles.

Throughout his entire life, Iosif Fudel kept the flame of a true Christian soul and succeeded in passing on that flame to his children. From early childhood, and to his death, Sergei Iosifovitch was in the Church, and his life is a part of the history of the Church.

Our love is woefully insufficient... tear down the web of deceit.
What love truly demands from us, above all else, are not grand romances or learned theological treatises,
however well-intentioned, but everyday interactions with real people.

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Priest Daniel Sysoev

Daniel Alexeyevich Sysoev (January 12, 1974, Moscow - November 20, 2009, Moscow) - a Russian Orthodox priest, rector of the Moscow Church of the Holy Apostle Thomas on Kantemirovskaya, and a prominent missionary.

The eyes of the Lord are always directed towards God’s temple, the church.
In the church, He Himself is present in His Body and Blood. In the church, He revives us in the Baptism, therefore the church is our lesser motherland.
In the church, God forgives us our sins in the Mystery of Confession, He gives us His own self in the most holy Communion.
Where else can we find such sources of incorruptible life?
According to the word of an ancient ascetic, they who throughout the week fight against the devil, hasten on Saturdays and Sundays to church to partake from the sources of the living water of Communion, in order to quench the thirst of their hearts and to be cleansed of the filth of their defiled conscience.
Ancient legends tell us that deer hunt snakes and eat them; but when the poison starts burning their interior parts they run to a spring of clear water.
So also we have to hasten to the church, in order to cool the irritation of our hearts with the communal prayer.
As Hieromartyr Ignatius the God-bearer said, “Try to gather together more frequently to celebrate God’s Eucharist and to praise him. For when you meet with frequency, Satan’s powers are overthrown and his destructiveness is undone by the unanimity of your faith. There is nothing better than peace, by which all strife in heavenly and earthly spirits is cast out” (Hieromartyr Ignatius the God-bearer. Epistle to the Ephesians, 13).
People forget that only church prayer can save man from the devil’s attacks, for he is trembling before the power of God and is unable to harm the person who abides in Divine love.

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Saint Luke, Bishop of Simferopol and Crimea

Valentin Felixovich Voyno-Yasenetsky
 
(14 April 1877, Kerch, the Soviet Union–11 June 1961, Simferopol) – was a Russian surgeon, spiritual writer, a bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church, and archbishop of Simferopol and Crimea from May 1946 until his death.
He was a laureate of the Stalin Prize in medicine in 1946.

The Holy Apostle Paul says that all the essence of the gospel message is found in hope, faith and love. Consequently, it is necessary that we have a strong and steadfast faith for us to be Christians and inheritors of divine grace.

If you believe that the electron exists without seeing it, then by what right do you say that our faith in God, Who also has not been seen by anyone, is unreasonable?
I will say that we too know God by His energies; by the manifestations of His power; by how He acts in our hearts; by the grace that we feel. Not anyone can prove faith. Many have tried to prove that God exists and many that He does not exist. ‘But never has anyone been able to prove one or the other. Only with a pure heart can one see God…

Faith is the most valuable treasure on Earth and we must guard it more than anything.

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Bishop Alexander (Mileant)

Alexander Vasilievich Mileant
(22 July 1938, Odessa – 12 September 2005, California) - bishop of Buenos Aires and South America of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia.
Bishop Alexander is well known for his missionary leaflets. From 1985 to 2005 Bishop Alexander published a total of 763 brochures: 300 in Russian, 192 in English, 168 in Spanish and 103 in Portuguese.

As an ill person on his way to recovery begins to feel hunger, so a sinner as he restores spiritual health begins to desire perfection or righteousness.
This is expressed by the next commandment: «Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled,» in other words, with God's help, they will attain it. Experiencing at this level the great mercy of God, man begins to feel compassion for others: «Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy» As a charitable person overcomes his passionate desire of material goods and related turmoil, His heart, like the water of a quiet lake, becomes more and more permeated with divine light. «Blessed are the pure of heart: for they shall see God.»
This vision gives him wisdom to guide others and helps them to find peace with themselves and with God. In his peacemaking mission, the servant of Christ becomes likened to his Master, who came to the world to pacify mankind with heaven.
This is expressed by the next commandment: «Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God."

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Alexander Yelchaninov

Alexander Viktorovich Yelchaninov
(March 1 (13), 1881, Nikolaev — August 24, 1934, Paris) - priest of the Russian Orthodox Church, a church historian, and a writer.
Father Alexander Yelchaninov left behind a rich literary and spiritual legacy.
His book "Notes" was published in unprecedented numbers in a resurgent Russia, inspiring many, especially in the 1990s, to embrace faith!

The opinion of others about us is the mirror before which almost everyone, without exception, poses.
A person makes themselves what they want to be seen as.
The real person, as they truly are, is known to no one, often including themselves, and a fabricated and embellished figure lives and acts.

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Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky

(11 November [O.S. 30 October] 1821 – 9 February [O.S. 28 January] 1881)
was a Russian philosopher, novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. He is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in both Russian and world literature, and many of his works are considered highly influential masterpieces.
Dostoevsky's literary works explore the human condition in the troubled political, social and spiritual atmospheres of 19th-century Russia, and engage with a variety of philosophical and religious themes. His most acclaimed novels include Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1869), Demons (1872), The Adolescent (1875) and The Brothers Karamazov (1880). His Notes from Underground, a novella published in 1864, is considered one of the first works of existentialist literature.

Young man, do not forget to pray. Each time you pray, if you do so sincerely, there will be the flash of a new feeling in it, and a new thought as well, one you did not know before, which will give you fresh courage; and you will understand that prayer is education. Remember also: every day and whenever you can, repeat within yourself: “Lord, have mercy upon all who come before you today.”
For every hour and every moment thousands of people leave their life on this earth, and their souls come before the Lord- and so many of them part with the earth in isolation, unknown to anyone, in sadness and sorrow that no one will mourn for them, or even know whether they had lived or not.
And so, perhaps from the other end of the earth, your prayer for his repose will rise up to the Lord, though you did not know him at all, nor he you.
How moving it is for his soul, coming in fear before the Lord, to feel at that moment that someone is praying for him, too, that there is still a human being on earth who loves him.
And God, too, will look upon you both with more mercy, for if even you so pitied him, how much more will he who is infinitely more merciful and loving than you are.
And He will forgive him for your sake.

Elder Zosima is a character from the book “The Brothers Karamazov” 
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Moses of Optina

Timofey Ivanovich Putilov

January 15 (28), 1782, Borisoglebsk, Yaroslavl province-June 16 (29) , 1862) - schiarchimandrite of the Russian Orthodox Church, elder of the Optina Hermitage.

Each day examine yourself: What have you sown for the age to come: wheat or weeds? Having tested yourself, arrange to become better the next day, and spend the rest of your life in that manner.
In the event that you spent today badly, did not honestly pray to God, did not feel even once contrition in your heart, did not become humble in thought, gave no alms and did no act of charity, but instead did not refrain from anger, from words, from food and drink, or if you sank your mind in unclean thoughts, honestly examine all of this, condemn yourself for it, and firmly resolve that tomorrow you will be more careful to do good and to avoid evil.

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The Feodorovskaya Icon of the Mother of God

March 14/March 27
 
The Church tradition ascribes the Feodorovskaya icon of the Mother of God from Kostroma to the Evangelist Luke.
The history of its discovery is filled with the most dramatic events. Originally it belonged to the Grand Duke Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, who was baptized with the name Theodore in honor of the ancient Roman Christian saint Theodore Stratelates. The Gorodets St. Theodore Monastery was built to host this icon. However, Gorodets was captured by the troops of Batu Khan in 1238. During the massacre the icon disappeared, and it was presumably stolen or destroyed by fire. However, a year later Alexander Nevsky’s younger brother Vasily of Kostroma went hunting and found the icon of the Virgin on the branches of a fir tree. The prince reached out to take the icon, but it rose up into the air. Struck by the obvious miracle, the prince informed the clergy, and after a large crowd of people had served a prayer before the icon of the Heavenly Protectress, it descended to earth. A monastery was built at the place where the icon was found.
In the same year 1239, the church and nearby houses caught a fire. The locals saw the icon of the Mother of God rising to heaven amidst the flames. The people, terrified that the Virgin leaves the city, forgot to rescue their property, fell to the ground and tearfully begged the Queen of Heaven not to leave them. The icon stopped in the air and remained there until the fire died out. The grateful city dwellers built the Assumption Cathedral for the icon on the territory of the Kostroma Kremlin. Interestingly, the altar of this cathedral faces not the east but the north – the place where the icon was found.
In the Time of Troubles, people’s militia led by Prince Dmitry Pozharsky and the Nizhni Novgorod citizen Kozma Minin liberated Moscow from the Poles in 1613. People were tired of bloodshed and unrest. Election of a new tsar became a pressing and urgent issue. Following a three-day fast, the entire nation elected a Kostroma boyar Mikhail Romanov. He and his mother, Nun Martha, were at the Kostroma Ipatiev Monastery at that time. Young Michael has not considered becoming the tsar, nor did he want to be the tsar. His mother, Nun Martha, was also opposed to it. When Nun Martha prayed in front of the wonder-working Feodorovskaya icon of the Mother of God, she exclaimed: “Thy will be done, O Lady! In Thy hands I commit my son: guide him to the true path, for the good of Thyself and of the Homeland!” The mother and the son were assured in their hearts that the election of Mikhail to the All-Russian throne was pleasing to God. Mikhail Romanov was proclaimed Tsar on March 14, 1613. Nun Martha herself painted a copy of the wonder-working image and transported it to Moscow. This was how the reign of the Romanov dynasty began. That day became the feast day of the Feodorovskaya Icon of the Mother of God. Many Russian empresses from other countries received the patronymic Feodorovna in honor of the wonder-working icon.
The iconography of the icon belongs to the Eleusa type which was widespread in Russia at that time. A rare detail of the Feodorovskaya icon is the depiction of the bare feet of Jesus. The Virgin presses the Son to her cheek with her left hand, while her right hand points at Jesus as the Savior of the world. This gesture is called a gesture of prayer for the whole human race.
The Feodorovskaya icon of the Mother of God is two-sided: there is an icon of the Holy Martyr Paraskeva on the reverse side. This holy virgin-martyr is revered in Russia as the patroness of brides and marriage.
The wonder-working icon is still on display in the city cathedral of Kostroma. It continues to deliver gracious help to the believers. They come to the Mother of God pleading for Her mercy and intercession before the Lord. She never fails to grant the petitions of those who come to her with faith and love.
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Schema-Archimandrite Andronik

Alexei Andreyevich Lukash a venerable elder and great man of prayer.
(February 12, 1880,  village of Lupa, Poltava - March 21, Tbilisi, 1974)
In 1895 Alexei came to Glinsk Hermitage with the desire to dedicate his life to God.

Beware of laziness, for it will consume all the fruit of your labors.

I prefer a rule that is easy but constant, to a rule that is difficult at first and soon abandoned.

The Lord preserves your soul as long as you preserve your tongue.

Love to pray frequently, so that your heart might be illuminated.

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Alexius Mechev, archpriest of Moscow, righteous

A Alexeevich Mechev
(March 17 [29], 1859, Moscow — June 22, 1923, Vereya, Moscow province) clergyman of the Russian Orthodox Church, a famous Moscow archpriest of the early 20th century.

A good memory is left by one who has fulfilled their duty and calling here on earth, who has developed and put to use all the talents given by God, who has lived a full Christian life here.
God bestows upon each of us many strengths and gifts, and at the same time, He assigns each a calling, entrusting a specific circle of duties and occupations, and placing the care for meeting our needs under His own unseen providence.
Hurry to understand what your duty is, which we must perform with fear and trembling, what talent has been given to you by the Lord.

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St. Ignatius Brianchaninov

Dmitry Alexandrovich Brianchaninov
(February 5 [18],1807-April 30 [May 13],1867) stands out as one of the greatest patristic writers of the nineteenth century.
This great Russian saint left to Orthodox Christians a compass by which we can check our direction as we traverse the complex path of spiritual life, to avoid the dark forests and pitfalls of spiritual delusion and pride.

Fasting frees a person from fleshly passions, while prayer wrestles with the passions of the soul and, having conquered them, it penetrates and permeates the person’s whole constitution, and purifies it.

He who sows his land without working it wastes his seed and instead of wheat reaps thorns.
So too if we sow seeds of prayer without refining our flesh, instead of righteousness we shall produce sin.
Our prayer will be ruined and robbed by various thoughts and fantasies, it will be defiled by sensual feelings.
Our flesh came from the earth and unless it is cultivated like the earth it can never produce the fruit of righteousness.

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Saint Mary of Egypt

Commemoration
Fifth Sunday of Lent

The life of Saint Mary reminds us that repentance is not simply about ethics; it goes to the very core of our being. It is always a crossing over the Jordan into the wilderness, where there are wild beasts, scorching heat, and hunger. Yet there, an encounter with the Living God awaits. If a person is ready, like this sixth-century saint — ready to endure the heat, bear the cold, weaken from hunger, and fight with their passions — the Lord will reveal His love, power, and glory to him.

Mary was born in Egypt. At the age of twelve, she left home for Alexandria and, for 17 years, led a dissolute life. The young woman sought happiness in physical desire, only to find that true joy was not there.
One day, she arrived in Jerusalem for the feast of the Exaltation of the Honourable Cross of the Lord. Together with other Christians, she made her way to the Lord’s Temple to ascend Golgotha and venerate the Life-Giving Tree. Following the crowd, Mary ascended the steps. The faithful were entering the church, but some invisible force blocked her passage through its doors. She thought the throng of pilgrims was hindering her, so she tried to elbow her way forward, but all attempts to enter were in vain.

Finally, Mary understood what was holding her back — her own sins. Even on her way to the Holy Land, as she later shared, she had not abandoned her abominations and filth. Grief and anguish filled Mary's heart as she realised she could not approach the holy place. Lifting her eyes to an icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, she called out from the depths of her shattered heart:

"Mother of God, help me now to enter the church, to venerate the Precious Tree! I will no longer return to fornication, O Lady, I repent, I will change! Be my faithful Surety before Your Son, that I will no longer defile my body with the impurity of fornication, but, having looked upon the Tree of the Cross, I will renounce the world and its temptations and go wherever You, my guarantor of salvation, lead me."
After this, she was able to enter the temple and venerate the Holy Cross.
Upon leaving, Mary again offered a prayer of thanks to the Virgin Mary and heard a voice that said to her: "Should you cross the Jordan, you shall attain blessed repose." Heeding this divine instruction, Mary received communion and, having crossed the Jordan, made her home in the desert. There, she spent 47 years in utter solitude, devoted to fasting and prayers of repentance.

If we were in that mood we would, when we come to the doors of the church, be, however little, like Mary of Egypt. We would stop and say, 'How can I come in?' And if we did that with our whole heart, broken-heartedly, with a sense of horror of the fact that we are so distant from God, so alien, so unfaithful to Him, then the doors would open and we would see that we are not simply in a big space surrounded with walls but we are in a space which is God's Heaven come to earth.

Let us therefore learn from this experience what it means to go step by step towards the Resurrection, because in order to reach the Resurrection we must go through Calvary we must go through the tragedy of Holy Week and make it our own, partaking with Christ and His disciples and the crowds around in the horror, the terror of it; and also experience it as a scorching fire that will burn in us all that is unworthy of God and make us clean. And perhaps one day, when the fire will have burnt everything which is not worthy of God, each of us may become an image of the burning bush, aflame with divine fire and not consumed, because only that which could survive the fire of God would have remained is us. Amen.

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh
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John of Kronstadt

Ivan Ilyich Sergiyev
(31 October [O.S. 19 October] 1829 – 2 January 1909 [O.S. 20 December 1908]) was a Russian Orthodox archpriest and a member of the Most Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. He was known for his mass confessions, numerous miracles, and charitable work.

When you’re praying alone, and your spirit is dejected, and you’re wearied and oppressed by your loneliness, remember then, as always, that God the Trinity looks upon you with eyes brighter than the sun; also all the angels, your own Guardian Angel, and all the saints of God. Truly they do; for they are all one in God, and where God is, there are they also. Where the sun is, thither also are directed all its rays
Remember with Whom you are conversing. Men very often forget with Whom they are conversing during prayer, Who are the witnesses of their prayer.
They forget that they are conversing with the Vigilant and the All-seeing God;
that all the Heavenly Powers and the saints of God are listening to their converse.

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St.Philaret of Moscow

Vasily Mikhaylovich Drozdov
(26 December 1782/6 January 1783 – 1 December 1867) - Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna and the most influential figure in the Russian Orthodox Church for more than 40 years, from 1821 to 1867.

From the start of the morning and throughout the day, make the thought about Christ the soul of your life, the moving force of your actions. So, for example, if you glance over your dwelling, remember Christ in the manger, in swaddling clothes, lying on straw, all this life not having a place to lay His head, finally imprisoned, nailed to the Cross, and thank God for your house, your shelter, however humble and poor it may be. Do not envy magnificently decorated mansions: the mansion of Christ is a pure heart!

As you dress in your simple clothing, remember Christ stripped naked and then robed in the clothing of mockery. Do not dwell on apparel, do not follow slavishly the whims of fashion, but try to garb yourself in goodness, humility, meekness, long-suffering, gazing mentally on the meek and humble heart of Jesus.

If you are eating a meal, remember the vinegar and gall that Christ tasted, and do not demand plentiful, luxurious food and drink: the heavenly Guest loves to enter not the house of feasting, but always to the one that opens the door of his heart to Him. Place in your heart Christ suffering and dying on the Cross, and in His unseen presence mortify your passions and lusts.

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St.Tikhon of Zadonsk

Timofey Savelyevich Sokolov (1724, Novgorod region –1783, Zadonskiy Nativity Virgin Monastery).
Russian Orthodox bishop and spiritual writer whom the Eastern Orthodox Church glorified (canonized) as a saint in 1861.
He forbade corporal punishment of the clergy, cared about education,  opened many schools.

The day is done – give thanks with gratitude, for the Lord has granted you to pass it without injury or ruin; sing with your heart and voice:
"I praise Thee in song, O Lord!"
You slept through the night and, having rested, arose – say:
"I bless Thee, O Lord!" Speak with the prophet: I laid down and slept; I awoke, for the Lord upholds me (Psalm 3:6).

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Moses of Optina

Timofey Ivanovich Putilov

January 15 (28), 1782, Borisoglebsk, Yaroslavl province-June 16 (29) , 1862) - schiarchimandrite of the Russian Orthodox Church, elder of the Optina Hermitage.

If you show compassion to one who is suffering (and of course, this is not a great deed) you will be numbered among the martyrs.
If you forgive one who has insulted you, then not only will all your sins be forgiven, but you will be a child of the Heavenly Father.
If you pray from all your heart for salvation – even a little – you will be saved.
If you rebuke yourself, accuse yourself, and judge yourself before God for your sins, with a sensitive conscience, even for this you will be justified.
If you are sorrowful for your sins, or you weep, or sigh, your sigh will not be hidden from Him and, as St. John Chrysostom says, "If you only lament for your sins, then He will receive this for your salvation."

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Alexander Yelchaninov

Alexander Viktorovich Yelchaninov
(March 1 (13), 1881, Nikolaev — August 24, 1934, Paris) - priest of the Russian Orthodox Church, a church historian, and a writer.
Father Alexander Yelchaninov left behind a rich literary and spiritual legacy.
His book "Notes" was published in unprecedented numbers in a resurgent Russia, inspiring many, especially in the 1990s, to embrace faith!

Marriage is a revelation and mystery. We see in it the complete transformation of a human being, the expansion of his personality, fresh vision, a new perception of life, and through it a rebirth into the world in a new plenitude.

Our modern individualism creates special difficulties in married life. To overcome them, a conscious effort on both sides is necessary, in order to build up the marriage and make it a “walking in the presence of God.”

And there is something further, something which may appear to be simplest thing of all, but which is nevertheless the most difficult to achieve-a firm intention to allow each partner to preserve his or her proper place in the marriage-for the wife humbly to assume the second place, for the husband to take up the burden and the responsibility of being the head.
If this firm intention and desire are present, God will always help us to follow this difficult path.

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Hieromartyr Thaddeus (Uspensky)

Ivan Vasil’ievich Uspensky (November 12, 1872,  Naruksovo, Nizhny Novgorod - December 18, 1937, Tver), Archbishop of Tver.
During his life, he acquired the gifts of prophecy and healing.

Clothing is needed for the body, and again, in church it is given for the soul.
As soon as a child appears in God’s world, he’s carried to the church of God to put on Christ Himself, to be clothed with the robe of Christ’s virtues.
And he no longer feels naked and uncovered as Adam once felt naked after sinning. In the snow-white robe of Baptism, man isn’t ashamed to appear before the very face of the Lord and His saints.
He can fearlessly appear at the very Dread Judgment of the Lord and the doors of the bridal chamber of Christ will be opened to him; and no one will ask: Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? (Mt. 22:12).
He won’t stand silent awaiting the terrible verdict: Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Mt. 22:13).
Even if the garment given in Holy Baptism becomes stained and defiled, if it’s as difficult for a man to preserve himself from stains and sin as it is to keep clothing unstained from dust, rain, and mud, even then the holy Church, like a caring Mother, gives a man the means to wash and cleanse the garment of his soul with tears in the Sacrament of holy Repentance, so that it again becomes “whiter than snow.”

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Original quote

Quotes from Russian saints

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St. Sophrony the Athonite

Symeonovich Sakharov
(23 September 1896, Moscow, Russian Empire  – 11 July 1993,Tolleshunt Knights, U.K.), elder Sophrony or Father Sophrony, was a Russian-born Orthodox Christian archimandrite and one of the most noted ascetic monks of the 20th century.

He who is made in the ‘image’ of God is made for life ‘after His likeness’, also.
The man who has found salvation in God receives life in the likeness of God’s own life. God is omnipresent and omniscient, and the saints in the Holy Spirit receive a likeness of that omnipresence and omniscience. God is Light, and the saints in the Holy Spirit become light. God is Love encompassing all that exists, and the saints in the Holy Spirit embrace the universe in their love. God is All-Holy, and the saints in the Holy Spirit are holy.
Holiness is not an ethical but an ontological concept.
A man is not holy because his morals or conduct are good, or even because he leads a righteous life in the sense of devoting himself to spiritual endeavor and prayers- indeed, the Pharisees kept the fasts and made ‘long’ prayers.
But that man is holy who bears within himself the Holy Spirit.
The One God is Truth and Life, and those who communicate in the Holy Spirit become true and have life; whereas those who fall away from God suffer spiritual death and depart into "outer darkness."

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Original quote

Quotes from Russian saints