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.

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.

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.

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).

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."

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.

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.”

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."

God weighs repentance not by effort, but by depth of lowliness (Luke 18:10–14).
Some labour hard to gain forgiveness, but the one who bears no grudges goes ahead of them, for the word is true: “Judge not, and you shall not be judged.
Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” (Luke 6:37; and 1 Corinthians 13:1–8, 13).

Conscience is like an alarm. Rise the moment it rings and you will always hear it.
Ignore it, telling yourself, “I’ll lie a while,” and soon its call will never wake you.

Icons are reflections of men who have been regenerated into eternity; they aid us in uncovering and developing the beauty of holiness.
In other words, they help men attain likeness to God, following the basic principle that
“we become like that which we habitually contemplate”
(Constantine Cavarnos, Orthodox Iconography.)

Have you ever thought that everything that touches you touches Me as well? For that which touches you touches the apple of My eye.
You are dear in my eyes, precious, and I have loved you; therefore it is a particular pleasure for Me to educate you.
When temptations arise against you, and the enemy comes like a river, I want you to know–This was from Me.
Your weakness needs My strength, and your safety comes from giving Me the opportunity to fight for you. If you find yourself in difficult circumstances, among people who do not understand you, who do not take what you like into consideration, who alienate you–This was from Me.
I am God, Who arranges circumstances.
It was no accident that you find yourself in the place where you are; this is the place I have appointed for you.
Did you not ask that I teach you humility? Well, then, look: I have placed you in precisely that place, in that school, where this lesson is learned.
Your surroundings and those who live with you are only fulfilling My will...

If you are undertaking anything, before asking any other adviser, ask the advice of faith.
Appeal in the words of the Apostle: Lord, what wilt Thou have me do? (Acts 9:6).
Is what I would undertake pleasing to Thee, Lord?
If it is pleasing, bless it; if not, do not let me do what is displeasing to Thee.
And then listen to what the Lord tells you in your conscience, in your reason, in the counsels of pious and wise people and, having begun the course that you select, pray in your heart:
"O Lord, make haste to help me" (Ps. 69:1).

Here is the image for us:
In each of us Lazarus is lying dead, vanquished, and surrounded by our often hopeless grieving. But the Gospel reading just before the days of the Passion has this message: "Do not fear, I am the Resurrection and the Life. The Lord's friend that is in you, whom you consider irrevocably dead, can rise again at a single word of Mine, and indeed will rise again."
So let us enter the days of the Passion with the hope, with the certainty that we are going towards the transition from the temporary to the eternal, from death to life, from our defeat to the victory of God.
Let us enter these days of the Passion with trepidation at the knowledge of how much the Lord loves us and at what cost He gives us life.
Let us enter with hope and light in our hearts, and joy in the coming Resurrection.

Accustom yourself to pray your own prayers. For instance: it is the essence of evening prayer to thank God for the day and everything that happened, both pleasant and unpleasant; to ask forgiveness for all wrongs committed, promising to improve during the next day; and to pray that God preserve you during sleep. Express all this to God from your mind and from your whole heart.

Having completed His preaching on the earth, our Lord Jesus Christ made His triumphant entry into the royal city of Jerusalem, into the city where the true God was worshipped, a city in most ways Godly.
The Lord made this entry as the King and victor, in order to finish His service by a decisive exploit: destroying death by death; removing the curse from the human race by taking this curse upon Himself.
He made His entry into the royal city on the colt, whereon yet never man sat (Lk. 19:30), in order to restore to mankind the royal dignity which our forefather had wasted; to restore this dignity by ascending the cross.
The unbroken colt was tamed beneath the wondrous Rider.

Colt - it is an image of every person who is led by irrational desires, deprived of spiritual freedom, attached to the passions and habits of fleshly life.
This means that the person who has left his sinful life is led to the Gospels, and is clothed as if in apostolic vestments, in the most detailed and refined knowledge of Christ and His commandments.
Then the Lord seats Himself upon him by spiritually appearing to him and spiritually abiding in him, as it was His good will to promise: He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him (Jn. 14:21).
And my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him (Jn. 14:23).
The Lord’s coming is accompanied by peace surpassing words and comprehension; peace that is full of grace, and worthy of the one Who grants it—the Lord. This peace is not to be compared with the natural rest of fallen man, who may feel rest and pleasure from fleshly delights, and who may consider his own insensibility, his own eternal death, to be rest.
The Lord is seated upon the natural qualities of the person who has submitted to Him and has assimilated His all-holy teachings; and He leads that person into the spiritual city of God, the city of peace—into the Jerusalem created by God, and not by man.

The victories of evil over good are illusory and fleeting, while the victories of good, and its very existence in the world, which is already its victory, constitute the highest reality of the universe and the common wealth of humanity.

Love for a person saves both the one being saved and the one saving.
But to spiritually save others, one must first save oneself.
If a person is drowning themselves, they cannot spiritually save those who are drowning.

Faith isn't something you can prove; it's something you show through the living essence of truth.
You can only persuade others by the sheer conviction of your own personal happiness in it, by the infectiousness of your divine delight in faith.
This is the sole means of its transmission.

The Holy Church says:
Go and learn from both the Pharisee and the tax collector. From the Pharisee, learn his actions, but do not be proud at all, for the action itself is insignificant and does not save.
Yet, remember that the tax collector is not yet saved, but is merely more justified in God's eyes than the Pharisee adorned with virtue.
Only if we proceed in this way can we expect our Great Lent to be fruitful.

Nowhere is the Most Holy Virgin Mary so blessed as in the Divine services for the feast of the Annunciation. Here she is glorified as the author of our salvation. “Today is the beginning of our salvation,” says the troparion of this feast. But the same troparion also shows us the reason why the Virgin Mary is so honored by the Church: “The Son of God becomes the Son of the Virgin as Gabriel announces the coming of grace.” Therefore, the Virgin Mary is glorified as the initiator of our salvation, in that she was vouchsafed to be the Mother of the Son of God and gave us the opportunity to receive the grace of the Holy Spirit to make us sons of God by grace and to inherit Divine glory here, and especially in the future age.

We call Her the Queen of Heaven, for She is the Mother of our King, the Lord Jesus Christ.
We call her the Lady because she has great power to protect us from the devil.

And through the Most Holy Theotokos, whose greatest feast we celebrate today, may we all be saved from the devil and all his servants. Amen.

Kontakion, Tone 4

Though I have transgressed, O Good One,
more than the harlot,
I have never offered Thee a flood of tears.
but, praying in silence,
I fall down before Thee,
with love embracing Thy most pure feet,
that Thou as Master mayest grant me remission of sins.
And I cry to Thee, O Saviour:
Deliver me from the defilement of my evil deeds.