Orthodoxy [Theme] Page 1

Prayer is not prayer at all, if it passes only through the mouth, without touching the heart.

Today people fail because they are looking for self-love. It’s right - not to be interested in whether you are loved, but whether you love Christ and people. Only in this way is the soul filled.

- God lit all the stars in the firmament. Why does he need our candles? Candles are for ourselves, so that our souls do not get lost, go to the light of the candles. To buy and light a candle is like reminding ourselves: there is a God.

We need children so that we do not become ossified, do not become completely grown-up and pragmatic, do not turn into heartless firebrands, for whom everything is calculated in advance and lends itself to logic.

It happens in life when you do not live by your prayers at all. When the prayers of those who love you, for whom you still matter, make up for all your helplessness and weakness. Through the prayers of our neighbors, we get rid of troubles, gain salvation from God, get healed and rise again. These prayers become wings that lift your wounded soul and prevent it from falling down.

At the Last Judgment, in the light of the Truth, everything that we did not notice or did not want to notice in ourselves will manifest itself. As a friend of mine once said to me in confession: "I suddenly realized that there would be a Last Judgment and at it I would be shown a man whom I had never known before. It's going to be me..."

Those who have chosen the path of Christianity should expect nothing but the Cross.

... we are stylistically still in the Soviet past or in the perestroika period and we are measuring everything: Soviet or anti-Soviet. Listen, the world has moved on. Everything! Things got more complicated. And it makes no sense to return. And it makes no sense to absolutize what we read in books on capitalism in the late 80s and 90s. This is quite obvious. The tasks facing such a huge country as Russia require some kind of complex, but new in quality model, taking into account all the achievements of the past and adapted to the challenges of the present and the future. And how it will be called, I understand that this is important in the discussion, but it can be called in different ways. As for me, the name Orthodox socialism would suit me. Why? I explain. Orthodox not from the point of view of imposing a confession, but from the point of view of the realization that our moral and ethical foundations are still based on the roots of the Orthodox faith and Orthodox culture. And socialism - not from the point of view of a return to Soviet practice, but from the point of view of the feeling that a really huge number of people do not feel justice. People want the truth.

To live with faith in conditions of constant labor is asceticism.

Essentially, all the problems that modern man solves are ascetic problems. Asceticism should not be seen only in putting on chains. If we see an accountant in chains, we must understand that this is a crazy person, especially if he goes up to the roof at lunchtime and stands there, pummeling.

To condemn a priest is to pour coals on your head.

The Church is revealed to man as a real life. Not as an addition to ordinary life, but as real life. Simply sewing it (in the form of celebrating Easter and Christmas, for example) with thick white threads to your shameful, ugly life will not work. The church is reality.

Extreme hypocrisy often gives rise to foolishness.

Often you do not need an elder at all, you just need a friend.
This total search for elders in our time is a sign of deep loneliness. People are lonely and often no one needs with their problems: "And you know, I feel bad in my soul ..." -" Yes, everyone is bad! Who feels good now?" and it would be better in another way: "Are you healthy? How are you doing? Are you doing well?" It's okay to be interested in people, to ask. In general, there is such a holy question: "How are you doing? How can I help you?"