Beauty of Orthodoxy

Teodoreni Monastery, Suceava County, Romania

(photo by ooana.blaga on instagram )

,,If you want to do good, then fear the Lord and accomplish it."

"The Mother of God precedes humanity and everyone follows her. She precedes in love, in purity, in closeness to God."

"For just as every mother gives her children simple existence, so also the Mother of God gives to all happy existence."

,,If we truly felt that all of us humans are brothers, we would feel pain for those living in sin and their sinful life would not scandalize us, but we would pray for them. And if we are scandalized, the evil lies within us, it is not outside."

,,Pride is a heavy passion. When you see someone proud, your heart does not draw you to approach him and speak to him, because he is so full of himself that inside him there is no room left for anyone or anything. But the humble man, through self-emptying, makes room inside himself for the Heavenly Guest and for his neighbor. Even the Virgin Mary, when she spoke of the great honor she received to become the Mother of God, mentioned no virtue other than humility: "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior, for He has regarded the lowliness of His handmaiden." It is as if she were saying: "I have nothing to give to God for the great honor He has done me, except to humbly acknowledge my unworthiness."And as for us, any drawing near of ours to the spirit of Christ gives birth in us to spiritual humility, because the spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ is, par excellence, a spirit of humility. "

,,We all know that the Mother of God has the most powerful intercession and boldness, which is why it is to our benefit to dedicate a portion of our prayer to her, as a warm-up, as a preparation for prayer itself.

How does the athlete do when he wants to train? He warms up. He prepares a little beforehand to be in shape, to have the appropriate psycho-somatic state. He doesn't get out of bed directly onto the running lane, ready for a hundred-meter sprint. Such a thing is impossible. He must enter his usual rhythm first, to be in good shape. This spiritual pre-warm-up, that is, praying first to the Most Holy Theotokos, is the most suitable thing to help ourselves. This by no means implies that we leave Christ and pray only to His Mother, but it shows that the prayer addressed to the Most Holy Mother is a precious help for purer prayer. It is an introduction to the main theme."

photo by sabinsimota on instagram

,,If we humble ourselves and call upon the Name of the Lord, entrusting ourselves to His love, we receive the power to overcome any passion, but if we forget God, the enemy is free to kill us."

,,Of all the saints whom you ought to honor, honor the Mother of God the most! The saints of God can do much, but none as much as the Mother of God. If the Mother of God were not in Heaven, between the Holy Trinity and us, this world would have been lost long ago. She stands forever on her knees and prays to the Most Holy Trinity.

Billions of souls who have faith and hope in the Mother of God will easily pass through the aerial toll-houses and from death to life because they have honored the Mother of God. So, I ask you, let not the Akathist to the Mother of God, the Paraklesis, and other prayers to the Mother of God be missing from your home! And let the vigil lamp burn before her icon permanently."