Image by Couleur Pixabay
The blooming crocus is also known as the penitent flower.
Happy Clean Monday!
The Great Canon of St Andrew of Crete is read during the first four nights of Great Lent, and the last part – the Life of St. Mary of Egypt is read Thursday evening on the 5th week of Great Lent.
Image by Mammiya – Pixabay
The crocus is also known as the penitent flower.
Happy Clean Monday!
During the week days of Great Lent… we say this beautiful and ancient prayer by St. Ephraim the Syrian (4th century).
Greetings on Forgiveness Sunday!
Great Lent begins Tomorrow.
There is nothing on earth higher, greater or more holy than the Divine Liturgy; nothing more solemn, nothing more life-giving. ~ St. John of Kronstadt
The Church is your hope, the Church is your salvation, the Church is your refuge. ~ St. John Chrysostom
May your Lenten Journey be a peaceful, fruitful preparation for the Great and Holy Feast of Pascha (Easter) – Sunday, April 24th, 2022.
God rests within gentle hearts. The gentle and merciful shall sit fearless in His regions, and will inherit Heavenly glory. ~ St. John Climacus
Why does the Lord command us to love our enemies and to pray for them? Not for their sake, but for ours! For as long as we bear grudges, as long as we dwell on how someone offended us, we will have no peace. ~ Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica
We are the sons of light and love, the sons of God, His children. As such we must have His qualities and His attributes of love, peace, and kindness towards all. ~ Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica
Yesterday afternoon, in broad daylight, our dear little Orthodox church was vandalized by some poor soul, who must have been in great spiritual pain. Little did they know our congregation is a veritable united nations in itself… composed of Canadian, American, Serbian, Ukrainian, Russian, Greek, Romanian, Spanish, Asian parishioners – worshipping together “as one” in the Lord Jesus Christ… with love, peace and harmony.
My spiritual Father Vladimir (of eternal memory), who served in a cathedral of Kiev, and fled Russia in its earlier times of grievous persecution, related how the Communists turned the ancient cathedral into a car repair garage, leaving the icons on the walls. When someone asked him about these events he tenderly said, “Churches come and go. Build a church in your heart.”
Grieved by the horrific events unfolding in Ukraine and Russia, this beautiful Prayer for Peace is being read at Divine Liturgies. May God grant us all help, reigning down His Peace from Above – for the whole world.
May we build little churches in our hearts… gentle, loving, merciful… and worthy abodes for our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ.
From our Metropolitan Hilarion to Metropolitan Onouphry of Kiev and All Ukraine
Purple Heath (Heather) and Snowdrops (Candlemas Bells, Fair Maids of February) Dot the Neighbourhood
The only requirements of our soul are righteousness, holiness, truth, love, mercy, meekness, peace, spiritual freedom, or the grace of God in the heart. These treasures give life to our whole being, and are eternal. ~ St. John of Kronstadt (My Life in Christ)
… A five minute prayer with all your body aching is more precious than a prayer lasting the whole night in bodily comfort. ~ Elder Sophrony (Sakharov) [of Essex, England]
Vibrant Spring Crocus by Melania – © Divine Florals
The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus; it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing… ~ Isaiah 35:1-2
At winter’s end, the crocus – also known as the penitent flower, appears before the spiritual spring of Great Lent… a season of forgiveness, repentance, efforts, hope, and renewal.
The week preceding Great Lent is called Cheesefare (Maslenitsa), and in 2022, Cheesefare begins Monday, February 28th. Meat is now excluded until Pascha (Easter). Dairy and seafood are (thoroughly) enjoyed this week, and it’s traditional to include blini crepes or pancakes to use up remaining dairy – before the more strict plant-based fare of Great Lent.
This year Great Lent begins on Monday, March 7th.
May we all cultivate fragrant buds of virtue, and Blossom Forth!
These empty ceramic vessels were used to obtain certain colours in the molten silica and glass mixtures at the Orsoni Mosaic Studio Venice, Italy. – 2009
We are like broken glass that reflects reality in small fragments until the power of God makes us whole again. ~ Elder Thaddeus
Silver, Furry, Catkins, Reach for the Sky
Now we worry about a piece of bread, about a roof over our heads, about our social conditions. And it seems to us that the meaning of life consists of this. But the Church says, Look at the pussy willows: leaves will sprout and later flowers and fruit. So it is even in a Christian soul. ~ Archbishop Andrei Rymarenko (1893- 1978)
Greetings on The Meeting of the Lord in the Temple!
When Jesus was forty days old, the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph the Betrothed brought Christ to the temple in order to fulfill the law and dedicate Him to God.
The celebration of the Meeting of the Lord in the church is not merely a historical commemoration. Inspired by the same Holy Spirit as Simeon, and led by the same Spirit into the Church of the Messiah, the members of the Church also can claim their own “meeting” with the Lord, and so also can witness that they too can “depart in peace” since their eyes have seen the salvation of God in the person of his Christ. ~ www.oca.org
On today’s Feast of the Meeting of the Lord, when the heavens meet the earth, God meets man, history meets eternity, when – as our people beautifully say – spring and winter meet, may we also open our hearts for an encounter with the Lord… Open your hearts, listen to the depths of your thoughts, desires, feelings, anticipations, nostalgias, yearnings, the pursuits of your hearts. For our hearts are created in the image of God and they yearn for God; the truth is often buried in passions, desires, appetites, ambitions, prejudices. Let us free ourselves of them and meet the Lord, for He always comes to meet us. He is the One who came, who is with us, Who always comes to be with us. ~ Bishop Atanasije (Homily on the Meeting of our Lord, Orthodox Christianity website)
Let us not only dedicate our little children in imitation of Christ’s dedication, but let us dedicate ourselves – perhaps again, perhaps for the first time – so that we may also be found held in the arms of the righteous Simeon, so that we also may see the salvation that he saw and know the mercy and peace and beauty of the Lord that will last not only into our departure from this life as it did with him, but also through all eternity. ~ Father Andrew Stephen Damick
The important thing is for us to enter into the Church (temple) – to unite ourselves with our fellow men, with the joys and sorrows of each and everyone, to feel that they are our own, to pray for everyone, to have care for their salvation, to forget about ourselves, to do everything for them just as Christ did for us. In the Church we become one with each unfortunate, suffering and sinful soul. ~ Elder Porphyrios (Wounded by Love)
Today, I hope to (as a dear friend used to say), “go get some sun on my face,” and pick a small bouquet of Snowdrops – Candlemas Bells.
With Love in Christ.
