We slip.
We fall.
We pull ourselves up again.
We persevere.
We keep walking toward God.
We focus forward.
We don’t look back.
May your path today be fruitful, peaceful, hopeful and joyful!
What has happened has happened, it is in the past. Just keep on going, all the while asking for help from God. ~ Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica
Our life is blessed… God’s gift… We have a treasure in us – our souls… ~ Elder Nikolay Guryanov
When very young, I’d climb a mountainous chair and peer out the front room window to watch the sun rise. Dawn was breathtaking, and I used to think when the sun “woke up” it sleepily “yawned” out all those dazzling colours into the sky. When accompanied with birdsong, the combined beauty of it all made my little heart nearly burst with joy.
With a foretaste of paradise… years later… At the break of day, I stood on a tropical beach with warm, fragrant trade winds blowing, and these beautiful verses from Psalm 104 came to mind…
Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty. Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain: Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind: Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire…
Until the day break, and the shadows flee… ~ Song of Solomon 2:17
Photo circa 2002, St. Sophia old chapel, on the Great Feast of Pentecost
When thoughts are choking me like so many thorns, I enter the church, the hospital of souls. The beauty of the icons delight my vision like a verdant meadow, and without my noticing, it stirs my soul to praise God.
Cemetery – Rome, Italy 2006
Penitential tears are like a second baptism. They wash away the stains on our soul, enlighten our mind, and cleanse our conscience.
For much as after a violent burst of rain, there is a clear open sky; so likewise when tears are pouring down, a calm arises, and serenity, and the darkness that ensues on our sins quite disappears. ~ St. John Chrysostom, late 3rd century
O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches. ~ Psalm 104:24
If our thoughts are kind, peaceful, and quiet, turned only to the good, then we also influence ourselves and radiate peace all around us – in our family, the whole country, everywhere. This is true not only here on earth, but in the cosmos as well. When we labour in the fields of the Lord, we create harmony. Divine harmony, peace, and quiet spread everywhere.
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ~ Lamentations 3:22-23
…But though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
~ 2 Corinthians 4: 16 – 18
Mystras, Greece – 2017
Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. ~ Psalm 34:8
