Valaam Monastery

"There always were a lot of monasteries in Russia.  People who lived there were from very backgrounds and social positions but they were united by the same desire--desire to communicate with God."

See all seven parts on YouTube.

Meditations on Monasticism

A beautiful monastic video in English that should be coming soon.

Father Seraphim Rose on Orthodox Living

"Prayer, fasting, vigil and all other Christian practices, however good they may be in themselves, do not constitute the aim of our Christian life, although they serve as the indispensable means of reaching this end. The true aim of our Christian life consists in the [increasing] acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God. As for fasts, and vigils, and prayer, and almsgiving, and every good deed done for Christ's sake, they are only means of acquiring the Holy Spirit of God." - St. Seraphim of Sarov

Inclining Our Hearts to the Cross

"In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit!

This week, in the very center of Great Lent, the Holy Cross is brought out as a consolation for those who have truly borne the weight of the fast, in full measure, as it should be. But for those like I, standing before you, who have just barely touched this weight, it serves as a reproach. And may God grant that we perceive this reproach, feeling it vividly in our hearts!"

Read more here.

Six Foundations of True Friendship

 

1. Disdain of Possessions - You cannot love worldly possessions more than you love your brother.  To be a true friend you must love your neighbor.  See Matthew 12:31.

St. John Chrysostom on Marriage

"Ephesians 5:22-24

Wives, be in subjection unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the Church: being Himself the Saviour of the body. But as the Church is subject to Christ, so let the wives also be to their husbands in everything.

A certain wise man, setting down a number of things in the rank of blessings, set down this also in the rank of a blessing, A wife agreeing with her husband. And elsewhere again he sets it down among blessings, that a woman should dwell in harmony with her husband."

Read more here.

Revival of Orthodoxy Exhibit in Moscow

“In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.” - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

The Meaning of the Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian by Archpriest Alexander Men

"Every day of Great Lent, with the exception of Saturdays and Sundays, the prayer “O Lord and Master of my life” is read. According to tradition, this prayer was written in Syria in the fourth century by the ascetic Mar Afrem or, as we have grown accustomed to calling him, Ephraim the Syrian. He was a monk, poet, and theologian, one of the most eminent sons of the Syrian Church, who entered world literature as a remarkable writer."

Read more here.

On Education

Characteristics and virtues that are important to learning:

Patience

Abba Serenus cautions, "It is a dangerous presumption to claim to understand the nature of anything hastily" (The Conferences:  7.4.1).

Great Lent as a Tithe

"The universal precept promulgated in the Mosaic law for all the people is: 'You shall offer your tithes and firstfruits to the Lord, your God.' And so, since we are ordered to offer tithes of what we own and of our produce, all the more necessary is it that we offer tithes of our very lives, of our human activity and of our works, which is very obviously accomplished in the reckoning up of Lent. For the tithe of the entire number of days which complete the turning year is thirty-six and a half days. Now if the Sundays and Saturdays are subtracted from seven weeks, there remain thirty-five days assigned for fasting. If the day of the vigil is added, however, on which the fast is prolonged until cockcrow on Sunday morning, not only is the number of thirty-six days arrived at but, in regard to the tithe of the five days that seemed to be left out, nothing will be wanting to complete the whole sum if the period of night that has added be included in." - Abba Theonas (21.25.2-3)