Prayer for Our Enemies
Holy Bishop Nicholai Velimirovich
Lord Jesus Christ, our God, accept from me, Your unworthy servant, this prayer for my enemies and our enemies. Forgive us all our sins. Have mercy on all our enemies who hate us, or insult us, or persecute us, or torture us, and do not judge them as they deserve, but according to Your great mercy turn them all: turn the nonbelievers to true faith and godliness, and may the believers step away from evil and do good — so that none of them die because of us, Your unworthy servants.
Merciful Lord, I beseech You particularly for those who have offended me in any way at all, or grieved me, or have done me harm in any way: Do not punish them for me, a sinner, but pour out Your rich kindness upon them.
A special time to work on yourself
Archpriest Alexei Kruglik on the Nativity Fast
The Nativity fast is under way. Pravoslavie.ru talked with Archpriest Alexei Kruglik, an instructor at the Sretensky Monastery Seminary, about this special period in a Christian’s life.
How the fathers walk with angels on Theophany
The feast of the Baptism of the Lord is a special day for all Christians. And the reason for this is in the greatest of the gift that the Lord gives us through the Church.
Many people are not very familiar with the reason why this feast is called the Theophany, and what is the essence is of these events recalled by the Church. But all of us know that on this day water is blessed in the Church; furthermore, on the feast of the Lord’s Baptism, all the water in the world is sanctified. Through the gift of the Holy Spirit, the “nature of water” is sanctified on this day, and this sanctified water, in a certain sense, cleanses the whole planet and sanctifies it.
Fast and Liturgy - Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann
The liturgical rules of the Orthodox Church prescribe that the Divine Liturgy is to be celebrated after Vespers on certain fast days. These days are: Thursday and Saturday of the Holy Week, the eves of Christmas and Theophany and the Feast of the Annunciation. Likewise the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is always celebrated after Vespers. If we bear in mind that our Typikon determines the time for Vespers according to the sun and not by the clock, then the prescribed time for these evening Liturgies should be approximately from two to five in the afternoon.
Some reflections on Confession - Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann
1. For each conscientious priest confession is without any doubt one of the most difficult and frustrating aspects of his ministry. It is here, on the one hand, that he encounters the only real object of his pastoral care: the human soul, man, as he stands sinful and miserable, before God. But it is here, one the other hand, that he realizes to what degree nominal Christianity has pervaded our Church life. The basic Christian notions of sin and repentance, reconciliation with God and renewal of life, seem to have become irrelevant. If the terms are still used, their meaning is certainly quite different from that, on which our whole Christian faith is based.
