☦️🕯️Feel shame when sinning, do not feel shame when repenting. Look what the devil has done to you. Here there are two things: sin and repentance; sin is the wound, repentance is the medicine. . . the wound provokes gangrene, the medicine cleanses the gangrene. Sin provokes shame . . . while repentance brings boldness and freedom. What Satan has done is to reverse the order: he has given boldness to sin and shame to repentance. Knowing that sin brings shame, something sufficient to deter the sinner, and that repentance brings boldness, something sufficient to attract the penitent, Satan reversed the order and gave shame to repentance and boldness to sin. . . This is the devil’s villainy: he does not permit shame to attach to sin, because he knows that if someone feels shame he will flee from the sin, but rather he attaches shame to repentance, because he knows that if someone feels shame he will flee from repentance. He thus achieves two evils: he attracts to sin and deters from repentance.🕯️☦️

✤ St. John Chrysostom ✤

the vanity of this world and age. It is such a clear and tangible knowledge, but he is poisoned and deadened by sin, and this makes him alien to God and blessedness and marks him as a victim for hell. The life of the body comes from the presence in it of the Holy Spirit.
Can I worthily praise the unfathomable mercy of the all-good God, His ineffable love for mankind? Shall I, along with the Prophet, call forth the hosts of angels, all tribes of man, and even more, all animals wild and tame, birds of the air, reptiles of the ground, fishes of all the great expanses of the sea, and all inanimate creation to join in these laudations? Even all creation united as one mouth, one voice of praise, could not worthily hymn the adored mercy of God that surpasses all words and comprehension. Come, brethren, let us worship and fall down at the feet of this mercy. Even until now it has borne long with our iniquities, it still waits for our conversion, still stretches forth its arms to embrace us, calling those who are wandering in desert places and the impassable thickets of sin. It receives the repentant sinners, making them sons and daughters of God. Now, hearing its voice calling you to repentance, harden not your hearts (Heb. 3:15); Who hath ears to hear, let him hear (Mat. 13:9); do not remain deaf. Awake thou that sleepest the deep sleep of carelessness and total neglect of your salvation! Arise from the dead (Eph. 5:14), you who are dead by your insensibility and hardness, by a life given over wholly as a sacrifice to the flesh, sin, and corruption! May I see in you the stirrings of life awakened from sleep by the word that heralds repentance! May I hear your voice, the voice of your sighing, your lamentation, your repentance, so that I might be assured that a sign, a remnant of life is yet within you! Seeing that you have spent all the days of your life fruitlessly, the Lord has again given you a day for labor-free salvation; a day in which by sincere confession before your spiritual father you may cast from your shoulders the entire yoke of your sins.
St Ignatius Brianchaninov

☦️🕯️By keeping ourselves in front of God, we find it easier to remain free from the bonds of sin. In the words of St. Thallassios, “As wax melts before fire, so does an impure thought before the fear of God.”🕯️☦️

🌹MOST HOLY THEOTOKOS SAVE US 🌹

Throughout our Christian history, no woman has been more loved, more lauded, and more cherished than the blessed virgin Mary. She herself foretold it: " For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed."(Luke 1:48) In the beautiful poetic-hymnography which is characteristic of Byzantine Chant in the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Theotokos, the Mother of God is honored and esteemed for her unique role in the salvation of the human race. During the Paraklesis Service, we ask the Most Holy Theotokos to save us just as those drowning reach out to those on dry land.

🌹🌸Crossing the waters as on dry land,
In that way escaping
From the evils of Egypt's land,
The Israelites cried out exclaiming:
To our Redeemer and God, now let us sing.🌹

Ukrainian Nazis 🇺🇦 attacked the nuclear power plant in the regionvwhere St. Seraphim of Sarov was born, pushing the world to the edge of nuclear catastrophe.

If a person is unable to see his sinfulness, it does not mean that he has no sins. It means not only that this man is a sinner, but that he is also spiritually blind. And if a spiritual father or another person accuses us of certain faults, we should not attempt to justify ourselves, but rather beg the Lord to reveal our sins to us and give us the opportunity to repent of them before death and to receive forgiveness here during our earthly existence.
Abbot Nikon Vorobiev

☦️🕯️THE LORD'S PRAYER 🕯️☦️

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be Thy name.
Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. Amen.

Πα‌τερ η‌μω‌ν ο‌ ε‌ν τοι‌ς ου‌ρανοι‌ς
α‌γιασθη‌τω το‌ ὀ‌νομα‌ σου,
ε‌λθε‌τω η‌ βασιλει‌α σου, γενηθη‌τω το‌ θε‌λημα‌ σου,
ω‌ς ε‌ν ου‌ρανῶ‌ και‌ ε‌πι‌ τη‌ς γη‌ς.

Το‌ν ἀ‌ρτον η‌μω‌ν το‌ν ε‌πιου‌σιον
δο‌ς η‌μι‌ν ση‌μερον·
και‌ ἀ‌φες η‌μι‌ν τα‌ ο‌φειλη‌ματα η‌μω‌ν,
ω‌ς και‌ η‌μει‌ς α‌φι‌εμεν τοι‌ς ο‌φειλε‌ταις η‌μω‌ν·
και‌ μη‌ ει‌σενε‌γκης η‌μα‌ς ει‌ς πειρασμο‌ν,
α‌λλα‌ ρ‌υ‌σαι η‌μα‌ς α‌πο‌ του‌ πoνηρου‌.Αμήν.

Отче наш, Иже еси на небесе‌х!
Да святится имя Твое, да прии‌дет Царствие Твое,
да будет воля Твоя, яко на небеси‌ и на земли‌.
Хлеб наш насущный да‌ждь нам дне‌сь;
и оста‌ви нам до‌лги наша, якоже и мы оставляем должнико‌м нашим;
и не введи нас во искушение, но изба‌ви нас от лукаваго.
Яко Твое есть Царство и сила, и слава, Отца, и Сына, и Святаго Духа, ныне и присно, и во веки веков. Аминь.

Padre nuestro que estás en los cielos,
santificado sea Tu nombre,
venga a nosotros Tu Reino,
hágase Tu voluntad así en la tierra como en el cielo.
El pan nuestro substancial de cada día dánoslo hoy,
y perdona nuestras deudas,
así como nosotros perdonamos a nuestros deudores,
y no nos dejes caer en la tentación,
más líbranos del maligno. Amén.

أبانا الذي في السَّماوات ليتقدَّسْ إسمُكَ ليأتِ ملكوتُكَ لتكن مَشيئتُكَ كما في السّماءِ كذلكَ على الأرض خُبزَنا الجوهري أعطِنا اليوم واترُكْ لنا ما علينا كما نترُك نحن لمن لنا عليه ولا تدخلنا في تَجْرِبة لكن نجِّنا من الشّرير. آمين

Read the Lives of Saints. In them you will find everything; they will teach you everything. Compare yourself not with your neighbors, but with the saints – such a comparison reveals to us how great sinners we are.
Archbishop Seraphim (Sobolev) of Bogucharsk