Why do people go to Church?

Perfect people do not go to the Church, but believers who are aware that they are not perfect, who want to be better and feel better.

The Church can be compared to a hospital, sinners go to the Church to be "healed" of their sinful passions and vices. They come to their priest, like to their doctor, for a diagnosis, they come for confession and to get advice.

The Church also has a cohesive purpose, to gather all the faithful every Sunday for the Sunday Liturgy and for major holidays. There we stand together before God. It is harmony that saves the Serb, harmony around the Cross.

If it were not for the Church, the Serbs would not have survived as a nation and the Serbian state would not have been resurrected after centuries of Turkish occupation and tyranny. The church is a fortress and a library of culture that has been preserved in it for centuries. ☦

Why do we fast before the Dormition? “In a close-knit family, word that its matriarch is on her deathbed brings normal life to a halt. Otherwise important things (parties, TV, luxuries, personal desires) become unimportant; life comes to revolve around the dying matriarch. It is the same with the Orthodox family; word that our matriarch is on her deathbed, could not (or at least should not) have any different effect than the one just mentioned. …

Fr. Thomas Hopko has noted, she heard the word of God and kept it so well, that she of all women in history was chosen not only to hear His Word but give birth to Him. So while we fast in contemplation of her life, we are simultaneously preparing ourselves to live a life in imitation of her. That is the purpose of the Dormition Fast.”

—from the article "Why a Fast for the Dormition?", by Daniel Manzuk, published in “The Word", June 2008, Antiochian Archdiocese of America

“Fr. Daniel always had meaning. And this meaning was always clearly expressed with such an evangelical character. He didn’t care for empty words. If he spoke, it was a clear, dogmatic expression and the concrete application of it in the life of the Church. The peculiarity of his activity, of his lively preaching, was that he thought very dogmatically. I would say that it is, in fact, a rare gift now to speak about the truth. He didn’t like to just tell some random stories, maybe with some dubious content. He always spoke the good news, no matter what he was talking about. But since his preaching was sharp, sometimes he was perceived as almost offensive. Many contrived to take offense, but they were taking offense to the truth…

The Apostle said: Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called (1 Cor. 7:20). So be a Christian. You can be a worthy, conscientious, fervent confessor in the family, at work, or in any place. Not everyone can be a missionary, bearing the word of God within himself. Not all are apostles, as not all are prophets; not all are teachers — this is from the Scriptures. Fr. Daniel had this gift to bear the word of God in such an apostolic way. He had this gift and he used it. Develop this gift within yourself, and let each one answer for what he didn’t finish, what fruits he didn’t manage to bring forth, after the example of those who brought forth worthy fruits.”

https://orthochristian.com/135461.html

Orthodox Christianity

He Managed to Unite All of Moscow

He didn’t care for empty words. If he spoke, it was a clear, dogmatic expression and the concrete application of it in the life of the Church. The peculiarity of his activity, of his lively preaching, was that he thought very dogmatically.

As a Serb and Orthodox, I do not give my trust to persons who refuse to answer the greeting, God help atheists, those who do not love Christ, who are bothered by the Church itself, Faith, holidays and tradition (tradition) among Serbs.

I don't believe the globalists, those who prefer it, who praise everything European, modern, worldly, foreign, German, American, Russian, Chinese, but never Serbian... They don't like anything Serbian, they would like it if there was no Serbian, if it was replaced something foreign, that we no longer be Serbs, that we do not use the Serbian language or the Cyrillic alphabet, that we do not wear Serbian clothes, that we do not maintain our centuries-old customs, that we forget about our ancestors and how they lived, that we are no longer there.

I don't trust those who earn and live off the labor of others, who have no days of service, who do not know about labor and work, who have never planted a tree, plowed a field, or fed cattle. To those who first graduated from college, and only then from high school, who know how to sell lies, cheat, steal and lie without an iota of shame or remorse, because they do not fear God.

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What, indeed, is the use of earthly enjoyment? Today it is, and tomorrow it is not; today it is a beautiful color, and tomorrow it is scattered dust; today it is a blazing fire, and tomorrow it is cooled ashes.
#John_Chrysostom
#Orthodox_Saints

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Pray fervently to the Lord God, and warm your cold heart with His Sweetest Name; for our God is fire. This invocation destroys impure dreams, and warms the heart to all His commandments. Therefore, the prayerful invocation of His sweetest Name should be the breath of our soul, it should be more frequent than the beating of our heart.
#Anthony_of_Optina
#orthodox_Saints

https://youtube.com/shorts/J-5iBrz_2DA?si=N2s2djqr97i_d8St

YouTube

Please Leave Public Schools

Father Josiah TrenhamListen to Father Josiah's Reflection on his Spotify Podcast - https://open.spotify.com/show/1VKxdB2ZCzk8evUA4V7tku?si=b679feac4ab34d63Su...

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The benefits here are short\-lived, and no one carries the wealth of the earth with him into the future life, unless someone wisely uses it for alms and charity.

#Ambrose_of_Optina
#orthodox_Saints