Love is the key to the life of the monastic in the desert, and just as much to the layperson in the world. St. Isaac the Syrian teaches that when silence and seclusion leave no room for active charity, it is enough before God to offer mental love, which is prayerful intercession. In other words, the Christian ideal has two sides: active mercy and contemplative stillness. Spiritual fathers and mothers may live either or both. St. John Maximovitch rescued refugees from Shanghai

You leaders of the bodiless powers ... you divine ministers ...you guardians ...you protectors of mankind ...we humbly ask you to intercede for us before God ...to deliver us from the wiles of the evil ones ...to teach us how to defend the faith ...and to strengthen us so that we can protect those who need our sheltering love. Today is the synaxis (i.e., coming together to praise) of the Archangel Michael and the other Bodiless Powers who are named in Holy Scripture and Holy

"Today the faithful celebrate the feast with joy illumined by your coming, O Mother of God. Beholding your pure image we fervently cry to you: 'Encompass us beneath the precious veil of your protection; deliver us from every form of evil by entreating Christ, your Son and our God that He may save our souls'." - Kontakion (a type of hymn) sung on the Feast of the Protection of the Mother of God. An icon of the Protection of the Mother of God If you have a question or prayer

The Orthodox Church celebrates the feast of the 100,000 Martyrs of Tbilisi who were put to death for not renouncing Christianity to Khwarezmid Sultan Jalal ad-Din upon his capture of the Georgian capital of Tbilisi in 1226. Even though an event like this seems so distant of place and time from our world, this feast offers us an opportunity to meditate (prayer of the mind) on the following: Am I aware of where Christians are suffering int he world? Do I pray for them? Do I

The Orthodox Church celebrates the feast of St. Marcellus of Tangier (or St. Marcellus the Centurion) who refused to participate in the birthday celebrations of Emperor Maximian, which would have involved worship of the pagan gods. Even though a saint like Marcellus may seem obscure to our modern world, a feast like this gives us an opportunity to meditate (prayer of the mind) on the following: Do I adhere to my faith when others around me do not? Am I willing to stand up f

The Orthodox Church celebrates the feast of St. Claudia Procles of Judea, who was Pontius Pilate's wife. We know of her only from the Gospel According to St. Matthew. "While Pilate was sitting in the judgment hall, his wife sent him a message: 'Have nothing to do with that innocent man, because in a dream last night, I suffered much on account of him'" (Matthew 27:19). Even though we don't know much about St. Claudia, whose name is not even mentioned in the passage above,

The Holy, Glorious, Right-Victorious, Great-Martyr Demetrius of Thessalon came from a noble family of the Roman province of Macedonia. Through this noble ancestry and through his own ability and virtue he rose to a high military position under Galerius Maximian, Caesar of the Eastern part of the Roman Empire (with Diocletian as the Augustus, or senior emperor). Despite this position in the still-pagan empire, he remained fervent in faith and works for Christ, encouraging many

The holy, glorious and all-laudable Apostle and Evangelist Luke is the author of the Gospel of Luke, the companion of the Apostle Paul (Phil 1:24, 2 Tim 4:10-11), and is numbered among the Seventy Apostles. He was a native of Syrian Antioch and a physician. His emblem is the calf, the third symbolical beast mentioned by Ezekiel (1:10), which is a symbol of Christ's sacrificial and priestly office. Luke was born in the Hellenistic city of Antioch and was extremally educated

St. Symeon the New Theologian (949–1022) is one of three saints of the Orthodox church to have been given the title of Theologian (the others are St. John the Apostle and St. Gregory Nazianzen). Born in Galatia and educated at Constantinople, he became abbot of the monastery of St. Mamas. His feast day is celebrated by some on March 12, the date of his repose, while others commemorate his feast on October 12, because March 12 falls within Great Lent. St. Symeon was a theologi

The Holy Apostle James (son of Alphaeus and brother of the Holy Evangelist Matthew) made missionary journeys throughout Judea, Edessa, Gaza, and Eleutheropolis, proclaiming the Gospel, healing all sorts of sickness and disease, and converting many to the path of salvation. This feast offers us an opportunity to meditate (prayer of the mind) on the following: Do I proclaim the Gospel everywhere I go? Do I pray for the healing of all of my spiritual, mental, and physical illnes