In the Time of Fasting and Prayer
Saint Paul says, "For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified" (Romans 2:13). And the Lord of both David and Saint Paul says, "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them" (St. John13:17).
Devotion to Prayer (Part II)
Just think: within us is the Kingdom of God, His dwelling place, where we "confine that which has no body within a body", so that the "worship of heavenly things" takes place within our hearts". We acquire God, and God is inseparably bound up with all the Saints, for they, like us, have all been nourished on the same milk, having been fed at the breast of the Holy Spirit. Thus the Saints are our brothers and friends. They wait for us, love us, and secure our blessedness, as the Prophet Isaiah says: "Blessed is he who has relatives and friends in Jerusalem" (Isaiah 31:9). We acquire as our friends and relatives all the Saints of Christ, who live above, in the heavenly Jerusalem.
Devotion to Prayer
If we wish to devote ourselves to the Jesus Prayer, we must also recognize that we have a problem. We are imprisoned within the confines of our worries and concerns. We are always in a hurry. We get tired. We become disillusioned. We live with stress, we are troubled by disturbing thoughts, by our passions, by inner storms. In order to sleep, we need to be on the point of exhaustion; and in order to be happy, we have to listen to music, or find some other amusement. This is no life at all! It tires us out, and doesn't allow us to pray as much and in the way that we want.
First Sunday of Holy and Great Lent: The Triumph of Orthodox Christianity
The Sunday of Orthodoxy is the First Sunday of Great and Holy Lent. The dominant theme of this Sunday since 843 AD has been that of the triumph of the holy icons. In that year Iconoclastic Controversy, which had raged on and off since 726 AD, was finally laid to rest, and holy icons and their veneration were restored on the First Sunday in Lent. Ever since, this Sunday has been commemorated as the "Triumph of Orthodox Christianity."
A Song of Repentance: The Great Canon of Saint Andrew of Crete (Part IV)
Prior to hearing Prophet Nathan's message David's mind did not waver. As soon as he saw Bathsheba, he forgot God, seduced her. Then he started to worry how he could get away from the trouble that might arise when other learned what he had done. When his first efforts at a cover-up failed, he arranged for the woman's husband to be murdered. Safeguarding, his reputation filled his mind. For him to repent, something outside these thoughts had to burst in on his darkened mind because David's eyes could not be opened of themselves; God had to intervene. God, unlike David, wanted their close friendship to live again. The wellspring of repentance is God actively seeking out the sinner and helping them change their mind (metanoia), heart, and therefore their path.