"The devil, the enemy of our race", writes Saint Athanasius the Great, "having fallen from Heaven, wanders about our lower atmosphere, and there bearing rule over his fellow-spirits...tries to hinder them that are going up...while the Lord came to cast down the devil, and clear the air and prepare the way for us up into Heaven...Stretching out His hands upon the Cross, He overthrew "the prince of the power of the air, that now works in the sons of disobedience" (Ephesians 2:2) and made the way clear for us into the heavens".

1. My salvation is a matter entirely my own. If I do not have concern for it, who else will?

Our life on this earth is a sacred journey and unquestionable a gift of God. Father Alexander Schmeman wrote, "All that exists is God's gift to man, and it all exists to make God known to man, and to make man's life communion with God." Life is totally unpredictable and anything can happen to anyone of us in an instant. Our life can change dramatically when one becomes ill, has an accident, sudden death, or experience a tragic circumstance.

Prayer to the Holy Spirit

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Glory To Thee, Our God, Glory To Thee!

O Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of Truth, Thou are everywhere and fill all things Treasury of blessings and Giver of life: come and abide in us, and cleanse us from every impurity, and save our souls, O Good One!

So that by gradual increase... and progress from glory to glory, the Light of the Trinity might shine upon the more illuminated...for this reason it was, I think, that He gradually came to dwell in the Disciples. He measured Himself out to them according to their capacity to receive Him: at the beginning of the Gospel, after the Passion, after the Ascension, making perfect their powers, being breathed upon them and appearing in fiery tongues...You see Lights breaking upon us, gradually, and knowledge of such order of theology, as is better for us to maintain, neither proclaiming things too suddenly nor yet keeping them hidden to the end...

The issue of kneeling on Sundays continues to engage clergy and laity, due to the fact that diametrically opposite views have been formulated concerning this practice.