Top Ten Blog Posts of the Year

10. You should never leave your loved ones

Marriage and love require huge responsibility from a person. Love requires a response. We used to think it does not. As if love is something you can easily use, or something that brings pleasure, or even something you can order in a restaurant. Unfortunately, in Russian language the word “love” is used in relation to people, animals, furniture, nature, and food. That is why when a person says “I love” he can mean the same feeling as if he wanted to say “I like spaghetti”. A person treats the other as a delicious meal, which provokes certain emotions and appetite…READ FULL ARTICLE

9. 14 types of ancient Christian crosses

Today every Orthodox Christian wears a cross. It is not just the sign, which demonstrates our faith and religion, but it is the symbol of God’s victory over evil and death. The cross reminds us about the sacrifice, which God made for our salvation. Perhaps, the eight-pointed Orthodox cross is most usual and familiar to us. But there are a lot of other variations of the cross known in the Orthodox tradition. Let us see, what they are…READ FULL ARTICLE

8. The Role of Women in the Orthodox Church

The Orthodox Church proclaims equality between men and women. They have, however, different roles to perform within the context of the Church. Women, as the Church emphasizes, are the backbone of the Church in that they are the backbone in their respective parishes and homes. It is well known that churches cannot continue to be strong units in the Church unless their families and children, the nucleus of any given parish, are raised and cared for in a Christian manner and according to Christ’s teachings…READ FULL ARTICLE

7. What is Repentance?

What is repentance? Looking for an answer to this question we asked a well-known priest from Minsk Archpriest Andrew Lemeshonok. Father Andrew is a very experienced pastor because he has to confess tens and hundreds of persons in various places daily…READ FULL INTERVIEW

6. “The Lord gives each person their own ministry”

Mother Euphrosinia, the Abbes of St. Elisabeth Convent speaks about her path to becoming an abbess; about her obedience in the mental clinic; about some distinct features of her community, which has been oriented towards helping people since the very beginning of its existence; as well as about freedom and creativity in a monastery, false Christianity, various faces of monasticism, and true culture…READ FULL INTERVIEW

5. The Meaning of Objects Held by Saints in Icons

Iconography can be an extremely concise way of communicating the Faith. Therefore, what the Saints hold in their hands in portrait icons help in identifying them and in telling us about their lives. I hope to show that what is held in the hands of the Saints in Icons is their instrument of Salvation; i.e. the “tools” by which God saved and glorified these people…READ FULL ARTICLE

4. Making the Sign Of The Cross

The symbol of the Christian Faith has been and will always be the Cross, for it is the sign of our Redemption by Our Lord Jesus Christ Who came to earth to suffer for us by being crucified upon the Cross. When people wish to show that something is dedicated to Christ they mark it with a cross. The Cross is placed on church buildings, on the Holy Gospel, on the sacred vestments, on banners, and over the graves of the departed…READ FULL ARTICLE

3. Why do the Saints never smile on icons?

There are over 400 occurrences of the word “joy” in the Bible, most of them referring to what awaits those who become close to God. So why do icons – portraits of people who have been received by Christ into Heaven – show the Saints looking sombre?..READ FULL ARTICLE

2. The Tradition of Long Hair and Beards

Anyone looking at photographs and portraits of clergy in Greece, Russia, Rumania, and other Orthodox countries taken in the early twentieth century will notice that almost without exception both the monastic and married clergy, priests and deacons, wore untrimmed beards and hair…READ FULL ARTICLE

1. The Liturgical Colors of Vestments

The Orthodox clergy wear two kinds of robes, non-liturgical and liturgical. The non-liturgical robes are the ordinary daily clothing of the clergy, worn underneath ‘liturgical robes’. Liturgical robes, or ‘vestments’, are worn during church services…READ FULL ARTICLE