The Catalog of Good Deeds

1. To know God is to know absolute and unconditional love.

2. Prayer is the most important aspect of life for an Orthodox Christian. All other things are minor and are of lesser importance, and are absolutely worthless when compared to the hard work of prayer.

3. Christ stands at the door steps of our hearts and He is knocking quietly and waiting for you to open up the door and let Him in. As soon as you open the door, He will enter and will dine with you.

4. God gave a conscience to everyone, but it depends on the person whether he wants to hear and follow the voice of his conscience or not.

5. God is close when we have constant communion with Him through unceasing prayer and acts of love.

6. For everyone who does good works and mercy God will give glory, honor and peace in this life, first for the chosen people, that is, who know the law of God and keeps the faith

7. The highest form of prayer is prayer without words, the cry of the soul to God that opens the heavens and gives us a live interaction with God.

8. Make it a rule to never remember your good deeds, instead forget them completely. Always remember only your sins and your evil deeds. Then you will be humble and find yourself more sinful than others, since humility is the first core virtue of a true Christian.

9. Almsgiving has a great, infinite power.

10. The purpose of life is to cultivate love, seek righteousness, and you can only succeed in it by working tirelessly to purify your heart.

11. A prayer that does not do visible, mind-blowing wonders works miracles inside the human hearts.

12. Our acts of almsgiving generate gratitude in people who are far from God.

13. Only the unceasing prayer melts the cold hearts like the falling rain drops.

14. We must be humble in order to do something truly good.

15. It is imperative to thank God when we are weak, when we are insulted, facing hardships, persecutions, and only then do we become truly strong.

Prepared by The Catalog of Good Deeds

By Fr. Andrew Lemeshonok

When I anoint or sprinkle people with Holy water, I feel the depth of every person standing in front of me; there are so many things inside of this person: pain, joy, contradictions, sin, and God's mercy! Man has this all mixed up in him. And when you begin to unravel it - you get confused. Therefore, it is very important for us not to make it more complicated, but to be able to free ourselves from our selfishness, get rid of today’s bewilderments and misunderstandings in order to find God and see the light. Just like when you turn on a lightbulb and it gets brighter, the light falls onto people and illuminates everything. The same thing happens in our lives: we need to find the light to see who we really are and accept our life’s circumstances. It will keep us from making the wrong decisions and actions that could cause our further destruction. We are mistaken if we choose to close ourselves off, because leading such a sheltered life will not allow us to serve God.

You need to see your neighbor. You need to see the person next to you. You have to open up your heart for one, for two people. People who managed to break the shackles of time ended up having a big heart where able to embrace all of humanity and support it together with their prayers, their pain, joy and sorrow. Only imagine what a great challenge it is for an Orthodox Christian to get away from their selfish world and enter the world of God, the history of mankind, and, moreover, you are there not only as a spectator, but you actively participate in it. Here we are looking at the history: the creation of man, the fall of Adam, the Tower of Babel, the return of the prodigal son, Zacchaeus climbing a tree, a publican who comes into the church and says: "God, be merciful to me a sinner" (Luke 18: 13). We enter this world, we live in it and we must be able to give up all the worldly cares, leave all our fantasies behind and start a new life together with God.

It is vital for us to experience real life, God's beauty, the love of God! We need to start to show sign of life, movement: to do something in order to wake up from our dazed state. I gave advice to one of our sisters (her inner state is quite bad, she is torturing herself and she looks really hopeless): "Come on, get up, turn on the cold water in your tap and stand under it for a minute. I am sure, it will make a difference: you will be cold, it will wake you up, your face will change - you will no longer be standing with such a grim face under the icy water. It will be your small victory. "You have to do something about your inner state, you have to move, do you understand what I mean? Instead, you look like frozen mummies: motionless... It is awful to see a young man at his forties who finds it hard to live, that’s crazy! Hopefully, there are elderly people here like our sister Lydia, look at her - she is so beautiful! I think she is one of the youngest sisters in our convent. How old is she? Seventy-two. And you ask me why? Because she has life in her eyes, she is living, she has interests, she cares. That is what is important.

June 18, 2018

St. Elisabeth Convent