Orthodox Portal

“Is not that which is best, above all, and surpassing all, and that which by preference is most worthy of our love, the Very Lord, our Savior Jesus Christ Who created us, adorned us with blessings, Who gives life to all, sustains everything, and nurtures and loves all?…Should we not then love God above everything and desire Him more than anything?…Let us at least promise ourselves that from this day and from this very hour we will strive to love God more than anything else and labor to fulfill His Holy will…”

The Fast of the Nativity is the Church’s wise reassurance and aid to human frailty. Like Great Lent, the fast of Nativity is a journey, “Come, O ye faithful, and let us behold where Christ is born…”
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The wise Catherine, an earthly princess, became a martyr for Christ. Foolish Maxentius offered her life: If she would consent to become his wife! The holy Catherine, pure as gold, replied to the emperor thus: “My betrothed is the Risen Christ, and I desire not the love of a corrupt man. You seek my body; the rotten seeks corruption, even as the incorrupt spirit seeks immortality. The physical covering must wither away, the true man takes care for his immortal soul. Do what you wish, and torture me – burn me in the fire, turn me on a wheel; I cannot renounce my own soul, nor worship any but Christ as God. Remember, O Emperor, soon you will die, for you dare wage war against Christ, Who is mightier than death. You stand under the Rock, and He will crush you.”

Holy Catherine, Christ’s virgin, you despised the throne for eternal truth’s sake; and thus now reign in the Kingdom without end, and sing with the angels, in the midst of sweet Paradise.
(St. Nikolai Velimirovich)

“What is the sign that a man has attained to purity of heart, and when does a man know that his heart has entered into purity? When he sees all men as good and none appears to him as unclean and defiled, then in very truth his heart is pure…”
(The Ascetic Homilies, xlviii)

People were not created merely to live here on earth like animals that disappear after their death, but to live with God and in God, and to live not for a hundred years or a thousand years, but to live eternally. But only Christians can live with God; that is to say, those who rightly believe in Jesus Christ. Everyone, whoever he may be, desires and seeks prosperity and happiness. To desire what is good for oneself and to seek prosperity or happiness is a part of man’s nature, and therefore it is not a sin or vice. But we need to know that here on earth there has not been, and is not, and never will be true and perfect happiness and prosperity; for all our prosperity and happiness is only in God. No one will ever find true happiness and perfect prosperity without God or outside God.
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