I have heard some people say, “Ah! Human love is useless,” which is a great error. Human love is useless and barren only when it excludes divine love and does not strive for it. Is anyone directly given divine love; or who can determine its bounds? Love can and must be learned. It begins in us from earliest childhood, and if we progress well in it, then by God’s mercy and grace we will be vouchsafed divine love also. Man is endowed with the talent of love as a gift, and if we

“Once the Elder was invited aboard a frigate which came from Saint Petersburg. The Captain of the frigate was a highly educated man, who had been sent to America by order of the Emperor to make an inspection of all the colonies. There were more than twenty-five officers with the Captain, and they also were educated men. In the company of this group sat a monk of a hermitage, small in stature and wearing very old clothes. All these educated conversationalists were placed in su

The Sunday after Pentecost is the Sunday of All Saints. In the Orthodox Church the feast of All Saints is not on a fixed date as it is in the west. Rather, the feast of All Saints is linked to Pentecost, the descent of the Holy Spirit. This is as it should be, for the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost has the effect of producing holy people: saints. In the English language the connection between the Holy Spirit and the saints is, unfortunately, not so obvious becaus

Christ had ascended bodily into heaven, so if He had not sent His Holy Spirit to accompany and strengthen His disciples and their successors in following generations who taught the gospel of grace, He would not have been preached to all nations, nor would the proclamation have been passed down to us. That is why the Lord, in His all-surpassing love for mankind, showed at Pentecost that His disciples were partakers, fathers and ministers of everlasting light and life, who brin