Friends, the following are a few words from St John of Kronstadt’s well-known My Life in Christ on private prayer. As many of us struggle with prayer I thought St John’s advice might be helpful. -With Love in Christ, Fr John The sign of the Lord’s mercy or of that of His most pure Mother to us, after or during prayer, is peace of heart, especially after the action of some passion, whose property is the absence of spiritual peace. By this peace of heart and a kind of holy tend

Friends, the following excerpt is from the novel The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, from a section titled “The Russian Monk” about the fictional Elder Zosima. Elder Zosima is a creation of the author’s flowing out of his experiences with St Ambrose of Optina Hermitage, as well as the writings of other Russian saints. We are reading selections from the novel in the Sunday evening book group but I wanted to share some of these beautiful and spiritual words with all of

Friends, as a preparation for the Nativity Fast which begins this Thursday, I wanted to share this beautiful prayer with you. It is from the Prayers by the Lake by St Nikolai Velimirovich, one of our wonderful 20th century saints. It is essential that we see fasting as not merely “giving up” - a negative renunciation - but as a positive preparation. This prayer captures this true spirit of Christian asceticism beautifully. I hope it will inspire you as we begin our journey to

Friends, on Thursday of this week we will celebrate the feast of the Archangel Michael and all the bodiless powers. Here is a portion of the synaxarion reading for them from the OCA website. -Fr John The Synaxis of the Chief of the Heavenly Hosts, Archangel Michael and the Other Heavenly Bodiless Powers: Archangels Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, Selaphiel, Jehudiel, Barachiel, and Jeremiel was established at the beginning of the fourth century at the Council of Laodicea, which met