Are christians still murdering their own children?

Father Philotheos Zervakos:

“Don’t do abortion. Give birth, baptize your child and then slaughter him – in this way you will be less sinful on the Judgement Day, because the aborted children are leaving this world without being baptized.”

Prayer is a struggle.

 Prayer is a struglle.

Fr George Calciu

I do not like definitions. But regarding prayer I must say without a doubt, that it is a work proceeding from God, which returns to God. The spirit of prayer is a gift which the Holy Spirit puts in each of us, some more, some less. We cause it to be more or less active. And at the same time, prayer destroys the barrier which comes between us and God.

The greatest miracle is to know God. If we call on Him with all our strength, God reveals and makes Himself known to us. Search in the depths of your heart and you will find God there. Cry wholeheartedly and God will respond to you, and miracles will occur in your soul, and your spirit will become pure, the eye will open, and you will see the Divine Truth, which is the only Saviour.

Prayer has such strength that it can change the unchangeable will of God. Prayer can bring bodily and spiritual health to the one praying; it softens the hearts of families that are embittered, and it turns from sin the one committing sin.

I have stayed in prison with many people: with hierarchs, with good priests, with monks, and I understood that prayer is a struggle, a very great struggle.

In the moment when you begin to pray, the devil attacks you; and after the first words, after the first short prayers you make, he puts all kinds of unimportant, wordly thoughts in your mind. Even curiosity about the time of the day or whether it is sunny or cloudy works in your mind. All of these appear as innocent behaviour, but they disrupt the voice of prayer in our heart. Fr. Paisios says that these thoughts which appear in our mind at the time of prayer are like airplanes. First, you heart them from afar, very faintly as a noise without much intensity, then the noise grows and grows and grows, and when they arrive over your head, they overwhelm you with their noise and then go away. But if you enter into conversation with these thoughts, they will make your heart into an airport.

Some Christians ask me what to do when fighting against the thoughts which come to their mind when they pray. The first thing is to pay no attention to them. Namely, to let them pass over your head. The second thing is to call for the help of God and of your guardian angel. And the third thing is not to open your heart to a conversation with the bad thoughts, because the demon is stronger than we are. The devil goes mad when someone prays. This can explain why we are especially attacked when we pray. An army of demons brings all these vile thoughts.

If your heart is truly penetrated by the Holy Spirit, if your prayer melts your whole heart and soul, the you do not need to say many prayers, but only, “God, do not forsake me!” or, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!” which is the strongest prayer. The name of Jesus is sweet when pronounced, it banishes the demons and brings the angels back, and it brings to the heart and mind a good-hearted concern for others. But if you do not attain to this, follow the rule of prayer from the prayer book, because by calling on the name of God through all the prayers, you call on Christ, the Mother of God, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Trinity, God the Father, the saints, all the martyrs, and your heart will enter into an interior resonance with all of them.

Sometimes I come here to the church and on one is inside. It is quite. I enter, and the moment I come through the door, I have the feeling that all the saints have their faces turned towards me, that they have turned their gaze upon me. I feel that I am not alone. I feel surrounded by spiritual powers. And often I hear feet walking through the church… I do not see anything, but I hear soft steps. A movement is heard. Surely you will say, “Fine,but the church is old and it creaks”. Perhaps the church creaks, but perhaps God lets me know that the saints are with me, that I pray with them, or they pray together with me. God lets me know.

And truly I know, in that moment, that I am not alone here. Even if it is night, as late as it may be, I am not afraid. I do not feel boredom, but only a sort of joy which does not belong to me, which is foreign to me. It does not come from my heart, but it comes from somewhere else’

Translated by Adriaan and Mihaela Ulmer from Living Words, pp 24-25

We need a personal encounter with Jesus Christ, a renewal of our life

Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!

From the book “On the way of faith” by Archimandrite Roman Braga

“It was Pascha of the first year after the Communist October Revolution. In front of the Winter Palace in St.Petersburg, Lunaciarski was holding an atheist conference. This founder of the “bezbojnik” (without God) movement had declared only a couple of months earlier that God should disappear completely from the vast Soviet territories. He had made a solemn commitment in the presence of the Soviet Communist Party. On that day the meeting was of great size. Country people and workmen from surrounding areas and from far away had been brought forcibly to attend. It was comparable to the demonstrations held in Bucharest every year on May 1 and August 23 during the Communist regime. There were thousands of Bolsheviks applauding and thundering slogans against God. The orator was in his glory.

 To make the argument more powerful, and inflamed group of Communists surprised an old priest on the street; they beat him, spat on him, pulled his beard and brought him on the stage. Lunaciarski looked at him and said, “Do you see these multitudes? From now on, they do not believe in God; they believe in me, in what I tell them. Look, I give you the floor. If in five minutes, you do not convince them that God exists, I will execute you.” The priest turned to the people, and, this being Pascha, he felt in his heart a flow of warm love and compassion for these people. He cleared his voice and cired out with a supernatural force, “BRETHREN, CHRIST IS RISEN!” There were a few seconds of dead silence, and then as if from the depths or even from heaven, the answer of tens of thousands of Bolsheviks reverberated through the air: “HE IS RISEN INDEED!” The old man made the sign of the cross in the presence of the speaker and said, “Your Excellency, my demonstration is finished.” Then he slipped away through the crowd and disappeared. The writer Nicholas Arseniev, who was an eyewitness, later related the facts of this event in his memoirs written in exile.”

” But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.“