Orthodox Gladness

If a person coms to recognize the talents that God has bestowed on him, and learns to develop and use them, then he will not be envious and he will live as though he were in Paradise. Many people do not acknowledge their own gifts; they only see the abilities of others and become envious. They see themselves as having been dealt a bad hand and thus torment themselves and make their life miserable. - St. Paisios the Athonite

When the celebrant takes out a particle of the prosphora for a brother who is living, "because it is placed near the eucharistic Bread, when that becomes the Body of Christ in the course of the Liturgy, the particle too is immediately sanctified. And when it is placed in the Chalice, it is united with the holy Blood. That is why it transmits divine grace to the soul of the one for whom it is offered. So a spiritual communion takes place between that person and Christ. If the person commemorated is among the godly, or those who have sinned but then repented, that person receives the communion of the Holy Spirit invisibly in his soul. - St. Symeon of Thessaloniki

"Elder, what exactly is the meaning of this life?"
And the Holy Elder replied:
"Who is it?"
Let's get ready for our Homeland!
Heaven!
Paradise!
The whole point is for man to grasp this deeper meaning of life, which is the salvation of the soul! When man believes in God and in the next Life, then he understands that this life is futile and prepares his passport for the next Life!
We forget that we will all leave.
We won't put down roots here...
This life is not for having fun... It is for taking exams and passing on to the next life! That is why our goal must be to prepare ourselves so that we can leave with a clear conscience when God calls us, and fly to Him! ”!
St. Paisios the Athonite

Woe to us, because althoug6h our conscience continually reproves and accuses us, we neither feel ashamed nor are we horrified by the responsibility of our actions before the Judment Seat of God. Woe to us, because, although we stink from our deeds we rejoice when people praise us. - Abba Isaiah

We are all called to holiness!

Never ask: "‘Why am I going through this?’
Or when you see someone else suffering from gangrene,
cancer, or blindness, do not say: ‘Why is he going through this?’
But pray to God to grant you the Vision of the Other Shore!!
Then you will see, as the Angels do, what is happening here,
as it truly is!
Everything is part of God’s plan! Everything!
- St. Gavrilia

Said an elder. "God still speaks to those who have the time to listen."

Keep in mind that prayer for the reposed is strong through its communality, in that it comes from the entire Church. The Church breathes prayer.
In nature, when a pregnant mother breathes, the strength she receives from this breath passes on to her child. So also in a Grace-filled way the Church breathes a prayer that is shared by all, and the power of the prayer passes on to the reposed, who are held in the bosom of the Church, which is made up of the living and the dead, the militant and the triumphant.
Do not be slothful, but zealously commemorate all of our departed fathers and brothers whenever you pray. It will be your alms for them. - St. Theophan the Recluse

To pray somehow, says Mark the Ascetic, lies within our power, but to pray purely is a gift of God's grace. So, whatever we can, let us offer to God, however small (for us), and God's power will flow into your feeble strength, and prayer, dry and scattered, but frequent—everlasting—when acquired and transformed into nature, will become pure, bright, ardent, and worthy prayer. - St. Alexis Mechev of Moscow

People are mistaken when they think that the life they have belongs to them and that they can do with it whatever they want.
Life is a gift from God.
The Lord takes it when He wills. And we see this at almost every step.
"Whose breath is it that has come forth from you?" (Job 26:4)
St. John of Kronstadt

The waves are many and the storm is terrible, but we are not afraid of being drowned because we are on the rock of the ages which is Christ. - St. John Chrysostom

The reason we honor the memories and icons of the Saints and honorably venerate them is their imitation, the copying and imitation of their virtue, their holiness and in general their God-pleasing virtue. By honoring the Saints, we honor and glorify God Himself who made them glorious Saints and citizens of His heavenly kingdom. We commemorate them, we give honor and glory to their holy faces and their sacred memories, and we ask for their prayers and supplications for us to God and their help in the many needs of our lives.
May we also live as they lived. May we live holy, faithful and God-loving and devoted to God

Holy Week is the time when Christ asks us to help carry His cross.
Passionate week is special in the liturgical respect both for the life of every Christian and for the life of the Church.
Even in Lent, Holy Week stands apart. This is the time when our Lord Jesus Christ begins His way on to Calvary, when each of us can touch the wonderful, terrible and great Mystery of the Atonement by the Savior of the whole human race.
Divine services of the Orthodox Church are precisely aimed at the spiritual union of the human soul with its Creator.
Usually during this period the Church invites us to postpone (of course, if possible) all our worldly deeds in order to go deep into the feat of our Lord Jesus Christ, to His Godly suffering and death, suffered by the God-man for our salvation.
Priest Andrey Cizhenko

Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. The word “Hosanna” means “Save, I pray” or “Save now.”

Said an Athonite Elder:
“There is a red-haired demon who drives monks from Athos,He drags them onto a ship and takes them off into the world, casting a terrible despondency on the monk. One day, an Athonite monk was walking along a path praying and met this red demon. He looked, and saw that the red fur on his shoulder and neck was all rubbed off.
The monk asked:
“Who are you?
” “Me? I’m a demon.
” “Why is your fur so strangely rubbed off?
” “Yes, I carry monks on my shoulder into the world. It’s a difficult task! But if I carry them off, then in the world I’ll ride them myself

“While standing in church, one must listen attentively to the singing and reading of the church, and whoever can, must not leave out the Jesus Prayer, especially when the reading of the church is poorly heard or unclear.” - St. Ambrose of Optina

Just as a ship cannot move without water, so the mind cannot maintain silence and peace without the prayer “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me,” sobriety and humility. - St. Hesychius of Jerusalem
Saint Hesychius of Jerusalem (second half of the 4th century – c. 451)a famous Palestinian priest, ascetic and theologian, a disciple of St. Gregory the Theologian

These days, the Church reminds us of the mystery of deification: how it is possible for a created being to unite with the Uncreated. This enlightenment begins here, with the ascetics of piety, and continues to a greater degree in the future life.

Saint Seraphim of Sarov, in a conversation with Motovilov, was granted the grace of God; his face shone like the sun.

Through the prayers of the holy elder, Motovilov felt such warmth in the midst of winter, such a fragrance of flowers, and such love for all people that he could not describe or explain. This is what God's grace does to people.

Christians do not prostrate on Sunday because this is the day we always celebrate the Resurrection, and we recall how God is able to make us stand. Our standing reminds us of the resurrection. There are one or two Sundays a year when we do prostrate (the Third Sunday of Great Lent (Veneration of the Cross), and the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, if it falls on a Sunday. On this day, the hymn "Before Thy cross", which we sing while prostration, teaches us what our prostrations mean:
Before Thy Cross, we fall down in worship, O Master, and Thy holy Resurrection we glorify.
When we prostrate, it is in worship of the Risen Lord, and when we raise ourselves up, we recall the resurrection.
A Christian prostrates when he makes the sign of the cross, and falls to his hands and knees (it is usually easier to have the hands touch the floor a moment before the knees), and bows his head to the ground, then gets back up

The Orthodox teaching tells us that the person who lives in accordance with God's will, with the application of the commandments of the Gospel and the communion of the Holy Mysteries is sanctified in both, soul and body. The body participates in the divine gifts as his soul, becomes incorruptible and works miracles. Sometimes relics may also pour forth holy "myron". This happens because the Holy Spirit which had made abode in a man's body and soul does not desert him after his death. Therefore, when we pay our respects to the Holy Relics, in reality we venerate and worship not the dead bones, but the living God, the Holy Spirit. This is the reason we do not burn out dead, but we bury them.