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The Way of a Pilgrim Hope Publishing House, 2nd Edition, 1989 The Way of a Pilgrim is a story of an 18th century Russian pilgrim who encounters and experiences the deeper meaning of prayer through his life of struggle and yearning for God. His deep interest and enlightenment began when one day he entered a Liturgy during the Epistle reading and heard the words “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess 5:17). The pilgrim made it his mission to understand their importance, and went to find a spiritual father. After some time, and by the grace of God, an old man guided [...]

Fasting Fasting is an integral part of our Orthodox Christian life, and is a spiritual exercise that, when we embrace it, teaches us self denial, strong will-power and discipline. The purpose of fasting is not simply to “give up things”, but rather to practice self-discipline in a day and age when we are “consumed” by food: with a plethora of diets, cookbooks, TV shows, eating disorders, medical intervention treatments etc, we often allow food to control us. We fast as a sacrifice, to improve our self-control - by being more disciplined with our physical desires, we become freer to use [...]

St Irenaeus of Lyons St Irenaeus of Lyons was born c. 130 AD in Asia Minor, and later became the Bishop of the city of Lugdunum in Gaul (now Lyons in France), where he martyred around 202 AD. In 1904 an old manuscript was discovered in an Armenian church which was proven to be a treatise written by St Irenaeus called “The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching.” This remarkable discovery of a work which until then had been considered lost, provided a great insight into the way in which the Christians of the second century understood, interpreted and lived their [...]

Post-Communion Hymn of the Divine Liturgy Εἴδομεν τὸ φῶς τὸ ἀληθινόν, ἐλάβομεν Πνεῦμα ἐπουράνιον, εὓρομεν πίστιν ἀληθῆ, ἀδιαίρετον Τριάδα προσκυνοῦντες· αὕτη γὰρ ἡμᾶς ἔσωσεν. We have seen the true light, we have received the heavenly Spirit, we have found the true faith, worshipping the undivided Trinity, which has saved us. It is not by chance that this hymn, which is dedicated to the Holy Spirit and is derived from the vespers service of Pentecost Sunday, is chanted after Holy Communion on most Sunday and weekday Divine Liturgies of the Church year. St Gregory Palamas illuminates us in his twenty-fourth homily [...]

Father Hadji-George the Athonite (1809-1866)   Cappadocia was the birthplace of many of our Faith's holy mothers and fathers. Even up to the twentieth century Cappadocia continued to bestow the blessings of saintly offspring on the Orthodox world. One such blessing came in the nineteenth century in the form of the child Gabriel. From his youth, this blessed child would seek out the monastic life in the local caves, seeking counsel from the local ascetics, to spending hours (and days) in fasting and prayer. Miracles filled his early years. The Theotokos appeared to him in church one day and, taking [...]