Serbian Orthodoxy - Canada

06/01/2026

06/01/2026

“The elder loved the Jesus Prayer the most: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.” His mother taught him this prayer when he was a child, and the elder later cultivated it within himself. From the time he lived on Sinai and in the years that followed, the Jesus Prayer – with few exceptions – replaced all daily services for him. Prayer became his breathing, his food and his delight. He reached such a state that his mind was immersed in the Jesus Prayer, and this continued even when he slept.”

THE LIFE OF THE ELDER PAISIOS
Hieromonah Isaac
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“We repeat many times in prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me,” the sweetest name of Christ, not because Christ does not hear us the first time, but in order to unite our minds with Him.”

Saint Paisios of Mount Athos
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“The Jesus Prayer, according to the teaching of the Holy Fathers, is appropriate when a person is walking, sitting, lying down, drinking, eating, talking, or engaged in some kind of handicraft. Anyone who can say the Jesus Prayer with humility, ... should not abandon it.”

Saint Ambrose of Optina
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“The power is not in the words of the Jesus Prayer, but in the spiritual disposition, in the fear of God and devotion to God, in constant attention to God and mental preeminence before Him.”

Saint Theophan the Recluse
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“People in the world, for example, scholars, cannot go to church on Saturday or Sunday - they have some work to do at that time. However, you can make an altar at this hour, saying the Jesus Prayer.”

Saint Ephraim of Katunaki
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“Demons cannot say the Jesus Prayer, because according to Saint John of the Ladder it is the most powerful weapon against them.”

Saint Macarius of Optina
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“When you say the Jesus Prayer, try to think more deeply that the Lord Himself is near and stands before your soul and listens to what is happening in it.”

Saint Theophan the Recluse

05/31/2026

At Pentecost, the fullness of the Godhead is manifested with the Spirit’s coming to man, thus the 8th Sunday of Pascha is also known as the Feast of the Holy Trinity.

The Holy Trinity icon, depicting the three angelic figures who appeared to Abraham, is often placed in the middle of the church, alongside the traditional Pentecost icon.

05/29/2026

Dear children, technology itself is not evil. A phone can help us learn, communicate, and even read the Holy Scriptures. But when a screen becomes more important than prayer, family, or the Divine Liturgy, then it begins to take the place that belongs to God alone. Our Lord teaches us, 'Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also' (Matthew 6:21). Let us ask ourselves: Is my heart with Christ, or is it captive to distractions? Even a few minutes of sincere prayer each day can bring more peace to the soul than hours of endless scrolling

05/27/2026

“The soul that departs from the body is taken by the Archangel Michael (it departs through the mouth), by the command of Christ, while the guardian angel remains, out of honor, beside the dead body until it is buried. It is the highest honor for us Orthodox Christians that Christ has appointed the chief of the angels, the Archangel Michael, to receive our soul. This applies only to the Orthodox!

The Archangel Michael delivers the soul into the hands of other angels, who receive it and depart for the toll-houses. For three days the soul passes through the toll-houses. Not all are tested in the same way. Those who have confessed pass through the toll-houses swiftly, as though by an express way.

Those who are tested are those who possess unconfessed sins. If there exists some unconfessed sin less than a mortal sin, it is weighed against the good works; if the good prevails, the soul proceeds to the next toll-house, until it reaches our Christ. But if, at some toll-house, a soul possesses an unconfessed mortal sin, it is immediately cast down and condemned. People are condemned especially at the toll-house: a) of magic and satanism, and b) of fleshly immorality (fornication).

When the three-day period has passed and the soul has traversed the toll-houses, it is led by the angel before the humanity of Christ, for His divinity is not visible. The soul beholds Christ in the form in which we see Him in our holy icons. Christ has no other form. As is well known, on the third day the Church, as a loving Mother, offers the kollyva of the third day. These memorial kollyva stand before the Lord when the soul bows down before Christ. Every grain of wheat in the kollyva represents the prayers of those who intercede on behalf of that soul.

After the soul venerates Christ, Christ blesses it without speaking a single word. God does not yet pronounce judgment, but the soul intuitively knows that, because it passed the toll-houses, it has been saved, though it still awaits the confirmation of its salvation.

Then the guardian angel takes the soul and, in an instant, brings it again to the earth. He takes it to the places where it was born and raised, leading it through the whole course of its life. The soul remembers details long forgotten, both its good and evil deeds, and every sin it committed, whether confessed or unconfessed. Then the soul realizes experientially that Christ is everywhere present and knows all things.

This journey of the soul upon the earth lasts from the third day until the ninth day. On the ninth day the angel takes the soul and again presents it before Christ to venerate Him, and we then offer the kollyva of the ninth day, through which the Church and the faithful pray for mercy upon that soul.
Christ blesses the soul, but still does not pronounce judgment. From the ninth day onward begins the greater part of the revelations.

The guardian angel then takes the soul and leads it into Paradise. From the ninth until the twenty-fourth day the soul beholds Paradise. Yet it cannot converse with anyone there; it is as though it sees persons separated from it by an impenetrable transparent glass. The soul only sees, but cannot communicate or hear what is taking place in Paradise.

On the twenty-fifth day the angel takes the soul to Hades, and the same applies there. There also exists an impenetrable transparent barrier, and the soul only beholds without communicating. The sorrowful thing is when the soul sees there some of its beloved persons.

There in Hades, only utter oblivion — the very abyss of hell — cannot be seen by anyone. And on the fortieth day (counting the day of repose as the first day), the soul again makes prostration before Christ, and Christ pronounces where the soul shall abide unto the ages of ages. For this reason the Church offers the kollyva of the fortieth day, which are the most significant of all.

In this manner the soul acquires experience of the entire noetic world and becomes assured that all these things truly exist and that nothing is a myth.

+Elder Ephraim of the Skete of Saint Andrew of blessed memory