Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia Orthodox Church

06/14/2026

It was a wonderful day for our parish! Divine Liturgy was well-attended, with over 60 souls present, which is close to the capacity of our small church, and over 40 of the faithful received Communion.

After trapeza we held our "Fun Day Sunday" event for the children to mark the end of the Church School year. Glory to God for all things!

06/14/2026

Sound doctrine does not enter into the hard and disobedient heart; but, as if beaten back, enters anew into itself.

Martyr Justin the Philosopher, whom the Church commemorates today (6/14).

06/14/2026

The mission of the Church, given by Christ and put into practice by the Holy Fathers, is this: that in the soul of our people be planted and cultivated a sense and awareness that every member of the Orthodox Church is a Catholic Person, a person who is for ever and ever, and is God-human; that each person is Christ’s, and is therefore a brother to every human being, a ministering servant to all men and all created things. This is the Christ-given objective of the Church. Any other is not an objective of Christ but of the Antichrist.

St. Justin Popovich, whom the Church commemorates today (6/14).

06/14/2026

But for us in particular who are gathered together in this community, we have all the more reason to be stirred to joy on the present feast, inasmuch as by the all-good Providence of God, we all find ourselves within the bosom of the Russian Church. She is our common mother, our teacher and nurturer in the Orthodox faith.

We are not Russian, and yet the rich treasury of her spirituality is freely offered to us. If we so desire, by our own prayers and struggles, by nourishing ourselves on the same sources of spiritual life, by calling on her saints for help, we can become true inheritors of the riches of Holy Russia, the spiritual wealth amassed by the blood and tears of untold generations.

Sermon by a monk of Holy Cross Monastery, Wayne, WV, on the Sunday of All Saints of Russia.

06/13/2026

Before his repose in 1994, Elder Paisios of Mount Athos was asked by one of his spiritual sons: "Elder, today there are so many people - billions who don't know Christ and so few of them who do know Him. What will happen?"

St. Paisios answered: "Things will happen which will shake the nations. It will not be the Second Coming, but it will be a Divine intervention. People will be searching for someone to speak to about Christ. They will pull you by the hand: Come here, sit down and tell me about Christ".

06/11/2026

06/11/2026

Those who desire unnecessary comforts and pleasures in this temporal world — which sooner or later will perish — these people prefer other laws, not the laws of the Church but those which allow them to live as they want, to think what they want, to place their own will above the spirit of the Church, that spirit given by the Lord God Himself; and they invite others to follow this same path.

It may be, brethren, that soon you will again experience a time of turmoil, and some of you will be called to take the path of denying those sacred laws and to submit to laws established by mere human authority. Beware of such a path! Beware of the path taken by the thief on the left, for by the weight of blasphemy, by the weight of reviling Christ he went to his eternal perdition.

Those who revile the laws of the Church revile Christ Himself, Who is the Head of the Church, for the laws of the Church were given by the Holy Spirit through the Apostles. And the laws of local Churches are based on those same laws and canons of the Church. Let us not consider ourselves wiser than those saints and hierarchs who established the rules of the Church; let us not imagine ourselves to be great sages. Rather, let us humbly call out together with the wise thief: Remember me, O Lord, in Thy kingdom!

St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco

06/11/2026

The last recorded words of St. Luke, the Blessed Surgeon of Simferopol and Crimea, who fell asleep in the Lord 65 years ago today, on June 11, 1961:

"My children, very much do I entreat you, arm yourselves with the armor that God gives, that you may withstand the devil's tricks.

You can't imagine how evil he is. We don't have to fight with people but with rulers and powers, in effect the evil spirits. Take Care!

It's no use to the devil for anyone to think and feel that he is close to him. A hidden and unknown enemy is more dangerous than a visible enemy.

O how large and terrible is the army of the demons! How numberless is their black horde! Unchanged, untiring, day and night, seeking to push all of us who believe in the name of Christ, to lure us on the road of unbelief, of evil and of impiety. These unseen enemies of God have made their sole purpose, day and night, to seek our destruction. But do not be afraid, take power from the name of Jesus."

06/10/2026

The absence of passion when either seeing or thinking of things is the absence of egoism. The dispassionate person no longer sees and thinks of things through the prism of passion which wants to be satisfied with them; in reference to himself, things no longer seem to be gravitating around him, but they appear as having their own purpose independent of his egotism. Other people appear to him as human beings who are purposes in themselves, who need help from him.

The dispassionate person knows that he influences his neighbors more by his quietness, as a sign of his deep cleansing from passions. He works for salvation of others, with the unwavering confidence in the plan which God has for every soul.

Fr. Dumitru Stăniloae

06/07/2026

The Lord tells us that if our close family and their demands upon us are more important to us than the Lord’s call, we are not worthy of Him. The Lord tells us that our true family is a spiritual family, the family of the true followers of Christ, and if our earthly family should ask us to deny Christ or compromise our faithfulness to Him, we must refuse and choose the Lord’s commandments over their demands and desires for us.

Some might conclude that running from the world, from family and those who would put us in a difficult spot and try to force us to deny Christ, is the easy solution to fulfilling these commandments. Every person finds himself in a different situation with regard to family and other worldly ties and pressures, nevertheless though one can separate himself from family and the world which hates the Truth of Christ, no one can run from himself and his Providential lot in life. Thus the Lord gives us a final qualification for true discipleship: the bearing of one’s cross.

From a homily by a monk of Holy Cross Monastery, on the Sunday of All Saints.