Sunday

“That’s how we should think always. And that’s how we should live toward difficulties and tragedies. We should see them all as opportunities for prayer, for approaching God. That’s the secret: how the man of God will transform everything into prayer. That’s what St. Paul the Apostle means when he says I rejoice in my sufferings, in all the tribulations he encountered. This is how sanctfiication takes place. May God grant this to us. I asked for this fervently in my prayer.”
Elder Porphyrios ~Wounded by Love

Prayer:  We adore Thee O Christ and we bless Thee, for by Thy Holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world.

 

Monday

“It is not easy to comprehend why God created worlds, first the bodiless angelic one and then the bodily one with man as its crown. If the Triune God is perfect and self-sufficient in the fullness of life, love and glory, why did He create worlds lesser than Himself? The Church and only the Church provides the answer. From an over abundance of love within Himself, God created the worlds visible and invisible through the Only Begotten to please Him. Was It for the Son’s entertainment or out of some necessity? This is not what we said. God does not need entertainment. His Triune love overcomes all merriment of entertainment and all enjoyment of amusements. Neither does the perfect one, the self-sufficient one have any necessity since He has everything within Himself.”
St Nikolai Velimirovich ~Missionary Letters #2

Prayer:

Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever.

 

Tuesday

“Christ is revealed in that unity between His love and ourselves: the Church. On my own I am not the Church but together with you. Altogether we are the Church. All are incorporated in the Church. We are all the one and Christ is the head. one body, one Body of Christ: you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. We are all one because God is our Father and is everywhere. When we experience this we are in the Church. This is our Lord’s wish for all the members of the Church as expressed in His great high priestly prayer: that they may be one. But that’s something you can only understand through grace. We experience the joy of unity, of love, and we become one with everyone. There is nothing more magnificent!”
Elder Porphyrios ~Wounded by Love

Prayer:

Christ is in our midst…He is and always shall be.

Wednesday

“In the last days we shall see the spirits of devils working miracles. The Holy Scriptures and Orthodox Fathers clearly tell us that the character of the last times will not be at all one of a great spiritual revival, of an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, but rather one of almost universal apostasy, of spiritual deception so subtle that the very elect if that were possible will be deceived, of the virtual disappearance of Christianity from the face of the earth. “When the Son of Man comes will He find faith on the earth?” It is precisely in the last times that Satan is to be loosed in order to produce the final and greatest outpouring of evil upon the earth.”
Fr. Seraphim Rose ~Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future

Prayer:

Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me Bless His Holy Name.

 

Thursday
“Once on Monday of the Holy Spirit Father Palacios told us that he had left us rusks, tomatoes and grapes down on the dock. Geronda turned to us and said “All right – get your sacks and go down to the dock. Bring them now before the mice get them.” Thoughts started attacking me like ants: “What? You’re going to haul things up the mountain on a day like this? You’re supposed to have quiet time for reading and prayer today!” I answered back to these thoughts “Straight and narrow is the way. Obedience is above all. I came not to do my own will but the will of the Father who sent me.” The burden of those thoughts was heavier than the burden on my back! The battle went back and forth….
” Elder Ephraim of Arizona ~My Elder Joseph

Prayer:  O Most Holy Trinity, have mercy on us. O Lord, blot out our sins. O Master, pardon our iniquities. O Holy One, visit and heal our infirmities for Thy name’s sake.

Friday

“What does it mean to believe in the Gospel? It means believing in the Good News brought to mankind by the heavenly Herald, by God the Son. In other words it means to believe Lord Christ and His Revelation. And Christ’s Revelation is the greatest revelation since the creation of the world. His revelation is the only one which can turn man the worm into man the God and a son of God.” St Nikolai Velimirovich ~Missionary Letters #3

Prayer:  Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us. (3X)

Saturday
“A lot of people today are tormented because they don’t love what they are doing for a living. They can’t wait until it’s time to go. However when one has zeal for work and when one cares about the things he makes, the more he works the more his zeal grows. He is immersed in his work and when it’s time to leave he asks, “Where did the time go?” Even if it is to eat, to rest; he forgets everything! And has not eaten but he is not hungry; he may not have slept but he is not sleepy and he may even rejoice over not needing sleep. It’s not that he suffering from hunger or sleeplessness; for him his work is a feast and he enjoys it.”
Elder Paisios ~Family Life

Jesus Prayer:  Lord Jesus Christ Son of God have Mercy on me a sinner.