The Orthodox Pilgrim – Issue no. 2 / Nativity of Christ 2025

“Alas! His golden lips have been silenced!”   Too often have we Orthodox Christians grown used to “taking for granted” the great men in our midst, of not valuing them as we ought until they have departed from us—and even then not evaluating them properly, and letting their significance and their teaching slip away from us into oblivion.

On the First Sunday of the Great Fast our Church celebrates the triumph of Orthodoxy, the victory of true Christian teaching over all perversions and distortions thereof—heresies and false teachings.

An introduction to one of the most important Orthodox literary figures of the 19th century: translator of the Philokalia, and author of valuable works of spiritual guidance based on the Holy Fathers and his own profound spiritual experience.

The following essay, a short but typical example of Bishop Theophan’s writing, is the Foreword to his major work, The Path to Salvation, and constitutes an outline, by a highly qualified and experienced authority, of the very phenomenon of the spiritual life: its nature, its dangers, its goal.

II – The Prophetic office of Saint John   Matthew 23 37

In connection with the forthcoming 50th anniversary of the canonical establishment of the independence of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, free of Communist domination, we wish to present brief biographical sketches of the outstanding pillars of this Church.

The Lenten sermons of Father George Calciu, originally addressed to Orthodox seminarians and students in Romania, are just as appropriate to the young people of America and the Western world in general.

Sermons to young people by Father George Calciu-Dumitreasa. Given at the Chapel of the Romanian Orthodox Church Seminary, Bucharest   First Meditation March 8th, 1978  

Commemorated. March 25 (†1979) The mission of the Church is to make every one of her faithful, organically and in person, one with the Person of Christ. —Fr. Justin Popovich [1]   With the words of the Archangel Gabriel, Rejoice, thou who art full of grace, the Lord is with thee [Luke 1 28] [2], the Lord chose to frame the life of our holy Father Justin.

The eternal, evangelical truth of God as Judge is neither imposed knowledge nor is it unnaturally added to divinely-revealed truths. It is a natural, integral part of holy Revelation in the theanthropic Body of the Church.

Until the coming of the Lord Christ into our terrestrial world, we men really knew only about death and death knew about us. Everything human was penetrated, captured, and conquered by death.

  The Holy Twenty Thousand Martyrs—December 28   Glory be to God! Every year on the twenty-fifth of December, my beloved, we celebrate Christmas and after Christmas the holy days continue until we end with the Feast of Saint John the Baptist.

The short biographical work of the life of Saint Philoumenos which follows has been written by the Holy Monastery of Saint Nikolaos, Orounta, Cyprus. The monastery will also be publishing it in written form shortly. 

In 1865, the town of Toropets in the province of Pskov was almost untouched by any of the advantages or disadvantages of the modern era. The nearest railroad was 200 versts[1] away, and the old traditional Russian ways were still fully maintained.

It is not without deep emotion that I, this day, enter for the first time this holy temple, and this emotion will not, methinks, be unintelligible to you, my brethren. This was once a Cathedral Church.    

Instruction Of the Most Rev. Metropolitan Innocentius, formerly Archbishop of Kamtchatka, of the Kuril and Aleutian Islands, to the Missionary at Nushagak, Theophanus, Hieromonk.

  From Lectures delivered by Hemogen Bishop of Pskof and Porkhof Translated from the Russian by Zenaide A. Ragozin   Baptism. (general Notions on Baptism)   Baptism ranks first among the seven Sacraments, not because it is higher than the others—the Eucharist stands higher—but because it is the first and only way which gives access to the other sacraments, since it alone entitles a person to take the; name of Christian, and it is Christians only for whose benefit the Sacraments exist.

It is natural for the poor man to beg, and it is natural for man made poor by the fall into sin to pray. Prayer is the appeal of fallen and repenting man to God. Prayer is the weeping of fallen and repenting man before God. Prayer is the outpouring before God of the heart-felt wishes, requests, sighs of man fallen and slain by sin.    

On the Essence, Meaning and Power of Prayer   ⁕ Prayer is proof of the existence of my reasoning personality, of my God-image; it is the pledge of my future divinity and beatitude. I was created out of nothing; I am nothing before God, having nothing of my own.

Of all the many ways in which the All-holy Mother of God reveals Her mercies to men, there is one that stands out both as being undeniable (for it is a completely “objective” phenomenon) and as touching the heart in a most immediate way.

  II. Hinduism’s Assault upon Christianity All the gods of the pagans are demons. Psalm 96:5[1]   The following article comes from the experience of a woman who, after attending high school in a Roman Catholic content, practiced Hinduism for twenty years until finally, by God’s grace, she was converted to the Orthodox Faith, finding the end of her search for truth in the Russian Church Outside of Russia. She currently resides in the San Francisco Bay area, and for various reasons prefers to remain anonymous.

I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled? St. Luke 12 :49   Dear sisters and brothers in Christ, With God’s help, we present you the first issue of The Orthodox Pilgrim, a periodical dedicated to the Orthodox Faith. Inspired by Father Seraphim Rose’s pioneering work in the second half of the last century, we wish to bring back to light the gems of the Orthodox Tradition, forgotten by the contemporary Christians.