"Do you understand how youth does not hinder nor does old age help a man..."

In speaking about a handsome twenty-year-old youth named George--who, despite his beauty, youth and life among the conceited of the world, recognized the path of salvation and was enlightened by spiritual wisdom--St. Simeon the New Theologian concludes with these words: "Do you understand how youth does not hinder nor does old age help a man, if he does not have reason and the fear of God?" What prevented the young Apostle John from believing in Christ the Lord? What were the benefits of age to the Jewish elders when they were blinded in mind and in their blindness sentenced the Son of God to death? Youth in absolutely no way prevents the young, even in our time, from giving their faith and love to Christ, who created them out of love. Age does not benefit the aged in our time if their souls are poisoned with maliciousness toward Christ. Young and old bodies are nothing more than new and old garments of the soul. Either of these garments can conceal a healthy or a sick soul. Our goal is a healthy and clean soul.

- From the Prologue of Ohrid

The Feast of the Annunciation

When the All-holy Virgin had completed the fourteenth year after her birth and was entering her fifteenth year, after having spent eleven years of living and serving in the Temple of Jerusalem, the priests informed her that, according to the Law, she could not remain in the Temple but was required to be betrothed and enter into marriage. To the great surprise of the priests, the All-holy Virgin answered that she had dedicated her life to God and that she desired to remain a virgin until death, not wanting to enter into marriage with anyone! Then according to God's providence and inspiration, Zacharias, the high priest and father of the Forerunner, in agreement with the other priests, gathered twelve unmarried men from the tribe of David, so that they might entrust the Virgin Mary to one of them to preserve her virginity and care for her. She was entrusted to Joseph of Nazareth, who was her kinsman. In the house of Joseph, the All-holy Virgin continued to live as she did in the Temple of Solomon, occupying her time in the reading of sacred Scripture, in prayer, in godly thoughts, in fasting, and in handiwork. She rarely went anywhere outside the house and was uninterested in worldly matters and events. She spoke very little to anyone, if at all, and never without special need. She most often associated with Joseph's two daughters. When the fullness of time had come, as prophesied by Daniel the Prophet, and when God was pleased to fulfill His promise to the banished Adam and to the prophets, the great Archangel Gabriel appeared in the chamber of the All-holy Virgin.  This occurred, as some Church writers have related, precisely at the same moment that she held open the book of the Prophet Isaiah and was contemplating his great prophecy: Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and bear a son! (Isaiah 7:14). Gabriel appeared in all of his angelic brightness and saluted her: Rejoice, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee! (Luke 1:28), and the rest, as it is written in the Gospel of the blessed Luke. With this angelic annunciation and the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Virgin, the salvation of mankind and the restoration of all creation began. The history of the New Testament was opened by the words of the Archangel Gabriel: Rejoice, thou that art highly favored. This shows that the New Testament signified joy to mankind and to all created things. Therefore the Annunciation is considered not only a great feast but also a joyful feast.

- From the Prologue of Ohrid

Are you saved by faith or works?

Protestants will often ask, “Are you saved by faith or works?” A popular Protestant evangelism program encourages participants to ask people, “If you were to die and God were to ask you, ‘Why should I let you into my heaven?’, what would your answer be?” My answer will forever remain the same: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.” 

For many have sinned openly and repented in secret

Even in His pain on the Cross, the Lord Jesus did not condemn sinners but offered up pardon for their sins to His Father, saying: They know not what they do (Luke 23:34)! Let us not judge anyone so that we will not be judged. For no one is certain that, before his death, he will not commit the same sin by which he condemns his brother. St. Anastasius of Sinai teaches: "Even if you see someone sinning, do not judge him, for you do not know what the end of his life will be like. The thief who was crucified with Christ was a murderer, while Judas was an apostle of Jesus, but the thief entered into the Kingdom, and the apostle went to perdition.  Even if you see someone sinning, bear in mind that you do not know his good works. For many have sinned openly and repented in secret; we see their sins, but we do not know their repentance. Therefore, brethren, let us not judge anyone so that we will not be judged." 

- From the Prologue of Ohrid

Deprived of the Grace of the Holy Spirit

"The person who does not attend church, does not confess, does not partake in communion is deprived of the grace of the Holy Spirit, which leads to the fact that the majority of the population are mentally ill. It is necessary to pray for the illness of this century." - Saint Amphilochius of Pochaev Lavra 

Holy Trinity Orthodox Christian Chapel in Spencer, WV

I would like to invite everyone to visit to our new Orthodox Christian Chapel here in Spencer, WV!

We will be doing Reader Services (3^rd Hour, 6^th Hour, & Typica) every Sunday at 11AM. This is your opportunity to experience the life transforming Faith and Worship of the 2000-year-old Orthodox Church right here in Roane County.

The opening of Holy Trinity Orthodox Christian Chapel is the realization of my family’s vision and a labor of love to bring the ancient Orthodox Christian Faith to the people of Roane County.

My wife and I opened Holy Trinity Orthodox Books & Gifts in the Summer of 2021. In addition to offering a variety of all-natural Home and Bath products from the Orthodox Monks of Holy Cross Monastery in Wayne WV and products from the Holy Land in Israel, we wanted to offer a variety of books on the Ancient Faith of the Orthodox Church.

We also offered Inquirer Classes for those interested in learning more about the Ancient Orthodox Christian Church and how it could impact their spiritual lives in coming to know Christ more intimately. We had several people attend our classes and currently have two Catechumens preparing to be received into the Orthodox Church through Holy Baptism.  

The Orthodox Church is the only Church on earth that can trace its history, teachings, and worship back to Christ and the Apostles in an unbroken historical line. In other words, the Orthodox Church is not just another Christian denomination; it is the ancient Christian Church.

We warmly invite you and your family to come and experience the life-changing “faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3) for yourself right here in Spencer, WV. 

A Pentecost Without Christ

“Those who bring Christian ideas to the experience assume that the ‘Baptism in the Holy Spirit’ is a Christian experience. But if it can be given to those who merely seek a cheap, easy status experience — then there is no necessary connection whatever between this experience and Christ. The very possibility of an experience of a “Pentecost without Christ” means that the experience in itself is not Christian at all; ‘Christians,’ often sincere and well-meaning, are reading into the experience a Christian content which in itself it does not have.” -  Fr. Seraphim Rose, Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future

Were Only Adults Baptized in the New Testament?

An argument often made against Infant Baptism is the claim that only adults were baptized in the Bible. How does one KNOW there were no infants amongst the 3000 souls baptized in Acts 2? How does one KNOW there were no infants baptized amongst the “household” of Cornelius in Acts 10? Is a household made up of adults only?? Again, how does one KNOW there were no infants in the household of Crispus or the “many” Corinthians baptized in Acts 18?

Our Lord said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:14). Christ said elsewhere that if a person is to enter the kingdom of heaven, he must be “born again” of “water and the Spirit” (John 3:3-5). Who are we to dare to forbid the little children to be born again of the sacred waters of Holy Baptism? 

The Appearance of the Holy Trinity in the Old Testament

One of the most powerful accounts of the Holy Trinity in Scripture is when the three Persons of the Holy Trinity appeared to Abraham at the oak of Mamre. The Bible says that “God appeared” to Abraham as “three men” (Genesis 18:1-2). Abraham “bowed himself to the ground” before these three Persons and addressed them all as “O Lord” or “Adonay” in Hebrew, which is used as a proper name for God alone (Genesis 18:2-3).

Carnal Beauty

"If you are captivated by carnal beauty, go to a cemetery and see what the end of such beauty is." - Elder Sergei of Vanves

The Atheist Delusion

The Atheist Delusion is the notion that if there were only “proof” or if only they could witness a miracle, they would believe. The sad truth is that there is no amount of proof or spectacular miracles that would ever be enough for the atheist to believe BECAUSE “light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19).

I was reminded of this when reading the miraculous account of Christ’s healing of the two demon-possessed men in the country of the Gergesenes. And what was the response of the people upon seeing such a miracle? “They begged Him to depart from their region” (Matthew 8:34)!

Signs and wonders will never be enough to convert the darkened heart, but will actually be used by Satan to lead many to follow the Anti-Christ in the religion of the future (Revelation 19:20). As our Lord Jesus Christ so aptly says it, “If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead (Luke16:31).

The Sunday of Orthodoxy

"The Sunday of Orthodoxy is the first Sunday of Great Lent. The dominant theme of this Sunday since 843 has been that of the victory of the icons. In that year the iconoclastic controversy, which had raged on and off since 726, was finally laid to rest, and icons and their veneration were restored on the first Sunday in Lent. Ever since, this Sunday has been commemorated as the 'Triumph of Orthodoxy.'" https://www.goarch.org/sunday-of-orthodoxy-learn

O Christ our God, begging forgiveness of our sins, we venerate your pure image O Good One. Of Your own will You condescended to ascend upon the Cross in the flesh and delivered those you created from the bondage of the enemy. Wherefore, thankfully we cry out: When You came to save the world You filled all things with joy, O our Savior. (Apolytikion for the Sunday of Orthodoxy)

If someone loses his faith in God, he is recompensed with stupidity

Of all the forms of stupidity, it is difficult to say whether there is a greater one than this: that someone calls himself a Christian and then proceeds to gather pathetic proofs for God and eternal life from other beliefs and philosophies. He will he who does not find gold among the wealthy find it among the poor? The revelation of eternal life, the facts, the proofs, the signs and the actual visions of the spiritual world--all of these not only constitute the foundation of the Christian Faith but also constitute the walls, the floors, the ornaments, all the furnishings, the roof and the domes of the majestic building of the Christian Faith. A single ray from the spiritual world shines through every word of the Gospels, not to mention the miraculous events, both in evangelical and post-evangelical times, throughout the entire two-thousand-year history of the Church. Christianity has thrown open the gates of that world to such a great degree that it almost should not be called a religion, in order not to confuse it with other faiths and religions. It is Revelation! God's Revelation! - St. Nikolai Velimirovich, Prologue of Ohrid 

Counterfeit Revival: Looking For God in All the Wrong Places

 

In light of all the recent talk of “revival,” I am reminded of Hank Hanegraaff’s seminal work, “Counterfeit Revival: Looking For God in All the Wrong Places.” Hanegraaff documents the many popular “revivals” in the late 20^th century and why Christians should heed the stark warning of Scripture: “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1).

These counterfeit revivals are nothing new and the 20^th century is littered with them from the Azusa Street Revival (1906) to Calvary Chapel in the 60s/70s (i.e. The “Jesus Revolution”) to the Pensacola Outpouring and the Toronto Blessing in the 90s, to the myriad of 21^st century movements such as Jesus Culture, Bethel Church, and now Asbury University (this is Asbury’s ninth “revival”). 

All of these counterfeit revivals have one thing in common, they are all an outgrowth of the 20^th century Charismatic Movement, which as Fr. Seraphim Rose documents in his excellent book “Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future,” are nothing less than occultism dressed-up in the guise of modern-day Christian revivalism. 

The Charismatic revival is “the product of a world without sacraments, without grace, a world thirsting for spiritual ‘signs’ without being able to discern the spirits that give the signs, is itself a ‘sign’ of these apostate times” (Fr. Seraphim Rose, Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future).

The Holy Trinity Made Heaven and Earth

"The Holy Fathers teach that the Father made heaven and earth through the Son and in the Holy Spirit [Genesis 1:26, "Let Us"]. Thus, the Holy Trinity made heaven and earth, and the Church sings, 'We glorify the Father, we exalt the Son, and we worship the Holy Spirit—the indivisible Trinity who exists as One—the Light and Lights, the Life and Lives, who grants light and life to the ends of the world' [Canon of St. Andrew]." - The Orthodox Study Bible