Spiritual Fragrance Publishing

"How does one acquire humility? By silence. Be silent! Be stupid! Let everyone consider you to be stupid! Silence is the primary means for the attainment of humility and love. One is saved by silence." -Archbishop Seraphim (Sobolev) of Bogucharsk

Do not fear anything or anyone. Call upon the Mother of God for help. The enemy fears Her. She will warm your heart and open within it a new vision and new meaning of everything, and expel all enemies. + Archimandrite John (Krestiankin)

Do not worry at all; everything will pass and the storm will die down. Do not despair; have hope in God and in our Panagia. God will never abandon pained souls seeking salvation. The devil has become rabid because his plans were ruined-and what big plans! Glory to Thee, O God, for everything. Carry the cross, my children, and crucify yourselves with our Christ, and soon the bright Resurrection will come. The more afflicted you are now, the more you feel the joy of freedom. T...his is how the life of the Christian is mapped out; in afflictions and troubles. All who desire to live according to God will suffer. Take courage and do not fear; have firm faith in our Christ. He is omnipotent. No matter how wild Satan becomes, before our Christ, before His power, all his machinations are destroyed. Just say the prayer and be at peace. Trust in Divine Providence. All your afflictions will turn out to be for your own good. During great trials, my Elder experienced theoria. -Elder from of Arizona Counsels from the Holy Mountain On Faith, Hope, and Patience

Keep away human thoughts and maintain your hope in God, Who does more than we think. Hope in God will bring you comfort. Let the Lord help you, my child and the prayers of His Saints. +St. Dorotheos of Gaza

"The God-man is not just the fundamental truth of Orthodoxy, but the power and omnipotence of Orthodoxy as well; for He alone saves man from death, sin, and the devil. No man whatsoever, nor even mankind as a whole ever could, can, or will be able to do that. The outcome of man’s struggle with death, sin, and the devil is always defeat, unless he is led by the God-man. Only through the God-man Christ can man conquer death, sin, and the devil. Hence, the purpose of man is to f...ill himself with the God-man, in His body the Orthodox Church; to be transfigured in Him through grace-filled struggles; to become omnipotent. Even while in the body he walks prayerfully through the gloomy earthly anthill; in his soul he lives above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God, for his life is constantly stretched out between earth and heaven by prayers, like a rainbow that connects the summit of heaven with the abyss of earth." + St. Justin Popovich

In our times, even the laity need to deepen the Jesus prayer, as it will become our only salvation prayer of the heart; the heart is the root of all passions and there we must labor. In the past we were able to get by in a more easy superficial way, but for the times awaiting us, this will not be enough. If we will not have the prayer rooted in our hearts, we will not resist the psychological persecution awaiting us, because soon they will come with [hidden] methods to re-educate our minds. + Elder Justin Pârvu

Christ is Bringing a New Crew to Lead His Ship - Saint Porphyrios of Kafsokalyvia Thirty years ago Saint Porphyrios said to Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou: You will see, my son, that when you pass your 50th year [the Metropolitan is now 58 years old] that God has a plan to change the ‘crew’ of the ship. I said to him, what do you mean, Geronda, the crew of the ship?. . .... The ship of Christ is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic, Orthodox Church. Only this Church., he tells me. Whoever is a ‘captain,’ whether he be a patriarch, an abbot, a priest, a deacon...He will change them if they are not doing their job well. He will allow a variety of events to happen - sicknesses, earthquakes, floods, and a massive war...and after all of this there will come a great peace with the NEW crew of the ship, which Christ will bring. And in the crew it is not only the captains, but also the simple people. And Metropolitan Neophytos continues: Doesn’t is make an impression on you how many faithful from among such as the singers, actors, etc., which the church goers did not have in great estimation, as coming from a place of sinfulness, now come and confess their faith and work for the sake of Orthodoxy, and we have bishops which are afraid to say clearly, ‘come my children to the Church and don’t be afraid’.... Oh, my bishop!, oh, my father!, Christ is sending us a fantastic opportunity to teach the people how to repent for particular sins and we are talking about how to protect ourselves and live another 20 or so years!...and yet we will nevertheless die!. . . Our problem is repentance, forgiveness of sins and eternal life! . . . The hierarchy needs to be talking about this - our life after death (a death which lasts all of 2 seconds); afterwards?...our eternal life. . . This is our translation of an excerpt from this radio interview, posted today (Nov. 21) online (on You Tube): Neophytos of Morphou: What did Saint Porphyrios say about the Crew of the Church? https://youtu.be/bV6CoTI1otg T/b to Orthodox Ethos https://orthodoxethos.com/.../christ-is-bringing-a-new...

Two Thoughts from St. Justin Popovich on Being Orthodox "To be Orthodox means to have the God-man Christ constantly in your soul, to live in Him, think in Him, feel in Him, act in Him. In other words, to be Orthodox means to be a Christ-bearer and a Spirit-bearer." "All truths of Orthodoxy emerge from the one Truth and converge on one Truth, infinite and eternal. That Truth is the God-man Christ. If you experience any truth of Orthodoxy to its limit, you will inevitably discover that its kernel is the God-man Christ. In fact, all truths of Orthodoxy are nothing other than different aspects of the one Truth - the God-man Jesus Christ."

When you humble yourself, everyone will seem saintly to you; when you are proud, everyone will seem bothersome and bad. + St Joseph the Hesychast

'' Oh you Christians - pray! Great trouble will come upon the people ! '' Fr. Symeon Zacharia

Repentance is never-ending. By the grace of God, we can perfect all the virtues. But no-one can perfect repentance, because we need it to our last breath, since we sin ‘in the blink of an eye’. So repentance remains unconquered. + Elder Ephraim of Arizona

If humanists claim to be good independently of Christ, you can be sure that their works are rotten to the core either from vainglory or egotism. + St. Nikolai of Ohrid and Zica: