Sunday of St. Gregory Palamas

Joyous feast! St. Gregory Palamas is incredibly significant in the condensation and defense of the Church's teachings on grace and salvation, but every once in a while I find myself wishing that this was still the Sunday of St. Polycarp as it had originally been :-). Nevertheless, more on St. Gregory's life can be found here. May his blessing and prayers be with us!

"The Grace of Just Showing Up"

Another good article from Fr. Stephen Freeman here.

Quote of the Day: St. Nicholas of Libertyville

Gluttony makes a man gloomy and fearful, but fasting makes him joyful and courageous. And, as gluttony calls forth greater and greater gluttony, so fasting stimulates greater and greater endurance. When a man realizes the grace that comes through fasting, he desires to fast more and more. And the graces that come through fasting are countless...

Quote of the Day: Bishop Daniel of Erie

"What does 'grace' mean? 'Gracia' is a gift from God. Who are we to make this determination that someone is without grace?"

Bishop Daniel (Alexandrov) of Erie of thrice blessed memory responding to claims that world Orthodoxy was graceless.

Quote of the Day: St. Nectarius of Pentapolis

"God reveals Himself to the humble, who live in accordance with virtue. Those who take up the wings of the imgination attempt the flight of Icharus and have same end. Those who harbor fantasies do not pray; for he that prays lifts his mind and heart towrds God, whereas he that turns to fantasies diverts himself. Those who are addicted to the imagination have withdrawn from God's grace and from the realm of Divine revelation. They have abandoned the heart in which grace is revealed and have surrendered themselves to the imagination, which is devoid of all grace. It is only the heart that receives knowledge about things that are not apprehended by the senses, because God, Who dwells and moves within it, speaks within it and reveals to it the substance of things hoped for."