@AHomelyHouse Apologies! I was that guy. Already clicked on backing but then wasn’t sure whether the prayer book would be useful for me as an orthodox. But wow it looks so beautiful!
Yesterday's very early morning moonset in the Netherlands. Such a calm atmosphere with the moon setting on top of the windmills with the countryside covered in fog.
by Fr Livyos (Charalambos Papadopoulos)
Elder Emilianos Simonopetritis says:
This cloudiness will pass, it is nothing important.
Say “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.”
If “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me” makes you more depressed, say “Glory to you, God of all things.”
Just accept what you cannot overcome.
Accept this and you will go to heaven and become a queen there.”
You don’t have to be well all the time. It just isn’t possible.
You can’t always be in a state of deep prayer.
There are times when you can’t even bear the spiritual.
And that… is not a failure. It is humanity.
You are human. Don’t forget it.
Don’t fight your cloudiness.
It doesn’t go away like that. As long as you react, it stays.
Just wait.
Breathe.
Say a “glory to God”… even if you don’t feel it.
Faith is not an emotion.
It is trust, in the midst of the darkness.
It is staying with God on the cross.
Not everything will change externally.
But you will change internally,
the way you look, listen and perceive.
And somewhere there… slowly…
the cloudiness no longer suffocates you.
Not because it is necessarily gone but because you don’t care that it exists, you can live with it without being scared.
Because Christ exists, not to solve your problems
but to carry you in the midst of them.