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Instructions of modern elders

Our Orthodoxy is heaven on earth

Η Ορθοδοξία μάς είναι ο ουρανός στή γή

Elder monk Marcellus of Caracalla, Holy Mount Athos (+2006)

μοναχού Μαρκέλλου Καρακαλληνού

TO What kind of rest the soul receives when it kneels and bitterly mourns its iniquities! What strength does every suffering soul receive when it calls upon the Holy God during pain, a soul that suffers because of its false behavior, wayward and cruel character.

The soul, when it enters into communication with God and feels His grace that surrounds a person, then it begins to offer a prayer for the peace of the whole world. Such a person does not remain indifferent, but he becomes very sensitive to the pain of people and feels that his prayer is heard by the Righteous Judge, God, who is generous and merciful.

Late in the evening and at night, my soul prays for our Church, for our Orthodoxy. Our Orthodoxy is light, it is fragrance, it is feat and holiness, sanctification, it is eternal life. We can't pollute it with anything. It does not accept any confusion with heresy or error. Our Orthodoxy is heaven on earth. It is Christ who speaks to us. These are the Holy Fathers who dogmad and outlined its infallible path.

And now my soul grieves and grieves for those who want to muddy the living water, extinguish the light and change its heavenly path. May this never happen. Orthodoxy can never change, because this is the Body of Christ, this is the teaching of Christ, and we, Orthodox Christians, are its members. The Lord God-man is the commander and head of the Church. Christ holds the rudder of the Church and steers the church ship to the Kingdom of Heaven. The victory of Orthodoxy is a given, since the Lord “ came out How victorious, And to win"(Apoc. 6, 2). And the Lord Himself said again: “ gate hellish Not will overcome e e". (Matthew 6:18)

Today the duty of Orthodox Christians, clergy and laity, is to stay awake. Let us not fall into error, let us not be afraid, let us not run away from the flock of Christ. The path of our Church has never been easy. Initially, our Church was the Church of confessors and martyrs. In every historical era, our Church prepares holy relics. Today things have become quite complex, but we should not be afraid: "Weapons militancy our Not carnal, But strong God on destruction strongholds"(2 Cor. 10:4).

Maybe now we are talking about the fact that the Church will open a new book of Martyrology? This becomes obvious because events lead to this... In today’s darkened world, the Church loudly proclaims the truth as if from a trumpet: “ true abides And getting stronger in eyelids And lives And reigns forever centuries"(1 Esdras 4:38). The Church defeated external enemies, crafty heretics, always who “went out from us, but were not ours” (1 John, 2, 19)

The Orthodox Church bestows upon us a heroic consciousness and demands from us the most holy life and asceticism. She renews her children and makes them living members of her peaceful army. Now I look at the Church, which appears to us in the image of the Mother of God, who is clothed in the sun and walks, driven by the evil serpent, into the desert. "AND are given were wife two wing big eagle" (Apoc. 12, 14). That is, God gave them, these are the wings of His protection. And the Church was given wings so that it would fly into the desert, a place designated by God, in order to feed there far from the face of the serpent.

The Orthodox Church will always walk freely and uncontrolled, and her children will win victory over the ancient serpent, called the devil, who misleads the entire universe. They will defeat him for three reasons: “ They won his blood Lamb And in a word evidence yours, And Not loved souls his even before of death"(Apoc. 12, 11).

Christ is the bridegroom not only for the Church as a whole, but also for each individual believer. And the one who thirsts and loves the Bridegroom and the life and joy that He distributes, “ let Yes comes willing let beret water life for nothing"(Apoc. 22, 17).

« Witnessing this speaks: to her I'm coming soon! Amen. To her come, God Jesus ! »

I felt myself near my Blessed Virgin Mary during the night. She came to console me and wipe away my tears. I felt like one of the abandoned and forgotten hermits, located at the top of a tree in Her garden. I sang many songs to the Blessed Virgin, my mother, and I wrote down some of them on paper and am sending them to you. Will you forgive me for this recklessness of mine?

Wednesday. It's three o'clock in the morning. Athos desert.

Translation of “Orthodox Apologist”, 2011.

In different ways. Sometimes it simply means the atmosphere immediately surrounding the earth. Thus the expression: all the nations under all the heavens(Deut. IV:19) means almost the same as the expression – all the peoples on earth. In this sense, the sky is the region designated for birds, just as the earth serves as the region of humans and animals, and water for fish. In another sense, the sky means the firmament or vault of heaven on which the Sun, Moon, stars and other celestial bodies revolve. In the Holy Scriptures the designated heaven is sometimes called veil, vessels of heaven(Job.XXVIII, 17) scroll(Rev. VI:14). Thus, whether it is the atmosphere or the firmament of heaven, the heavens in this sense represent an object accessible to our eye: look up at the stars, the book says. Job, how high they are(Job. XXII:12). This sky speaks to us about, striking our vision with its beauty, grandeur and harmony (Ps. XVIII:2). It is doomed to destruction on the last day of judgment, just like the earth. Then the heavens will pass away with a noise, says St. ap. Peter, the earth and all the works on it will burn up(II Pet. III:10-13). It rolls up like a scroll, says Revelation(VI, 14). And I saw, says the Holy Seer in Revelation, a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth have passed away and the sea is no more(XXI, 1). Finally, besides the atmosphere, the firmament, under the word the sky is of course the so-called heaven of heavens. This is an invisible, immaterial world, perhaps the very third heaven that St. mentions. ap. Paul (II Cor. XII:2). Here, at the height of heaven, there is a holy special place of the omnipresence of God; here is His throne, here He walks around the heavens(Job. XXII:14); The Lord Jesus Christ is especially present here (Acts. III:21), here the Spirit of God reveals His all-pervading power from the seven lamps of fire burning before the throne of God (Rev. IV:5). This sky is the seat of all ranks. Here, in a place of peace, one finds spirits of the righteous who have reached perfection(Heb. XII:23). This sky is called something else Abraham's bosom, That paradise. We read in St. Scriptures about the heavenly abodes, about the heavenly fatherland, about the heavenly city of Jerusalem. It is described as having its own city, its own temple, its many inhabitants, its own crowns of glory and its own sources of refreshment. From this heaven the Lord came to earth, He ascended there and from there He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

Kingdom of heaven

The expression “kingdom of heaven” is especially common in the Gospel of Matthew. In other Gospels and Epistles it is replaced by the expression Kingdom of God, kingdom of Christ, or simply the word: kingdom. It seems to have a threefold meaning and of course in a threefold sense. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, John the Baptist exclaimed in the desert, meaning it in the first sense, that is, in the sense of the approaching time for the Lord Jesus to be recognized openly and solemnly as the Son of God, sent to earth from God the Father. In the second sense it obviously refers to the destruction of the political and religious Jewish system and the replacement of them with the Christian one. In the third sense, it refers to the kingdom of glory that is to take place on the last day, when the new heavens and the new earth will come.

Heaven and God... Look, in the Gospel the expressions Kingdom of God and Kingdom of Heaven exist on equal terms. Let us open the first lines of the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). In the Evangelist Matthew, humble people are promised the Kingdom of Heaven. Let’s re-read the same Sermon on the Mount again, according to a different Gospel: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for yours is the kingdom of God” (Luke 6:20). Here the Kingdom of Heaven is called God's.

The word “sky” has many meanings; several layers of meaning are revealed. And this “heavenly polysemy” appears in the Russian word “heaven” (“sky” in the plural) and in the Hebrew word “shamayim” (“sky” in the dual).

Our Father - God - resides in Heaven, and it is there that a real Home is prepared for man. Of course, we can say that God is everywhere; He created both the visible material world and the spiritual, invisible world. The way it is. But still, Heaven is that place, or, more precisely, that other world in which a person must meet God and begin direct communication with Him, without a material “partition.” It was to this Heaven, and not to the material one, not to the blue dome above our heads, that Christ ascended into this other world before the eyes of the apostles.

Kingdom of God

By the “Kingdom of God” we mean perfect life on earth - life based not on the rule of violence, crude selfishness, but on the principles of universal love, complete justice, recognition of all legal rights of the individual. The advent of this “Kingdom” is due to the moral regeneration of man, the renewal of his entire inner being. “Truly, truly, I say to you,” Jesus Christ said to Nicodemus, “unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). In another place, Jesus Christ said: “The Kingdom of God will not come visibly, and they will not say: behold, it is here, or: behold, there. For behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:20-21). This is a new ideal; the ideal is not temporary, but eternal. The ideals of ancient Greece and Rome could be outgrown, which is why the ancient world fell. The new ideal indicated by Christianity has no boundaries; it cannot be achieved. “Be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48) - this is the Savior’s covenant to people. This covenant is the guarantee of the endless future of our civilization. A new culture in the very spirit of a Christian, in his inexhaustible ability to improve, will always find the source of its further renewal and development. Almost two thousand years of Christian history is now unfolding before our eyes; our gaze is now able to embrace and measure the internal, consistent process of its development, the degree of its powerful influence on the conscience and life of mankind, and we see that Christianity has not yet expressed the entire content of its thought, has not said its last word. To realize the Kingdom of God on earth, humanity still has a lot of hard work to do on itself, on improving the moral education of the heart. The Gospel awakened many good feelings, touched strings in a person’s heart unknown to him, extracted from them sounds of enchanting beauty and irresistible power, but these sounds have not yet merged into a powerful chord, into a hymn of triumphant love and truth.

The Kingdom of God in Man

“The Kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:2), said the Savior, and within us there is nothing more than knowledge or ignorance of the truth, the presence of vices or virtues, by which the Kingdom of God or the devil is established in ours,” says this reverend father. “Therefore,” he continues, “whoever has only vices is in the kingdom of the devil, and whoever has virtues, spiritual purity or, according to the word of the Apostle, peace, righteousness and joy in the Holy Spirit, is already here on earth in the Kingdom of God and has it in itself.” This is a typical patristic point of view on the Kingdom of God in the sense of understanding it as a certain internal state of a person, as a certain way of life, mainly the internal, spiritual life of a person, and outside of this internal connection, the idea of ​​​​the Kingdom of God and spiritual life is not considered by them (the holy fathers). That is why, I think, we have sufficient grounds in the New Testament and patristic writings to talk about the connection of these indicated ideas and even about their internal unity and in those features with which the Kingdom of God is depicted in the New Testament Revelation, we have data for defining and revealing at least general typical properties and characteristic natural features of the so-called spiritual life, in contrast to any other type of life.

It seems that the main sign and characteristic feature of the manifestation on earth of the Kingdom of God - holy spiritual life in man, according to which it is reflected not only as an actual fact and phenomenon, but also as a completely new phenomenon, special and unprecedented in the presence and conditions of ordinary human life, can be recognize the irreducibility of this phenomenon to phenomena of our usual natural order of life. In this ordinary natural order of life, this phenomenon cannot find its own explanation or justification. More precisely, since we take the Kingdom of God as spiritual life in its manifestation in the human person, its characteristic feature indicated above can be seen in the unprecedented fact of the dominance of the human person over all natural necessity and the laws of the so-called natural life. The Kingdom of God is in people and is revealed in the world as something special in that it places man above all natural necessity and its laws, operating both in the sinful nature of man himself, and in those who have obeyed (fallen) the law of sin of all world life and the nature of all creations, in the chain of which a person stands; in other words, it is revealed, first of all, as a certain special power, but the power is not physical, but spiritual, which is why it is said about it that it came in power (Mark 9:1) and is also revealed not only in words, but in strength (1 Cor. 4:20). Of course, here it is completely unnecessary to say and prove that the Kingdom of God as a new, spiritual life opened on earth and became a fact only from the incarnation and birth of the Lord, and began to open up mainly from the time the Lord entered the work of public service after Baptism in the Jordan. The following facts involuntarily attract attention, the internal connection of which is worthy of note: the descent of the Holy Spirit on Jesus Christ at Baptism, His feat in the desert immediately after Baptism, then His preaching about the Kingdom of God and the first manifestations of this approaching and already arrived Kingdom of Heaven, when Christ , according to the evangelist, returned from the desert in spiritual strength (Luke 4:14). For us, in this case, the Lord Jesus Christ is and should be considered as the Son of Man, as the Founder of the new humanity, our New Adam, and therefore everything revealed by Him in His Humanity, or, rather, God-Humanity, is the revelation of ideal laws and our human life, because, on the one hand, our personality is also God-like (“You are naturally gods” (Ps. 81:6), says the prophet), and on the other hand, because the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, partook of our flesh and blood (Heb. 2:14).

Gen 1:1 ...In the beginning God created sky and the earth...
Gen 2:1 ...So perfect sky and the land and all their army...
Genesis 2:4 ...at the time when the Lord God created the earth and sky,..
Gen 15:5 ...look at sky and count the stars if you can count them...
Exodus 20:11 ...the Lord created sky
Exodus 24:10 ...and, most importantly sky, clear...
Exodus 31:17 ...for in six days the Lord created sky and the earth...
Lev 26:19 ...and sky I will make yours like iron, and your land like brass...
Deuteronomy 4:19 ...and so that when you look at sky...
Deut 10:14 ... sky and the heavens of heavens, the earth and everything that is on it;...
Deuteronomy 11:17 ...and He will conclude sky, and there will be no rain...
Deut 11:21 ...how many days sky will be above the ground...
Deuteronomy 28:12 ...The Lord will open His good treasure to you, sky,..
Deuteronomy 30:12 ...who would ascend for us sky and bring it to us...
Deuteronomy 30:19 ...I call you as witnesses today sky and land:..
Deuteronomy 31:28 ...and I will call as a witness against them sky and land;..
Deuteronomy 32:1 ...Take heed, sky, I will speak;..
Judges 5:4 ...and sky dripped...
1 Kings 8:27 ...Heaven and sky the heavens cannot contain you...
1 Kings 8:27 ... Sky and the heavens of heavens cannot contain You...
1 Kings 8:35 ...When it is concluded sky and there will be no rain...
1 Kings 18:45 ...Meanwhile sky it became gloomy because of the clouds and the wind...
2 Kings 2:1 ...When the Lord wanted to lift up Elijah in a whirlwind sky,..
2 Kings 2:11 ...and Elijah was carried away in a whirlwind sky...
2 Kings 19:15 ...You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth, You created sky and the earth...
2 Chronicles 2:6 ...when sky and the heavens of heavens cannot contain Him?..
2 Chronicles 2:12 ...blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who created sky and the earth...
2 Chronicles 6:18 ...If sky and the heavens of heavens cannot contain You...
2 Chronicles 6:26 ...When it is concluded sky and there will be no rain...
2 Chronicles 7:13 ...If I conclude sky and there will be no rain...
Nehemiah 9:6 ...You created sky, the heavens of heavens and all their hosts...
Job 20:27 ... Sky His iniquity will be revealed, and the earth will rise up against him...
Job 35:5 ...look at sky and look;..
Psalm 49:4 ...He calls from above sky and the earth, to judge his people:...
Psalm 77:69 ...And he arranged how sky, His sanctuary...
Psalm 103:11 ...for how high sky above the ground...
Psalm 112:6 ...bows down to look upon sky and to the ground;...
Psalm 113:23 ...Blessed are you by the Lord, who created sky and the earth...
Psalm 113:24 ...Heaven - sky Lord, and He gave the land to the sons of men...
Psalm 113:24... Sky- Heaven is the Lord's, and He gave the earth to the sons of men...
Psalm 120:2 ...My help comes from the Lord, who created sky and the earth...
Ps 123:8 ...Our help is in the name of the Lord, who created sky and the earth...
Ps 133:3 ...who created sky and the earth...
Psalm 139:8 ...Shall I ascend sky- Are you there;..
Ps 145:6 ...who created sky and the earth, the sea and everything that is in them...
Psalm 147:8 ...He covers sky clouds...
Proverbs 25:3 ...How sky in height and the earth in depth...
Proverbs 30:4 ...Whoever climbed sky and descended?..
Isaiah 13:13 ...For this purpose I will shake sky,..
Isaiah 14:13 ...And he said in his heart, I will ascend sky,..
Isaiah 37:16 ...You created sky and the earth...
Isaiah 55:9 ...But how sky above the ground...
Isaiah 65:17 ...For behold, I am creating a new thing sky and a new land...
Isaiah 66:1 ... sky- My throne...
Isaiah 66:22 ...For as new sky and the new earth that I will create...
Jeremiah 14:22 ...or maybe sky itself by yourself make a shower?..
Jeremiah 23:24 ...Shall I not fill sky and land? says the Lord...
Jeremiah 31:37 ...if sky can be measured at the top,..
Jer 32:17 ...You created sky and the earth...
Jeremiah 51:48 ...And they will triumph over Babylon sky and the earth and everything that is on them;...
Dan 13:9 ...so as not to look at sky and not remember about righteous judgments...
Dan 13:35 ...And she looked at sky,..
Dan 14:5 ...but I worship to the living God who created sky and the earth...
Hos 2:21 ...I will hear sky,..
Joel 2:10 ...Before them the earth will shake and tremble sky;..
Joel 3:16 ...shudder sky and earth;..
Amos 9:2 ...at least they ascended sky,..
Hag 1:10 ...Therefore sky concluded and does not give you dew,...
Hag 2:6 ...I will shake sky and land, sea and land...
Hag 2:21 ...I will shake sky and land;..
Zechariah 12:1 ...the Lord, who stretched out sky who founded the earth...

Matthew 5:18 ...until it passes sky and earth...
Matthew 14:19 ...looked at sky, blessed...
Matthew 16:2 ...because sky red;..
Matthew 16:3 ...because sky purple...
Matthew 24:35 ... sky and the earth will pass away...
Mark 6:41 ...looking at sky, blessed and broke bread...
Mark 7:34 ...and looking at sky,..
Mark 13:31 ... Sky
Mark 16:19 ...ascended to sky and sat down at the right hand of God...
Luke 2:15 ...When the angels departed from them for sky,..
Luke 3:21 ...opened sky,..
Luke 4:25 ...when it was concluded sky three years and six months...
Luke 9:16 ...and looked at sky, blessed them,..
Luke 16:17 ...But quickly sky and the earth will pass away...
Luke 18:13 ...did not even dare to look up sky;..
Luke 21:33 ... sky and the earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away...
Luke 24:51 ...began to withdraw from them and ascend to sky...
John 1:51 ...from now on you will see sky open...
John 3:13 ...No one ascended sky,..
John 17:1 ...After these words Jesus lifted up His eyes to sky...
Acts 1:10 ...And when they looked at sky, during His ascension...
Acts 1:11 ...and they said, Men of Galilee! what are you standing and looking at sky?..
Acts 1:11 ...This Jesus, who was lifted up from you sky, will come in the same way..
Acts 1:11 ...as you saw Him ascending sky...
Acts 3:21 ...Whom sky must have been accepted until the time of the completion of all things...
Acts 4:24 ...Sovereign God, who created sky and the earth and the sea and everything that is in them!..
Acts 7:49 ... Sky is My throne, and the earth is My footstool...
Acts 7:55 ...And Stephen, being filled with the Holy Spirit, looked at sky,..
Acts 10:11 ...and he sees what is open sky and a certain vessel coming down to him...
Acts 10:16 ...and the vessel rose again sky...
Acts 11:10 ...This happened three times, and again everything rose up sky...
Acts 14:15 ...Who created sky and the earth, and the sea, and all that is in them...
James 5:18 ...and sky it rained...
1 Peter 3:22 ...Who, having ascended on sky, is at the right hand of God...
Rom 10:6 ...do not say in your heart, Whoever ascends sky?..
Hebrews 9:24 ...after the image of the true arranged but at the very sky,..
Hebrews 12:26 ...once again I will shake not only the earth, but also sky...
Rev 6:14 ...And sky disappeared, curled up like a scroll;...
Rev 10:6 ...Who created sky and everything that is on it...
Rev 11:6 ...They have power to shut sky,..
Rev 11:12 ...And they went up to sky on the cloud;..
Rev 14:7 ...and worship Him who created sky and the earth...
Rev 18:20 ...Rejoice in this, sky...
Rev 19:11 ...And I saw that it was opened sky,..
Rev 20:11 ...from whose presence he fled sky and earth...
Rev 21:1 ...And I saw something new sky and a new land...
Rev 21:1 ...for the former things are sky and the former land has passed away...

1Mac 2:37 ... sky and the earth is a witness for us that you are unjustly destroying us...
1Mac 2:58 ...Elijah was taken even to death according to the law because of his great zeal sky...
1Mac 4:10 ...And now let us cry out against sky;..
1Mac 4:55 ...and they prayed and gave thanksgiving sky To their success...
1Mac 5:31 ...and the cry of the city went up sky trumpets and loud shouts...
1Mac 9:46 ...Now therefore call upon sky,..
2Mac 3:15 ...those who prostrated themselves before the altar cried out for sky,..
2Mac 7:28 ...look at sky and the earth, and seeing everything that is on them...
2Mac 9:20 ...placing hope in sky...
3Mac 2:13 ...For although your dwelling place sky heaven, unattainable for people...
3Mac 5:5 ...Their earnest prayer rose up sky...
Bar 3:29 ...Who ascended sky, and took her and carried her down from the clouds?..
2Ez 4:34 ...Great is the earth and high sky, and the sun is fast in its flow,..
2Ezra 4:36 ...The whole earth is crying out for the truth, and sky blesses her...
2Ez 4:58 ...then he fixed his face on sky against Jerusalem...
2Ezra 6:13 ...we are servants of the Lord, who created sky and the earth...
3Ez 2:14 ...Testify, sky and the earth, for I have wiped out the evil and created the good...
3Ezra 4:8 ...and to hell also, and to sky never ascended...
3Ez 6:38 ...on the first day he said, Let it be sky and earth...
3Ed 16:56 ...let it be sky, – and it was...
3Ed 16:60 ...He stretched out sky He founded it like a tent on the waters...
Jude 7:28 ...We call you as witnesses sky and the earth...
Sir 16:18 ...Behold, sky And sky heaven - God's...
Sir 43:13 ...With her majestic circle she embraces sky;..
Sir 44:15 ...Enoch pleased the Lord and was taken to sky, –..
Sir 48:3 ...with the word of the Lord he concluded sky and brought down fire three times.

My Temple

will be called a house of prayer

(Matthew 21:13)

The Church is not a social, cultural or historical institution like other human organizations.

The Orthodox Church is the only place of unity with God.

The temple is a semblance of heaven on earth, where the Lord Himself dwells mysteriously and incomprehensibly and where the forces of Heaven serve invisibly. During the Divine Liturgy, the earthly Church—represented by clergy and believers—and the Heavenly Church participate in the sacrament of the Eucharist, which is symbolized by the relics of saints, which are necessarily present in every church. Thus, in the temple the heavenly, invisible, spiritual world and the visible, material, earthly world are united.

The temple is the house of God. Each temple is dedicated to the Lord, and is built in honor of one or another sacred event or a saint of God.

The most beautiful place was always chosen for the construction of a temple in Rus'; it was visible from afar, and the ringing of its bells could be heard many miles away. Our ancestors built churches or chapels or erected a Worship Cross on almost every street. This helped them remember God and keep the Orthodox faith in their hearts.

The revival of churches today is not an end in itself for the Russian Orthodox Church. Shrines are being restored to sanctify people's lives. When people understand this and strive to transform their souls, they receive help from the Lord. God does not need walls, but a person’s desire to come closer to him, to turn from a sinful life to righteousness.

The temple is the spiritual home for man. A temple is not a symbol of anything, but a place where God dwells, where a person is sanctified, and through sanctification everything that surrounds him is transformed and renewed.

The temple is a special place of prayer. The Lord says: Where two or three are gathered in My name, there I am in the midst of them.

In the temple, the Lord is closer to each person praying and hears his prayers more quickly than anywhere else. The poverty of the prayer of one is filled by the faith of another, strengthened by the prayers of the clergy. In the temple, the Spirit of God abundantly pours out His Holy Spirit on those praying during the Divine Services. Therefore, the prayer alone, Lord, have mercy in the temple of God, say the holy fathers, is greater than the Psalter read at home.

In every church there is the special grace of God, which purifies a person, teaches him the Truth, sanctifies him, making him worthy and capable of communion with God, gradually restoring in him - through communion with Christ - the image and likeness of God. And only in the temple can a person receive this grace, this real Divine energy, which gives real life here on earth, and eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, the Orthodox church is truly an ark of salvation for believers.

Grace is an intervening power, merciful, enlightening, saving, predisposing to all virtue.

Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt

Source "Book of the Patriarch"