Quote

Stole this quote from a friend. Though it was really quite powerful.

"How can I make you realize the misery of the poor? How can I make you understand that your wealth comes from their weeping?"
St. Basil the Great

Fasting, and the Dormition of the Theotokos

We are entering yet another fasting period, this time for the Dormition of the Theotokos (or what some Catholics call the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. If you are interested in reading about the fast period, and why we fast, HERE is a good article from good old OrthodoxWiki.


And since I really love quotes, here is one about fasting, which I figured was appropriate, since we are in a fasting period;

There are both a physical and a spiritual fast. The body abstains from food and drink. Spiritually, the faster abstains from evil intentions, words, and deeds. One who truly fasts abstains from anger, rage, malice, and vengeance and from idle and foul talk, empty rhetoric, slander, condemnation, flattery, lying and all manner of spiteful talk. In a word, a real faster is one who withdraws from all evil.
-St. Basil the Great

Music

When, indeed, the Holy Spirit saw that the human race was guided only with difficulty toward virtue, and that, because of our inclination toward pleasure, we were neglectful of an upright life, what did He do? The delight of the melody He mingled with the doctrines so that by the pleasantness and softness of the sound heard, we might receive without perceiving it the benefits of the words, just as wise physicians who, with giving the fastidious rather bitter drugs to drink, frequently smear the cup with honey. Therefore, He devised for is these harmonious melodies of the psalms, that they who are children in age, or even those who are youthful in disposition, might to all appearances chant, but in reality, become trained in soul.
-St. Basil the Great