It might be best to say that unbelievers should be treated as one would treat seriously ill relatives. For instance, having a gravely ill family member nearby can be difficult to bear: such individuals often behave aggressively, are demanding, overly sensitive, unjust, and fail to understand your care for them. They may refuse necessary medicine…

Strictly speaking, Church rules contain prohibitions against eating in taverns. However, it’s important to understand that taverns in ancient times, when these rules were formulated, were not merely “places of public dining.” They were associated with questionable individuals and unrighteous activities. For clergy, there is a strict prohibition against eating in taverns, except in cases…

Indeed, the Lord Jesus Christ said to His disciples: “Ye are the light of the world.” Clearly, this applies not only to the apostles but to all Christians. In the Epistle to the Ephesians, St. Paul writes to all Christians: “For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as…

One of the most important decisions in a person’s life—one that largely determines their destiny—is the choice of a profession: whom to become, what to study, and how. For an Orthodox Christian, this decision is further shaped by the desire to please God, so that one’s future professional activity, at the very least, does not…

The question of the relationship between the spiritual and the secular has always been relevant in the Christian world, and to this day, debate continues about whether it is acceptable for a clergyman to engage in worldly concerns, to hold occupations outside of Church service, or to possess secular education and skills enabling work beyond…