On March 30 and on the Fourth Sunday of Holy Lent the Orthodox Church commemorates our Righteous Father John Climacus. He is called Climacus due to his authorship of the great spiritual work The Ladder of Divine Ascent. His commemoration is designated by the Church on one of the Sundays of Lent as his life and writings affirm him as a supreme bearer and proponent of Christian asceticism. The ascetic example of this great Saint of the Church inspires us in our Lenten journey.

Over 1/2 Million New Members to be received into the Holy Orthodox Church

By Fr. Johannes Jacobse

AOI Blog - March 9, 2010

After months of catechetical and pastoral follow-up, the Archiepiscopal Vicar, the Right Reverend Mitered Archimandrite Dr. Andrew (Vujisić), traveled to Guatemala in January 2010 and received Msgr. Andrés Girón and Msgr. Mihail Castellanos of the independent Iglesia Católica Ortodoxa de Guatemala (ICOG), into the Orthodox Church. At that time, guidelines were also established to facilitate the reception of the ICOG’s 527,000 members, which are overwhelmingly indigenous. The former ICOG has 334 churches in Guatemala and southern Mexico, 12 clergymen, 14 seminarians, 250 lay ministers, and 380 catechists. It also has an administrative office on 280 acres, a community college and 2 schools with 12 professors / teachers, and a monastery on 480 acres. Fourteen students from Guatemala are now enrolled in the St. Gregory Nazianzen Orthodox Theological Institute Licentiate degree program.

Virgin Mary Icon 'Crying Tears of Oil' in France

An image of the Virgin Mary has been crying tears of oil, its owner has claimed, in a story that has drawn hundreds of visitors to the man's home in France.

08 March 2010
Telegraph UK

Esat Altindagoglu has been inundated with more than 50 visitors a day hoping to see the "miracle" at his house near Paris.

The one-foot high painting was given to his wife Sevin by a Lebanese priest on her birthday in 2006, the Turkish-born salesman said.

It began weeping oil on February 12 this year, and had been "crying" every day since, he claimed.

He said: "As word spread, people started arriving from France, then from all over Europe.

The third Sunday of the the Great Lent is celebrated in church of the Ascension of the Lord in the temple in Bušević municipality of Krupa na Uni.
A number of believers attended the Holy Liturgy for confessions and to receive the Holy Communion.
On this occasion the Holy Liturgy served  Protoprezbyter stavrophor Miladin Tešanović and fr.Savo Janković,the blessing of our Bishops is conveyed by His Eminence Bishop of Bihać and Petrovac Chrysostom whose arrival was announced, but was prevented to come and serve.
After the Divine Liturgy for the present there was a table of love organised in the premises of primary school in Buševiću.
Protoprezbyter Karađorđe Derajić

We’re speaking in London with a new Orthodox Christian who was baptized today with the name Daniel. Daniel is not a Muslim name, far from it [actually, it does exist as a Muslim name, but it’s quite rare]. Although information about his conversion will inevitably circulate among the Muslims of London, for reasons of security we will not deliberately give details about this subject because there are very often cases of threats and violence and sometimes even murders perpetrated by fanatics. That said, Daniel’s experience is very precious for the Orthodox. Fr. Nicholas Savtchenko, interim rector of the Church of the Dormition (ROCOR) in London speaks with him.

Daniel, please tell us about yourself

For many years I was a zealous Muslim, as were my wife and children. I was born in the UK, but during my life I have travelled a lot in Muslim countries. I knew both British and Muslim culture. I lived in Saudi Arabia, where I studied theology and contributed to the Muslim mission among foreign laborers. I also spent time in Afghanistan under the rule of the Taliban, in Pakistan, and in the Pakistani part of Kashmir. I also spent time in Bosnia.

Second Sunday of Great Lent is dedicated to the memory St.Gregory Palamas, Archbishop and Metropolitan of Thessaloniki. It is very important fact that the church dedicated this Sunday to the memory of St.Gregory Palamas. In essence this is the second Christian victory over the enemies of the Gods truth, of a dangerous new syllogism reported scholasticialy in the bosom of the Latin Church. The appearance of calabrian monk Barlaam and his Barlaamism or erroneous teachings of the divine energy as its material, threatened to reduce Christianity to the materialist religion. In fact heresy of Barlaamism announce the forthcoming Renaissance in which the Latin Church turns to the values of classical Greek polytheism, classical materialist religion, wanting to intrigue''Greeks''and Christians of the East of ''the old values". In addition, Barlaam's teaching was offense only for the Church but also for those''outside''.

On the Second Sunday of Lent the Orthodox Church commemorates our Holy Father Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonica, the Wonderworker. The feast day of Saint Gregory Palamas is November 14, however, he is commemorated on this Sunday as the condemnation of his enemies and the vindication of his teachings by the Church in the 14th century was acclaimed as a second triumph of Orthodoxy.
Orthodox Church celebrate the Saint with the Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great.

In Sunday of Orthodoxy in honor and the Victory of Christ Church  over all its enemies, above all the heretics, who were shook the church for seven and a half century and tried to destroy it.  His Grace Bishop Chrysostom of Bihac and Petrovac, served the Divine Liturgy in the temple of Venerable Mother Paraskeva in Podbrdo near Mrkonjic Grad. Although the temple in Podbrdo is among the bigger Churches in Diocese, but it was too small for a multitude of believers who came to pray and receive the Holy Communion. The Bishop served together with Stavrophor Milos Milovanovic, Protoprezbyter Goran Travar and Deacon Zdravko Bogojevic. In sermon after the reading of the Holy Gospel, Bishop spoke of repentance and its importance, and of Holy Eucharist, Bishop called faithful to pray, with firm faith and spirit and by abstaining to oppose all forms of modern polytheism, which act now in a completely different way than the previous period and times onwards which tend Christians to deflect from faith, from love of God. Open war against the Church of God, against God.
For this, they use everyday excesses and scandals among the hierarchy, and also in the society, object that today is in considerable measure in accordance with the Church. Some regarded it, and wanted to see the church again in the persecution and on the margins of our folk and national reality said Bishop Chrysostom.
Bogoljub-R.

The first Saturday and the Great Lent is called Saturday of St.Theodorus the Recruit, and in memory of his struggle and zeal to save Christians from ungodly defilement. St.Theodorus has thwarted the evil idea of Julian, to hurt sensitive conscience of Christians. The essence of the Apostate's idea was to sprinkle food by blood of pagan offerings so that desecrate Christians and at the same time to cause a crisis of conscience. Saint Theodore knew that evil intention of Julian Apostate and advised Christians not to buy and consume foods from the markets.
Instead of desecration, Christians are consecrated by the body and blood of Christ the Lover of Mankind, who gave himself as a food and drink to all who believe in Him. For centuries the faithful in remembrance of this miraculous deliverance from the desecration on Theodore’s Saturday rush into their sacred temples to partake of the body and blood of Christ. Today, as well as all previous Saturday of St.Theodorus in Šipovo church of St.John the Baptist was too small to receive all those that have come to partake the Holy and Divine Mysteries.

The first Sunday of Great Lent is observed as the "Sunday of Orthodoxy" in our Church. It marks both the return of the icons to the Churches in 843 during the Empress Theodora and Patriarch Methodious following the end of the Iconoclast in 8th and 9th century. On this day the miracle on Tzar Theophilos is remembered , who was against the icons, he repent after the Chuch have prayed for him.
Today after the Holy Liturgy or just before the end, clergy together with the Bishop take the icons of our Savior out for a Procession around the Church with all the people and children carrying icons. In local parishes the service concludes with a prayer for peace and unity in the Church and for those who stray from the path of the Truth.