Idoloclast Idol-Smasher | Jesus NIKA Fist w/ Sledgehammer on Red Background | Smash Your Passions | Orthodox Christian Canvas ArtAvoid making idols either of things or of practices. + St. Macarius of Optina The passions are uprooted by keeping the commandments. + St. Maximus the Confessor, Four Hundred Texts on Love, 2. 31 You cannot pass a day tranquilly unless you mortify the passions. + St John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 26: On Discernment He who has conquered the passions has conquered nature, but he who is conquered by the passions is a slave, even if he

My kinsfolk have failed

each sin committed should be cleansed with repentance

exhorting us and saying: ‘pray ye that your flight be no

God the unconquerable guardian

for whoever enters or departs

because I know not man

“Assuredly

the icon was transferred from the Saint Sophia (Holy Wisdom) Cathedral in Novgorod to Moscow by Ivan the Terrible: first

they might have had opportunity to have returned

yet the inward man is being renewed day by day

receive him (her) into Thy heavenly Kingdom

the Maker of the Universe