... get on paper. I have always found it to be much easier to talk about Scripture than write about it. The next favorite is some excerpt from the services, usually from the daily Octoechos, Lenten Triodion, or an upcoming feast. Anything a pastor can do to inspire people to read Scripture and to attend the services is a good thing, as ...

... , from the beginning, he was a model to the monks in humility, obedience and all the prescribed rules of monastic asceticism. John composed the Funeral Hymns and compiled the Octoechos (The Book of Eight Tones), the Irmologion, the Menologion and the Paschal Canon, and he wrote many theological works of inspiration and profundity. A great monk, hymnographer, theologian and soldier for the truth of ...