The Orthodox Standard Journal

  "In the Beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (John 1:1)  "He [St. John] is the last Evangelist chronologically, but he is the first to begin with the Source of the Mystery, for he alone of the Four Rivers begins his course from the Very Highest and Divine Source, thundering forth from a lofty cloud: 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.' He rises higher than Moses, who with mental eye extends the boundaries of knowledge to the origin of the world and the beginnings of visible creatures. He flies higher than the other Evangelists, who begin the Gospel of the Resurrection with the human lineage of the Saviour, or from the prefiguring sacrifice of the Law, or from the prophetic proclamation of Christ's Forerunner, John the Baptist. He reached the Very Heavens and did not halt even at the Angels, but mounting above Archangels and all created beings--Virtues, Principalities, Dominati...

from Traditional Western Orthodoxy on YouTube  Preface of Address to Giving the Our Father to the Catechumen from our Western Orthodox Roman Catechumenate Service prior to Baptism:    The Priest then gives the following explanation concerning the Our Father:  Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, among the rest of His Saving Precepts, when His Disciples asked Him how they ought to pray, not only gave them a form of prayer, but also shewed them with what intention and purity they should pray, as the lesson hath made known to [thee] you in fulness.   Beloved, hear now in what manner He teacheth His Disciples to pray to God the Father Almighty: “ Then when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut the door, pray to thy Father. ” When He speaks of a closet, He does not mean some hidden room, but the secret recess of the heart; that is, He would have us shut our breast from every evil thought by the mystical key of faith; and, with closed lips,...