Fr. Seraphim encourages viewers to take time away before resetting their lives ..read more

This video is part of a Lenten Retreat at St Seraphim's Cathedral in Santa Rosa, California. As we prepare to enter Great Lent, we might ponder on the impossible height to which we are being called—to be perfect with the Father’s perfection—an impossibility that becomes possible in Christ, as we open up to His presence. This paradox and the tension it creates in us keep our spiritual life safe from being reduced to empty piety and religiosity ..read more

Fr. Seraphim Aldea reminds us to keep ourselves grounded in humility, so we may fight pride and hypocrisy, and prevent them from staining our spiritual struggle before the Lord. When you are at the beginning of your spiritual life, you need to prioritize your ascetical works, because they will eventually help you open up to receive God's Grace ..read more

Fr. Seraphim Aldea reminds us that prayer is 'the art of arts and the highest science'. Prayer is hard, it is exhausting and it will slowly burn the sinful parts of your being. This is why prayer is naturally painful and extremely difficult. In its perfect form, prayer is impossible for our fallen selves, but it becomes possible by grace (for the Saints) and in Christ's Kingdom, when we shall finally experience the full potential of our human nature ..read more

Fr. Seraphim Aldea answers the question "If God is perfect, why did He create imperfection?", by reminding us of His love for His creation ..read more

The devil wants us to forget him. His ultimate success would be to make us believe that he is not even real, that he is just the product of our imagination. Once that happens, the flood-gates of sin are wide open in us and our salvation is in great danger ..read more

Fr. Seraphim shares a message of forgiveness at Christmas ..read more

No good can come from constantly re-assessing our decision to enter a marriage or monastic life. The time for assessing is before we enter the Sacrament; after that, we should allow Christ to freely use the 'tool' of the Sacrament to shape us into the Saints He created us to be ..read more

We sometimes pray very hard for Christ to release us from our sin, but it feels as if He just looks away and doesn't want to help. Almost always, this betrays a much more serious sin in us, hiding underneath the one that troubles us. Pride, judgement, and condemnation of others can prevent Christ from releasing us from our sin ..read more

What has happened in the last year and a half at the Orthodox Monastery of All Saints ..read more