Κατηγορία

In English

Elder Ephraim of Arizona: On Slander & Condemnation (Elder Ephraim of Arizona †)

Κατηγορίες: In English

Slander is a great evil. Just as the little rudder steers the whole ship wherever it wants, likewise the tongue leads a person either to good or to evil. The holy fathers greatly censure judging other people’s sins, faults, or evil habits. When we judge our brother, we condemn ourselves to a great sin. But when we cover our brother, God will also protect us from great sins. When we expose our brother, we drive the grace of God away from us and He permits us to fall into the same sins so that we learn that we are all weak and that the grace of God supports us. Whoever guards his tongue guards his soul from great sins and ...

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The Tension of Hesychia (Stillness) (Archimandrite Zacharias Zacharou)

Κατηγορίες: In English

The period we are now going through is characterised by the silent expectation of the greatest event under the sun, the coming in the Flesh of the Saviour God on earth. All the great events of God’s dealings with man, which are recorded in sacred history, were consequences of the holy and prolonged stillness of the people of God in His presence.  From the beginning of creation, the Holy Spirit hovered in silence over the void of nothingness and all of a sudden ‘hatched’ the whole creation.  Jacob wrestled the whole night in prayer so as to take hold of the blessing of God before facing his beastly brother Esau.  In the desert, Moses and the Israelites kept silence for forty ...

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Lighter than a feather (Saint John Chrysostom)

Κατηγορίες: In English

The prayer of the Church has such great power that even were we to be less capable of speech than rocks are, it could make our tongue lighter than a feather. Just as a breeze makes a boat speed faster than an arrow when it fills its sails, so the prayer of the Church, when it falls from the tongue of those saying it, makes the words  stronger than the breeze. Saint John Chrysostom

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