You’re a wayfarer, my brother. Be careful not to go astray. Don’t go off to the left or the right. Always tread the royal road. You’re a spiritual athlete. Mind yourself, in case you break the rules, because nobody gains the crown of victory unless they compete in accordance with them. Elder Cleopa
‘Those who love a little, give little; those who love a lot, give more; and those who love a great deal, what can they give? They give themselves’. Christ and joy Christ wants to spread joy and is pleased by doing so, by enriching his faithful with joy. He wishes ‘that your joy may be complete’. This is our religion. This is where we should go. Christ is our Paradise. What’s Paradise? It’s Christ. Paradise starts from here. It’s exactly the same. Those who experience Christ here on earth, experience Paradise. It’s just as I’m telling you. This is right, it’s true, believe me. Our task is to try and find a way to enter the light of Christ, not merely to ...
Those who truly know themselves have made a start at acquiring humility, because they’ve seen the extent of their weakness and also the cesspit which is hidden within their soul. ‘Broken and contrite’ and in despair over themselves, they’ve then turned to God, ceaselessly begging his mercy. Saint Dimitri of Rostov
We can’t acquire pure prayer except through repentance. When we repent, that is, when we cleanse ourselves of every sinful passion, we gradually become able to enter the divine light. Saint Sophrony, Essex
As we move from the feast of the Ascension to that of Pentecost, we’re essentially progressing from the feast of the glorification of human nature to that of our illumination. Between these feasts, the Church inserts the commemoration of the 1st Ecumenical Synod, which convened in Nicaea in Bithynia. The Sunday of the Holy Fathers is a feast which is primarily concerned with the truth of the faith. Not with faith as an ideology, as a theoretical evolvement approached and managed by the brain, through reason, or by memorization. Rather, with the faith in its real dimension, its essential form, the very truth. Eternal life as knowledge The Gospel reading is from the beginning of Christ’s prayer before he went to the ...
Complaining against God isn’t merely criticism of him; it’s also condemnation People often ask why, for what reason, the Lord God sends them sorrows and very onerous trials. It’s extremely important that all Christians should understand that sorrows are sent in accordance with God’s will and are always for our benefit and salvation. Most often, in fact, they aren’t sent as punishment for sins, but rather so that we can realign our paths and our hearts. Or they may be the answer to requests we’ve made to God. People frequently expect God to make what they ask for in their prayers happen in the way they themselves think is best. But God often replies to their supplications in a way that’s ...
The Sunday of the Holy Fathers, which our Church celebrates during the time of Pentecost, is dedicated to the memory of the Holy and God-bearing Fathers of the 1st Ecumenical Synod, in Nicaea, at which Saint Athanasios the Great and Saint Spyridon the Wonder-Worker were present and gave their testimony on behalf of the faith. In the Holy Spirit, the Synod expressed the received faith of the Church and formulated its dogmatic teaching concerning the second person of the Holy Trinity, the Son and Word of God, Jesus Christ, who is both God and human. The significance of the 1st Ecumenical Synod lies in the fact that it defended the faith against the heretical teaching of Arius and his supporters, who ...
Ascension For forty days after the Resurrection, the Lord Jesus was ‘being seen of His disciples’. He was gladdening the hearts of His disciples with His Presence and initiating them into the mysteries of the Kingdom. Christ appeared to them and opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. At the same time, the Apostles were living with such tension of prayer in His Presence, that His words were engraved in their heart and in their memory. Although the Lord had promised them that He would not leave them orphans, He was taken up into Heaven on the fortieth day. The Ascension is the final event in the earthly life of Christ. This feast bears a beautiful radiance, because when the Lord ascended ...
Really, if God asks you to defend yourself over the indifference and irreverence you display at liturgical assemblies, what will you say? At the time when he’s talking to you, instead of praying you start a conversation with the person next to you about trivial things. Even if God overlooks all our other sins, this is enough to deprive us of salvation. Don’t think it’s just a minor transgression. Saint John Chrysostom
For God to answer our request and for him to give us what we ask for, we must first have humility, but we don’t. All of us, young and old, are very full of ourselves and won’t accept advice or chastisement. We know everything, we’re all so wise. Saint Païsios the Athonite
If even only one person had become obedient to the commandments of the incarnate Word of God, our savior and renewer, and had observed them, that by itself would be enough to prove the truth that ‘the Lord is faithful in his words’ (Ps. 144, 13).But from then to today millions of people have struggled to confirm this unique truth, on a daily basis, every hour and every minute. Elder Iosif Vatopaidinos
As we know, the feast of the Ascension seals the first coming of Christ to the world, in the flesh. It thus completes the plan of God’s divine dispensation in the incarnation of his Son and Word as a human being. The nativity, the teaching, the miracles, the passion, the crucifixion and burial and the resurrection of Christ re divine occurrences which are related to Christ’s presence in the world. With the Ascension, however, the healing of the human race through all these works and deeds is sealed, but also generalized to the whole of the human race, because the Lord didn’t merely ascend into the heavens in glory but, as we confess in article 6 of the Creed: ‘And ...
The important thing is for us to be with Christ. For our soul to wake up and love Christ, to become holy. To surrender to burning divine love. Then he’ll love us, too. Then our joy will never be taken from us. This is what Christ wants most: to fill us with joy, because he’s the source of joy. Saint Porfyyrios Kavsokalyvitis
The feast of the Ascension seems not to present any particular interest, but rather a certain sadness in our hearts that the Lord is departing from us. Nevertheless, the following points emerge from the Gospels and from our lives as Christians: 1. Each of us, in the person of Christ as God and human, is in the Holy Trinity and, indeed, in a place of honor- on the right hand of the Father. This is an indication of the esteem and honor which surround each of us. Even if other people denigrate us, reject us or are hostile towards us, we have a God who loves us and accepts us as we are, raising us up to the glory of the ...
People fall into delusion either though inexperience or pride. If it’s out of inexperience, then the Lord quickly heals those who’ve gone astray. But if it’s out of pride, their soul will suffer for a long time, until they learn humility. And then the Lord will cure them. Saint Silouan the Athonite
Hesychasm isn’t only for monastics and those who’ve renounced the world; it’s for every true Christian. Hesychasm is an inner state. It’s ‘dwelling constantly in God and in purity of mind’. Hesychasm is the way in which the space of the heart is revealed, the center of human existence, what we call the person. Elder Efraim Vatopaidinos
Try to look back calmly, make a critique and reassess the whole of your life, in an effort to see it in the way God does. Then carefully root out every wickedness which such an investigation will inevitably reveal. And avoid judging others, even in your innermost thoughts. Sanctimonious thoughts kill our inner peace, without serving any other purpose. Saint Makarij of Optina
When you react to anybody at all, before you judge and answer, put yourself in their place. At that precise moment, see why they’re cursing you, why they’re angry with you, even why they’re saying something nice about you. Put yourself in their place. Never be in a hurry to draw a conclusion. Elder Amvrosios Lazaris
People who submit to God, subject everything to him, because he engenders peace in their heart. If we don’t humble ourselves, God will humble us. Real humility is the product of knowledge of temptations. Saint Isaac the Syrian
Let’s not be flexible as regards our conscience. Let’s pass strict judgment on ourselves and then we’ll see that we ourselves are the cause of our estrangement from God. Let’s repent, weep over our wretched condition and strive now to clothe ourselves in the ‘heavenly image’. Saint Symeon the New Theologian
