Ξένες γλώσσες

Christians who are striving aren’t feather-brained dupes, nor are they naïve, simplistic, superficial, shallow, gloomy, weird or abstracted. If they are, they’re not real Christians. Striving Christians are hopeful, joyful, sincere, honourable, whole and humble. The starting-point for self-improvement isn’t at all self-centred. The sense of my sinfulness makes me contrite, not afraid or upset. The belief that I can change, that I’m a great sinner, shouldn’t be wishful thinking or false modesty, but sure, precise and unflinching words and action. May the discovery of the good God’s infinite love, and of my own rebellion, apostasy and estrangement from Him give me hot tears of genuine repentance. May God’s love for us move me, bring me to contrition, stir me and restore me. The starting-point, ...

As regards the love of God, we say that He loves us or that we love Him, when we feel love for God within ourselves. This is nothing, tiny, compared with that feeling of love for God you have when He visits you, when He gives you His love. Then you melt. If this love, this sense of the love of God, were to last a few minutes, you wouldn’t be able to stand it. You’d expire.

The mouth of a humble-minded person always speaks the truth. Those who contradict the truth are like the servant who struck the Lord.

Lazarus didn’t play a part in his resurrection. How could he have done, since he was already in the grave? Christ raised Him because that is what He Himself wished. Zacchaeus, however, worked hard for his resurrection. It started with an intense desire to encounter Christ, having first heard that, at least, He was somebody who wasn’t prejudiced against sinners. He cared nothing for the comments- perhaps the mockery- of the crowd when, because of the crush and because he was short of stature, he climbed up into a sycamore to see Christ. And something even more costly to himself: he imposed upon himself what are perhaps the harshest conditions in the history of human economics, when he saw the ...

‘A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe”. Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed”’ . This passage from the New Testament is very well known to Christians everywhere, referring, as it does to Doubting Thomas, Christ’s disciple. He believed in Christ, but, in order to ...

When the burning love of devoutness occupies your soul, you then rejoice and make your way along your path, be it easy or difficult. When divine love flourishes in a faithful soul, it leaves no room or margin for passions.

From the Kyriakodromion of Monk Agapios All injustice, illegal seizure and greed is wicked and worthy of abhorrence on the part of those who love God and are of sound mind. Tax-collectors are the worst of all as regards injustice. Just as lions are worse and fiercer than any other animals in the mountains and forests, so tax-collectors and slanderers are more unjust and wicked than any other people in towns and villages . Because greed is injustice and a sin, and is inhuman, the opposite of kindly concern for others. Just as warmth is the opposite of cold, light of darkness and white of black, so the tax-collector is opposed to the command that we should give succour to the ...

In the first place, church attendance is a need of the soul. Just as the hungry have need of food and the thirsty require water, so, too, do Christians have need of their ‘daily bread, which is the word of God and the spotless sacraments, the Body and Blood of Christ. Just as we can’t live without food and water, neither can we do so without the word of God and Holy Communion.

V. But, as I was saying, to return to my argument: great multitudes followed Him because He deigned to take on our infirmities. Then what? It says that the Pharisees also came to Him, tempting Him, and saying: ‘Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for any reason?’ Again the Pharisees tempt Him, again those who read the law don’t know the law, again those who expound the Law are in need of others to teach them. It wasn’t enough that the Sadducees should tempt Him concerning the Resurrection, and that the Lawyers should question Him about perfection, the Herodians about the poll-tax, and others about authority. Someone had to ask Him, about marriage. Though He ...

How blessed are those who hope in God. He is ever their helper and they fear no harm that others might do to them. They hope in the Lord and do good. They place their hope in Him and confess Him with all their heart. He’s their boast, their God and they call upon Him day and night.

Life on earth is very short, unimaginably brief. But much has been given to us in this short period of time. It’s been given to us so that we can turn to God in the most heartfelt way. He’s the one Who can transfigure and resurrect our soul. We Christians are very fortunate that we have Our Most Holy Lady to pray for us at God’s throne.

The three great giants of the passions, as the Fathers call them, are love of pleasure, avarice and ambition. If these take hold of us, they beget another three, which are worthy of them: inattentiveness, forgetfulness and ignorance, which destroy our spiritual powers and our mind.

Remembrance of God demonstrates communion with Him and is therefore like prayer. Striving to invoke the holy Name of Christ continuously, through the prayer ‘Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy upon me’, is a constant renewal within us of the remembrance of God and communion with Him. This is why Saint Paul wrote to the Thessalonians that they should ‘Pray without ceasing’. Through the remembrance of God and prayer, we reveal the true nobility of our nature, which stands at the threshold between the visible and invisible worlds and is that of a ‘deified animal’ . This nature transcends physical necessity, expands our existence as far as God and has a sense of freedom from those things which hold us prisoner on ...

If you want to go straight to Christ, you have to walk between two walls. These walls aren’t made of stone, bricks or mud, but are both spiritual. On the right, there’s the fear of God and, on the left, there’s the fear of death. These two walls deliver us from all sin.

Imagine for a moment how frightening it would feel to be cut off from all other people, without any chance of contacting or encountering anyone else, while at the same time having a body which was sick and continuously deteriorating as a result of a contagious disease. Add to that the permanent disdain of people who believed that the disease we had was a punishment for our sinful life. Then suddenly along comes someone who approaches us, ignoring the dangers, trampling on the prevailing social prejudices, demonstrating clearly and fearlessly His love for us. Wouldn’t we be endlessly grateful to Him? Such was the case, presented in Saint Luke’s Gospel narrative, of the ten tragic lepers who were touched by Christ’s ...

Here’s the shortest and easiest path to salvation: Be obedient, restrained, don’t judge, and guard your heart and mind against wicked thoughts. Think well of everyone and bear in mind that the Lord loves them. Because of these humble thoughts, the grace of the Holy Spirit will dwell in your heart and you’ll say: ‘The Lord is merciful’.

Excerpt from Instruction 1 What, then, is the cause and what’s the cure for this arrogant and disdainful behaviour? Listen to what the Lord says: ‘Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls’ . Briefly, in a single sentence, He’s shown us the root cause of all evils; and their antidote, the cause of all blessings. He’s shown us that pride has overcome us and that we can’t be free of it except through its opposite, which is humility. This is because pride begets arrogant and disdainful behaviour and catastrophic disobedience, precisely as humility begets obedience and the salvation of our soul. I mean, of course, real humility, not ...

If you’re sincere and don’t have a high opinion of yourself, you’re simple, you’re humble. All of this brings solace to the soul, but is also obvious to others. Other people know if you really feel for them or if you’re being hypocritical. A reprobate’s better than a Christian hypocrite. So, no smiles of hypocritical love, just natural behaviour. No badness or hypocrisy, but love and sincerity.

In today’s reading, among the other things St. Paul the Apostle is talking about, references the sorrows and persecutions he was suffering (but never was defeated by). The matter of tribulation is a very important one for us all. Who doesn’t face sorrows in their life? Jesus prepared us with these words: “In the world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33). Paul also was preparing those who were becoming members of the Church, in that “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). It is the universal rule that we are all going to face hardship. Even the best of humanity, and the saints themselves have gone through adversity. Even the Holy Mother of our Lord ...