Until people receive the grace of the Comforter, they need to study the holy Scriptures, so that they’ll have within them the imprint of what’s good; so that, through constant reading the soul will be propelled towards what’s good; and so that the soul will be kept away from the dangerous paths of sin.
(As told by His Eminence Athanasios, Metropolitan of Limassol) A few days before we went there, some people came from a village and asked him to take some relics of Saint David and to perform a paracletic canon for them. As he was leaving there was a woman from Canada. There was another nun with her, from Cyprus, actually, and they went to see Fr. Iakovos. The young woman was from Canada, a physicist, but she didn’t believe and was probably an atheist. When they got there, Fr. Iakovos told them he was leaving to go to a village. He added: ‘But I hope that Saint David, who’s here in our monastery, will show you that there really are saints and the ...
We need to be constantly thinking about this life, this mortal life which we all share, though we have different schedules, different concerns and different dreams. The time comes for all of these things to pass away. We’re all witnesses to the fact that life, our life, flies by imperceptibly. And each of us will wonder about the years of our life, we’ll see with the experience we’ve acquired and we’ll grasp the whole situation: that human life flies past so quickly.
Our era has one particular feature where it differs from previous ages: people are more interested in information than in knowledge. The growth of the Internet has meant that we’re bombarded on a daily basis with information and news and aren’t interested to the same extent in the study of spiritual texts, be these Scripture, the Fathers, or theologically beneficial writings. Indeed, we often become defenders of Patristic and ascetic theology, which is a good thing, but without also showing the same enthusiasm for studying the works of the Fathers. This despite the fact that we can now find a large number of them posted on the web. But in this case, Patristic theology ceases to be a way of ...
We shouldn’t be like flies, but like bees which buzz from flower to flower collecting pollen to make honey. We, too, should make honey, paying attention only to the good in others. Concerning those who condemn and speak badly about others, the psalmist and prophet David says: ‘their throat is an open grave’ (Ps. 5, 10). Open a grave and you’ll see the filth and stench that’s in it. The same stench, spiritual stench, comes from our mouth when we censure other people.
What is the Church? How do we define it? The Church and life are hard to define, because what’s defined is confined. The Church can be described only through the language of images, such as a vine, the body of Christ or the flock of rational sheep. When we here the word ‘Church’, an image of the clergy often comes to mind, automatically and instinctively. Consciously or unconsciously we privately equate the Church with bishops and clergy while at the same time accepting an inferior role for the people, who are under the dominant authority of the priest or leaders. Those who accept these confused notions don’t realize that they’re the product of Western theology and are far removed from ...
Why are you apprehensive when there are no grounds for suspicion? What evil can come from studying and listening to the word of God, or from reading and singing in church, or from praying? God is truth, the devil’s a liar, a slanderer and a disputant. That’s enough.
Gospel Reading for the 5th Sunday of Luke From the Kyriakodromion of Monk Agapios, 17th century*. The Lord said, ‘There was a rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered in sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table’. Wanting to make us generous and charitable, to love one another and to instruct the mean and hard-hearted what perils await them and also to teach those who have sorrows and who suffer here what joy and elation they will inherit, the Lord wisely described for us the rich man as being very harsh and inhuman beyond measure and ...
Our Lady isn’t just an ordinary woman, nor, however, is she a goddess. She’s a special person whom God selected to be His mother and, by extension, the mother of the whole world. At Christmas, which we’re gradually approaching, theological discourse quite rightly centres on the Person of Jesus Christ, Who is God and human. The day after Christmas, however, we celebrate the synaxis of the Mother of God, in other words the assembly of the faithful to celebrate the person(s) who, in a sense ‘brought’ us the feast on the previous day, in this case Our Lady who gave us Christ. The relationship between Christ and Mary is unique, since the Mother of God and she alone, is His mother ...
We should feel Christ to be our friend. He is our friend. He Himself confirms this when He says : ‘You’re my friends…’ (Jn. 15, 14). We should look on Him as a friend and approach Him as such. Do we fall? Do we sin? We should run to Him with openness, love and confidence. Not with fear that He’ll punish us, but with the courage given to us by the feeling that He’s our friend.
The Apostle Paul, in this present passage from his Epistle to the Christians of Ephesus in Asia Minor, presents us with the great love of God for humanity: “God is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us “(verse 4). Then, the inspired Apostle describes how God manifested this vast love. This follows of course, because “God is Love,” as the Evangelist John the Theologian teaches us, and the student of love affirms (1 John 4:16). Have we deeply felt in our souls this truth that God, through His divine nature, is all love and only love? That every energy of God comes from love? That God does nothing without love? Have we realized that God ...
All our knowledge is to no purpose if we don’t know Jesus Christ. The soul that’s a distant stranger to God, the Source of Life the Author of all things good, dreams in vain that it’s making progress and moving forward.
It’s certainly difficult to get rid of the mistaken assumptions about interpersonal relationships, our connection to God and also our view of our self when we’ve been fed these from childhood. Because the soul of a child soaks up whatever ‘lessons’ are offered as blotting-paper does ink. It keeps them, absorbs them and lives with them. Of course, as we grow up, we come across other concepts which, if we’re to accept them, require us to wrestle with them, to think hard about them, to be receptive to something new. But how do you make sure that the something new is also what’s right? The outlook that ‘I have to be sure that what I’m doing is right’ is, I think, mistaken. ...
It seemed to me that nothing mattered so much as mortifying the senses, removing myself from the carnal and secular outlook, and, once I’d turned in on myself, that nothing human should touch me. I wanted only to converse with God, to live beyond everyday events, to experience divine revelations, to become a real unblemished mirror of God. I took light from light and, from being in the dark, was illumined, already harvesting in this life the fruits of those hoping for future blessings, leaving behind this earth and keeping company with the angels.
Ver. 15, 16. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule, to the Israel of God Do you see the power of the Cross, to what a height it’s raised him? Not only has it put to death all mundane affairs as far as he’s concerned, but has set him far above the old dispensation. What is equal to this power? The Cross has persuaded him , who was prepared to slay and be slain over the issue of circumcision, to simply equate it with uncircumcision, and to seek things strange and marvellous and above the heavens. He calls this way of life a new creation, both on ...
When those who have sinned and seen all the great evil that they themselves have caused and the consequences thereof, they’re penitent. Penitence is an inclination to return to God, from Whom they have become estranged. In this way they seek communion with God, as well as His mercy. In His love for us, God doesn’t want anyone to be lost, but rather desires that all of us should come to a knowledge of the truth and be saved. He not only accepts the repentance of those who willingly repent, once they’ve become aware of their sins, but also calls to repentance those who, through callousness and excess have slid into sin. He does this with the aim of saving them. » Saint Nectarios ...
Religion is a response to a deep longing of ours: the yearning for immortality. It’s a raft which supports us in our fear, enables us to pass through the dread rapids of chaos and to reach the harbour of faith and hope. It redeems us from the absurd, reveals the furthest depths of the truth- the purpose of our presence on earth and the reality that follows our death- and fills the soul to overflowing with zeal for sanctity. I should make it clear that, in talking about religion, I essentially have in mind Christianity, the religion which wasn’t constructed, as a result of our metaphysical awe, but was revealed by God Himself and is unceasingly revealed to the faithful through ...
When you’re wounded because you’ve fallen into some sin or other through your weakness or, sometimes, to your harm, through your own will, don’t lose heart, don’t be upset about it, but turn straight to God and say: ‘You see, Lord, I did the things I did because of who I am. You can’t have expected anything different from me, who am so ill-disposed and weak, other than that I would fall and collapse’. And then berate yourself for a good while and be sorry with pain in your heart, for making God sad. Without becoming upset, be disappointed with your foul passions, especially against the one which caused you to fall, and say: ‘Lord, I wouldn’t have stayed upright even ...
Ver. 11, 12. See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand. Those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised. Feel the pain that possesses his blessed soul. Just as those who have fallen into some sorrow, who have lost a true friend, or are undergoing something unexpected, rest neither by night nor day, because of the grief besieging their soul, so the blessed Paul, after a short moral discourse, returns to the subject which had first occupied his mind, saying: ‘See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand’. By this he means that he actually wrote ...
Just as we wish for God to love us, to forgive us, to overlook our errors, to watch over us and protect us with His providence, so we should extend the same to other people. Forgiveness doesn’t require effort, it isn’t difficult. What does it need? It needs humility. By forgiving another person we’ll be given forgiveness for our own countless sins and we’ll have every right to say to God: ‘What people did to me, I forgave with all my heart and love, in accordance with Your Gospel, and Your Word. Now I’m asking You to express Your love for me and to forgive me my own sins. » Elder Ephraim of Arizona
