Sin wears away at people every day, so they need a savior on a daily basis. This Savior is Jesus Christ. If you call upon Him in living and unshakable faith, He will save you. » Saint John of Kronstadt
The Apostolic Reading for today is from the letter sent by the Apostle Paul to the Hebrew Christians. In this letter, the Apostle of Christ wants to affirm to the Jewish Christians that Jesus Christ is the Messiah who the Prophets spoke about, and is therefore greater than all the prominent personalities of the Old Testament. He also speaks of Christian worship being higher than the worship of the Israelites, as the sky is from the earth. First, The Apostle Paul presents the Covenant (Tabernacle), which the Jews used for their worship: In the center, there was the Ark of the Covenant covered with gold. Inside this gold plated box was kept the golden pot, which contained the manna that had ...
In every age, not everyone betrays, not everybody deserts. Some remain faithful. Some keep up the struggle. Some don’t exchange their faith in the true God for anything worldly and secular. This, in any case, is why we have martyrs. » Blessed Georgios Kapsanis, Proegumen of Gregoriou Monastery
Whatever’s wrong with people is coincidental. Don’t look down on anybody even if you see how immoral, prone to drink or blasphemous they are. The image of God is in them, somewhere, too, although, of course, they aren’t aware of it. It’s natural for the enemy to come and besmirch that image. It’s not easy to see the image of God in those who mock you and behave like brutes towards you. You should feel even more sorry for them because their souls have been distorted, to the extent that perhaps they’re beyond correction, which will condemn them to eternal torment. How difficult is this: Love your enemies! » Blessed Gabriel the New Confessor and Fool for Christ, from Georgia
The position of Orthodox Dogmatic teaching is that heaven and hell are not two limited places where the righteous are rewarded and the unrighteous punished after death, nor that hell is a region of concrete instruments of torture. Heaven and hell are states and forms of relationship with our life-giving God. We ought to clarify that there is only one energy of God, just as there is one essence and one will. This creative and recreative energy multiplies through the diversity of created operations. Thus, because of differences in receptivity and faith, as well as variations in people’s conceptual powers, some will perceive God’s single energy as love, others as mercy, punishment, justice or hatred. In essence, there is the one ...
Saint Demetrios suffered in Thessalonica during the reign of Galerius Maximian (c. 306). He belonged to one of the most distinguished families of the province of Macedonia and was widely admired not only because of his noble ancestry and grace of bearing, but also for virtue, wisdom and goodness of heart surpassing that of his elders. The military expertise of Saint Demetrios led Galerius, as Caesar of the Eastern Empire, to appoint him commander of the Roman forces in Thessaly and Proconsul for Hellas. But for all this, Demetrios remained ever aware of the underlying realities of life. Since faith in Christ had touched his heart, all the glory of this world meant nothing to him, and there was nothing he ...
Sacrifice everything for Christ. For Christ, though, not for anything or anyone. » Venerable Païsios the Athonite
You can’t go to Church on Sunday because you’re working? You can make yourself an altar at that time by saying a prayer. » Elder Ephraim of Katounakia
It mentions in the Sayings of the Desert Fathers that some monks asked Abba Elijah, in Egypt, what he thought of Abba Agathon, who had a good reputation as a monk. The elder replied: ‘Compared to other monks these days, he’s good’. Then they asked: ‘Compared with older ones, what’s he like?’ He answered: ‘I told you, given the way monks are today, he’s good. But compared with the old ones… I knew a man in Skete who could stop the sun in the sky, just as Joshua son of Nun did’. This dialogue refers to the spiritual state of vigilance and development. There are people who’ve managed to stop some of the sins which were troubling them spiritually or who’ve become more ...
The Doxastiko at the Vespers of Saint Dimitrios «Σήμερον συγκαλείται ημάς» (‘Today we are called’), set to music by Chrysanthos Theodosopoulos in the 2nd plagal tone and sung by Chrysanthos Theodosopoulos, Archon Protopsalits of the Holy Archdiocese of Constantinople at the Vespers of Saint Dimitrios. The recording comes from a series by the Archon, entitled: ‘Βυζαντινοί Εκκλησιαστικοί Ύμνοι κατά το ύφος της Μ.τ.Χ.Ε Ακολουθία του Αγίου Δημητρίου’ (Byzantine Ecclesiastical Hymns in the style of the Great Church of Christ. Service for Saint Dimitrios). The text is by the Archon himself and can be found in his book entitled: ‘Επτάτομος Μουσική Κυψέλη’ (‘Seven-Volume Musical Treasury’, vols. IV-V, Vespers-Matins), which was published by the wife of the late master, Mrs, Maria Chrys. ...
Being a Christian, in the narrow sense, means making extreme efforts to cleanse your heart and your mind from nasty thoughts. What kind of struggle? There’s an enormous wealth of knowledge on this subject, with the teachings of the Fathers and a rich store of experience from the lives of thousands of holy men and women, who have confirmed these teachings in practice. Purification of the self from wicked and nasty thoughts and the eradication of every evil has always been the aim of all the great ascetics, hermits and hesychasts. » Saint Nicholas Velimirovich
It’s been said that good is to be identified with God, and that therefore knowledge of it is tantamount to knowledge of God. And because God’s a person, not an idea, knowledge of Him is realized through personal communication with Him. The more we love God the more we know Him and this knowledge of God then becomes love again. Just as God loves us completely, so does He want us to love Him. This is expressed in the first commandment: ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind’. We’re called to love God with all the powers of mind, body and soul, with everything that makes ...
God doesn’t discriminate. He doesn’t take into consideration what people were – good or bad, virtuous or sinful – before they desired Grace. He simply awaits the expression of this desire from each of us, and as soon as that happens, Grace begins to act. » Saint Theophan the Recluse
An important place in Biblical and Patristic thought is accorded to the battle against the fear of death and Satan and to the achievement of freedom, in Christ, from all forms of self-interest and necessity. ‘I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more’ (Lk. 12, 4). He said to His disciples, ‘Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?’ (Mk. 4, 40). The lives of the saints are permeated with this militant and heroic spirit. As sharers in the Holy Spirit, they fear nothing, not death, not deprivation, not poverty, not the devil: ‘For those who are led by the Spirit of God ...
The struggle is relentless and continuous, external and internal. Sometimes, the enemy acts visibly, through people and things, and at others he attacks people invisibly, through their thoughts. On occasion, he’ll appear openly, with a violent and merciless attack, like an enemy, but at others he’ll be disguised as a friend, who flatters and leads you astray with his cunning. » Saint Nicholas Velimirovich
Someone once went to Elder Iosif the Cave-Dweller- may we have his blessing- a man who came from his home town. When he got there, the Elder asked him about all the old people there. You know, the way you do if somebody comes from home. How’s so-and so? How’s old what’s his name doing? That sort of thing. That’s what Elder Iosif asked. A great striver. And a man who loved his home town. Eventually they got to someone and he asked: ‘How’s he doing?’ The pilgrim shuffled uneasily. ‘He died without confession, Elder. And he’s left us very worried about him’. The Elder then pierced him with a penetrating look and said: ‘Brother, you’re wrong. Kostas confessed’. ‘How did he?’ ‘Before he departed he ...
The supposedly ‘pious’ parents, whose concern was to make their children into ‘good Christians’, oppressed them through their human love and achieved the opposite to what they wanted. Children are pressed when they’re little and then, when they become sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, they go off in a different direction. » Venerable Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia
“It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (verse 20) What we hear today in the Apostolic Reading, is an address by the Apostle Paul to the Galatian Christians. Galatia was a Province of the Roman Empire located in the center of Asia Minor, with Ankara as its capital. The Apostle Paul, during his Apostolic Journey, preached the Gospel there and founded Christian Churches. Shortly after, false teachers began to work in the area. They were fanatical Judaizers, teaching the Christians that in order to be saved, they had to be circumcised and obey the provisions of Jewish Law. They also declared that people should not accept what Paul teaches, because he was not one of the original ...
When people see everything with good thoughts, they’re cleansed and given Grace by God. With bad thoughts, you condemn and wrong others, you prevent the Grace of God coming and the devil has high hopes of leading you astray. » Venerable Païsios the Athonite
