When you see that some people harbour ill-will towards you, don’t think of that wickedness as belonging to them. No, they’re acting as tools of Satan, though they don’t understand the deceit of the evil one and become trapped. Pray to God that the enemy will release them and that the eyes of their heart, which have been darkened by the evil one, will be illumined.
The Fathers of our Church, such as Saint Epifanios of Cyprus, Saint Irenaeus of Lyon, Saint Hippolytus of Rome, Clement the Alexandrian et al., refused to accept the above anthropological and soteriological model, as projected by the Gnostics, because it was diametrically opposed to Biblical anthropology and thus removed the possibility of our salvation. Essentially it led to a misrepresentation of the Gospel message regarding our nature, our beginnings, our destination, the manner in which we should live our lives to the full, our spiritual development and progress and, in the end, the possibility of our salvation. Although both ancient Gnosticism and modern views on gender and the removal of the distinction between the sexes begin from different theoretical standpoints, they ...
If we’re possessed of a vainglorious, contemptuous attitude and have been blinded by pride, then, inevitably, we fall into the same sin as the devil.
In the period after Easter, when the services in the Pentecostarion are celebrated, we read the Gospel according to Saint John on Sundays. Essentially, the Evangelist quotes a miracle/cure performed by Jesus and, either before or after, gives his theological interpretation of it. Thus, in the case of the healing of the man who was blind from birth, Saint John refers to the importance of day, of light. The Lord reveals Himself as ‘the Light of the World’ and that He’s labouring to perform ‘the works of Him Who sent Him’ while it’s still daytime. Because Christ said that He’s doing the work of ‘Him Who sent Him’. If we Christians are to be loyal to our Lord, then we, too, ...
Lots of people today go chasing after joy, happiness, and go down roads that aren’t clean, but are befouled by the actions of demons. But if ‘the Lord God speaks’ in our heart, then we should be quiet. We should turn to our heart, learn to pray the Jesus prayer, cleanse our heart with introversion, and then, without wishing for it, without seeking it, we’ll be a ‘city built on a hill’.
The devil is very envious of those people who pray and uses all sorts of ploys in order to stop them doing so. So when the demons see that you’re ready to pray properly, they remind you of supposedly urgent things. Then they’ll make you forget and urge you to go looking for them. Since you can’t remember what they were, you become worried and sad. Then, when you return to your prayer, they remind you again what you were looking for, so as to turn your mind back to them and so that you’ll forget about your productive prayer.
Under the auspices of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, a second international forum on modern slavery convened in Buenos Aires, Argentina, May 5-8, 2018. This forum, entitled Old Problems in the New World, was cosponsored by the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Buenos Aires and South America, and the Patriarch Athenagoras Orthodox Institute (Berkeley, California). The purpose of this gathering was to bring together distinguished practitioners, policymakers, theologians, and scholars, from within Latin America and other parts of the world to explore the myriad dimensions of the scourge of modern-day slavery. The forum was held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Argentina, with welcoming remarks from the President of Argentina, government officials, dignitaries and various religious leaders. A highlight of theopening session was ...
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. At the end of today’s reading, words stand that we pass by very often. The blind man says to Christ, “And who is the Son of God?” and Christ answers, “You have seen Him and He is speaking to you”. For us, the first words are so natural; the first event of our life, the first event of a meeting is that we see a person, but what was this wonder of this man who had never seen anything in the world and who, touched by the life-giving hand of Christ, of a sudden saw! And the first person he saw was his Lord and his God, Christ, the Son ...
‘They saw a man blind from birth’ The curing of the man blind from birth is a terrible rebuke for the Pharisees, who didn’t want to accept the words of Christ. Before this momentous event, Christ had had an extensive dialogue with the Scribes and Pharisees, in the course of which He said to them: ‘I tell you absolutely truly: before Abraham was born, I am’ (Jn. 8, 58). The infuriated Jews didn’t understand Christ’s words and picked up stones to throw at Him (op. cit., 59). In order not to stoke their anger, Jesus hid and left the temple grounds (ibid). It was after this that he met the man blind from birth and cured him, in part so that ...
Spiritual people are all pain. In other words, they feel pain for situations and people, but are rewarded for this pain with divine consolation. They feel pain, but also divine consolation within themselves, because God pitches blessings down into our soul from Paradise. And we rejoice in His divine love. This is joy, spiritual joy, which is inexpressible and inundates the heart.
The state of one-genderism is described in the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas, where, in answer to a question from His disciples regarding the way to enter the Kingdom of God and our salvation, Jesus answers: ‘When you make the two one, the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, the top like the bottom, that is it. And when you make male and female to be one and the same, so that the male is not male and the female is no longer female… then you will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven’. Moreover, at a different point in this same Gospel, it is emphasized that a fundamental condition for a woman to enter the Kingdom of ...
Without freedom, people would be just like any other animal. We’d be subject to servitude and our thoughts would revolve in a tight circle, within which they’d be restricted. Ideas of good and evil would be beyond our ken. We wouldn’t know what was shameful, wicked or false, we wouldn’t have the authority to act on out own volition and so emerge from the restricted circle of our innate impulses.
When the Lord enters our heart, the desert of the soul blossoms like a lily. Ah, why don’t we turn our hearts to the Lord more often? How much peace and consolation God has in store for us.
4. The slanders We have left to the end any reference to his cross. At various times people came to him asking for spiritual guidance. But these people had wicked thoughts, either from their passions, which had taken over their soul or from some undiagnosed mental illness, in the medical sense. They became tools for the prosecution and were the cause of great tribulations and sorrows. Although he was endowed with extraordinary mental acuity, the blessed man , was unable to see the danger. He saw the good in everyone. According to the Old Testament Proverbs, ‘the innocent believes every word’. He welcomed everyone with the same goodwill and alacrity. ‘I am indebted to both the wise and the foolish’, as ...
The closer people draw to God the more they approach each other. And again, the more they approach each other, the closer they draw to God.
We have to learn to bow our head to the will of God and not insist on having our own way. Obedience to God is achieved through obedience to our spiritual guides, our parents, out teachers, and those senior to us at work. If we’re obedient, we’ll realize that it is that’s required of us.
2. His zeal The Elder was a phenomenon as regards his conscious zeal, as the reader will easily recognize. It was imprinted on all areas of his activities and service, as also in his internal diligence. He demonstrated his unremitting zeal as a monk of the Monastery of Stavrovouni, in the brotherhood of the great hesychast , in the public affairs of New Skete, in Minthi, Koutloumousi and Vatopaidi. It was always intense: in times of calm, in persecutions, in his youth and in his old age. The most amazing thing is that, as soon as he recovered from the heart attack which brought him to death’s door, he immediately found his rhythm again. With this unrelenting zeal, he inspired his ...
Sin really is a dreadful tyrant, issuing wicked commands and shaming those who obey them. From the time it entered the world, it has destroyed freedom, debased the value we have as our natural right and has introduced enslavement.
1. The call through a divine vision In his fifteenth year, while he was on a hill at Paphos, floundering in the dark void because of a sense of the pointlessness of it all- he’d watched a documentary with scenes from World War I and the Asia Minor Catastrophe- the Lord appeared to him perceptibly, in a transmundane light. He was full of love and said to him: ‘Sokratis, this is why I made human beings. People are immortal’. Even he himself was never able to put into words the miracle which occurred in his adolescent soul. What he did realize, however, was that everything to do with his divine calling began then. The kindling of his heart with love for ...
Fatherly Exhortations to Students, Graduates and Clergymen You are human, the most beloved creature of God. The creature that God ordained to live forever. No other creature was destined to live forever. You did not choose the path of God. You chose your own path, the path of disobedience. That is why you were exiled on earth. Yet, God loved you so, that He became man. The God-Man. Who is both God and man. He died on the cross like a man for you. He descended into Hades. He defeated death. He completely shattered the very core of death. Christ rose from the dead in order to resurrect you. To grant you eternal life once more. This God, the God-Man Christ, called you. He ...
