But Patrick, having now become a monk, forgetting all things that were past, applied to the future, and, as if...
We blunder about, here and there, we’re troubled about petty and unimportant things. The devil, who has the power of death, traps us in his snares and wounds us unto death. This is why we must be careful not to become too attached to anything earthly, so that we can avoid his afflictions.
Today’s Gospel (Mark 9:17-31, see sidebar), read on the Fourth Sunday of Great Lent (Sunday of St. John Climacus) brings together a number of themes that we have highlighted throughout our Great Lent: Sunday Bible Reading initiative. Faith, specifically faith in the God-man (Theanthropos) Christ; the importance of discipleship; the performing of miracles by Christ proving His divinity; and, new for this week, the importance of “prayer and fasting,” two essential virtues for every Christian. Consistent with our previous articles, today we will again focus on only a few words from the Bible reading: I believe; help my unbelief! These are the five words that the father of the troubled child “cried out” to Christ before He “rebuked the unclean spirit.” Last week ...
After the middle of this period , then, the Church provides appropriate additional help in our ascetic efforts, which differ in accordance with the capacities of each one of us, by presenting the perfect figure of asceticism, Saint John of the Ladder, that great asceticwho really did shed blood through his spiritual struggles in order to receive God the Holy Spirit. The whole of the striving which brought him to God is described by him in his work ‘The Ladder’, a book which, for monastics, is the surest road-map for their way of life. Of course, the Church recognizes our human weakness, but doesn’t make any concessions to it. It continues to set the bar high, showing us what’s perfect, ...
‘This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting’ . This phrase in the Gospel reading concerning the miraculous cure of the possessed young man suggests the power and value of prayer. Saint John of the Ladder, whom we celebrate today calls it ‘God’s devout tyrant’, since it won’t leave us in peace. The message of Holy Scripture, the teaching f the Fathers of the Church, consider prayer to be a natural expression of the soul, a vital need, and also the supreme, unique, privilege of us as human beings. This is because prayer has its roots in the very beginning of the creation of the human race. After the fall of the first-created, we hear God saying ...
We know that the Lord wants us to bear insults, mockery and hardships with patience, while the devil desires the opposite. So if we give in to what the devil suggests, it’s clear that we’ve turned ourselves and our will towards pleasure-seeking and that we’re paying no attention to the Lord. When we feel deep sorrow, however, over submitting to the devil’s provocations, then it’s equally clear that we’ve turned to God, by loving and following the strait and narrow path of His commandments.
When the soul loses humility, it also loses grace and the love for God, and then fervent prayer is extinguished.
Humble yourself and confess from now on, because confession involves holy humility, without which nobody can be saved. It’s a great joy for the devil if he can persuade people to hide their diabolical thoughts, because then he’ll succeed in his carefully-planned aim of harming our soul.
If you want to pray properly, don’t sadden anybody. Otherwise you’re praying in vain. Whatever you’ve done against someone else, who’s wronged you, will come back to haunt you at the time of prayer.
The rich are useless. Yes, useless, unless they’re generous and charitable. But, unfortunately, not many rich people are distinguishged for their love of others. Most of them wallow in self-love, in hard-heartedness and sin. So don’t envy them. Think, rather, about Peter and Paul about John and Elijah, about Christ Himself, Who had nowhere to rest His head. Imitate the poverty of Him and His saints, who were deprived of material goods but enjoyed untold spiritual wealth. Always remember the Lord’s declaration on how difficult it is for the rich to be saved: ‘It’s very difficult for those with money to enter the Kingdom of God. It’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for ...
For me there are three kinds of love: that of the flesh, which is full of spiritual germs; secular love, which is superficial, formal, hypocritical and without depth; and spiritual love, which is true, pure and precious love. This is love which can continue ‘unto the ages of ages’. -How will I know that I have real love, Elder. - In order to understand, see if you love all people equally and whether you think all of them are better than you.
In every age, the message of the Cross has sounded strange. In our own era, however, when comfort and prosperity have been raised to god-like status, the message of the Cross isn’t merely absurd but is also irreconcilable with secular reasoning. It’s terrifying for the rules of life, for the ambitions of those engaged in the pursuit of happiness and well-being. Yet the Gospel insists on preaching Christ’s words: ‘Let those who wish to follow me deny their self and let them take up their cross and follow me’. Self-denial and acceptance of the Cross reveal the authenticity of our call and of our destination. While the raucus and facile slogans of the world may initially attract us, in the ...
God made us to be royalty, not to be defeatist and menial. Once we’ve begun to reign over our passions and the sins which enslave us, our spiritual freedom becomes a free, spiritual kingdom in its nature and therefore in our decisions.
In the middle of the time of Great Lent, we have the Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross. The rubrics for the day begin as follows: ‘Since we, too, are, in a sense, crucified through the forty-day fast, mortified by the passions…the precious and life-giving Cross is brought forward as though elevating and supporting us’ . Christ’s Cross, which we venerate on this Sunday, isn’t to be found only in the middle of Great Lent, but informs the whole of the period. It’s immanent in the whole of the history of God’s providence for our salvation. Last Sunday, we celebrated Saint Gregory Palamas, who had this to say on the subject: Christ’s Cross ‘was foretold and foreshadowed from ancient times ...
Today’s Gospel (Mark 8:34-38; 9:1), read on the Third Sunday of Great Lent (Sunday of the Holy Cross) is one of the most well-known Bible readings, which includes the renowned question: “For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?” The Gospel passage begins with a powerful statement, a challenge, in fact, from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ: “If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” The Week 1 installment of our Great Lent: Sunday Bible Reading initiative focused on five words: Follow me and Come and see. Today we will focus on only three: If anyone wishes. Does Christ say “You have ...
Athanasios Mikhailidis, as he was known in the world, was born in 1908, in Cappadocia, in the village of Moutalaski, to Victoria and Michael Mikhailidis. The village that Blessed Savvas the Sanctified was from. As he himself said, his childhood was marked by great poverty, loss of a parent, much hard work and many hardships. His burning faith and straightforward piety, not to mention his natural Cappadocian God-fearing character, meant that he was able to weather all these storms. The exchange of populations in1922 brought him, his mother and his two sisters to Corinth, and thereafter to Thessaloniki, where he worked at a cobbler’s. Desire for God took him at a young age to the Holy Mountain, the mountain of God ...
In this earthly life, we have to store up oil, that is perform works of charity, which will be of use to us in the next life. The more the obstacles, the greater will be the triumph of virtue.
A Review of Bonnie Thurston’s All the Fullness of God: The Christ of Colossians (John G. Panagiotou)
In Biblical scholar Bonnie Thurston’s latest offering to the study of the Scriptures All the Fullness of God: The Christ of Colossians, we are given a wonderful analysis of the theology of the Apostle Paul in his writing of this epistle to the first century Colossian church. Thurston lays out for us the history and context of that church’s confused Christology in which the Apostle attempts to correct with the writing of his letter. Thurston’s study is broken into two parts. It is almost if we are confronted with two separate works within the covers of one volume. The first part lays out for us the historical, societal, religious, and political context in which Paul and his associates found themselves in ...
In the middle of Great Lent, on the third Sunday of the fast, the Church presents the Cross for veneration by the faithful, so that they can be strengthened in their spiritual struggle, which will bring them to Great Week and Easter. On that day, the Gospel reading contains Christ’s words to His disciples, just after He’s foretold his coming death on the Cross to them: ‘Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: ‘Those who want to be my disciples must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their soul will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save ...
