Ξένες γλώσσες

Prayer's a spiritual weapon with which we solve all our problems. It's the master key to all the locks in the world, all the difficulties of life. Through their prayers, people who believe properly bring down heaven to earth and have God at their service. Prayer’s the oxygen for our soul and people who don't pray are consumptive. In effect they're dead.

Once, in a skete, a brother fell into error and after a conference, the others sent word to Abba Moïsis, asking him to come. But he didn’t want to. So the oldest of the monks sent a message to him saying: ‘Come, because people are waiting for you’. So he set out and made his way there. He picked up a basket with holes in it, filled it with sand and carried it on his back. The brothers came out to meet him and asked: ‘What’s this, father?’. The elder said to them: ‘My own sins are behind me and I don’t see them. And I’m supposed to come here today to judge the sins of somebody else?’ When they heard this, ...

Consider yourself lower and worse than everyone else and don't seek praise, honor or glory from other people.

  ‘I believe that there is nothing lovelier, deeper, more sympathetic, more rational, more manly, and more perfect than the Saviour; I say to myself with jealous love that not only is there no one else like Him, but that there could be no one. I would even say more: If anyone could prove to me that Christ is outside the truth, and if the truth really did exclude Christ, I should prefer to stay with Christ and not with truth’. This great thinker could hardly fail to be attracted to the majesty of Optina. He was very interested in following the process of eldership and in becoming acquainted with the enlightened starets, Amvrosij. And in June 1878 he visited him and stayed for two days. ...

Children's behavior is directly linked to the state of the parents. When children are hurt by the way the parents behave towards each other they lose the power and the will to make any progress. They're badly built and the structure of their soul is at risk of collapse at any moment.

 In the middle of Holy and Great Lent, the Church places before the faithful the Honourable Cross of the Lord for us to venerate and draw strength from, so that we can continue the gruelling but lambent journey towards Great Week. This decision is judicious and full of meaning, my brothers and sisters. Because the Cross of Our Lord is the pre-eminent symbol of life and sanctification in our lives. Whereas, through the wood (that is the tree) of disobedience, Adam lost the delights of Paradise, through the wood of the Cross, the new Adam, Christ, has again opened up the gates of Eden to humankind. The sacrifice of the Cross is the means by which the great chasm created by ...

Parents and teachers, take great care not to allow your children to become capricious. When they grow up, they'll complain that you spoiled them when they were younger and encouraged their outlandish behavior. Eccentricity is the microbe that corrupts the heart, the rust, the moth that eats away at love, the seed of the devil, a mockery of the Lord.

Allow yourself whatever's constructive for you, but not what causes spiritual damage, upset and turmoil. What rational person would drink from a glass which they knew had been poisoned?

Eve of All Souls Another visit by the Autonomous Intervention team from Neapoli, Thessaloniki, to the suffering people at Idomeni. And this was perhaps even more of a landmark. Saturday of All Souls and you set out for the poor souls who are piled together between closed frontiers, hounded out by catastrophe, making their way forward through suspicious territory, with hope as their basic, if not their only, baggage. You drive along and your mind goes to tomorrow’s Gospel reading. ‘I was a stranger’. He reminds us of it twice. You eat up the kilometres and wonder what you’re doing, how much it helps and what it is you’re not doing. Hugely significant. The sun’s hot, which is a comfort, since it’ll dry ...

In everything we do, we need to be careful what we say and how we say it. Our thoughts should always be focused on how we can please God. And we should want nothing more than we want Him. We shouldn't be in a hurry to judge what other people say and do and we shouldn't interfere in issues that are none of our business.

If you sow uncultivated land, you'll just waste your seeds, and, instead of wheat, you'll harvest thorns. We, too, if we sow prayer in our soul while our flesh is fat, we'll harvest sin instead of good fruits. Prayer will be lost or polluted in the midst of vain thoughts. Our flesh comes from the earth and if we don't cultivate it, as we would the earth, it'll never yield good fruit, the fruit of truth.