Believers who have loosed the bonds of egotism, which strangle their love and prevent them from acting and from seeing beyond their limited horizon, are blown far away and are liberated from the tyrannical yoke of slavery to egotism, thus abolishing the wretched worship of the self.
Trials and sorrow are necessary, because they constrain the sinful disposition of the heart. When the heart’s been restricted and restrained in this way, tears flow more easily.
Watch Nicole Roccas’ speech at the 2nd International Conference on Digital Media and Orthodox Pastoral Care DMOPC18 which took place from 18th-21st June 2018 at the Orthodox Academy of Crete, organized under the High Auspices of His All Holliness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
Watch the second part of Fr Jonah’s from Taiwan sermon on the feast of the Elevation of the Holy Cross.
When your heart is free of all resentment, then you’re close to love. And when your heart acquires blessed peace towards all other people, then you’re at the gates of love. But these gate are opened only by the Holy Spirit.
Parents blame their children for the slightest reason. It’s as though they don’t know how to talk to them calmly and gently. When it’s necessary for a parent to set boundaries for a child to obey, the child should feel that there’s love behind the strictness. It’s a great mistake to punish children at the moment they’re doing something wrong, because you won’t achieve anything by it.
Watch Daria Zhdanova-Kosintseva’s speech at the 2nd International Conference on Digital Media and Orthodox Pastoral Care DMOPC18 which took place from 18th-21st June 2018 at the Orthodox Academy of Crete, organized under the High Auspices of His All Holliness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
You should always call Christ to mind, with love. We might be holding a photograph of someone but, because we don’t know them well, we don’t love them, it doesn’t move us. When you hold a photograph of your mother, though, your soul immediately leaps and cries out of love.
Watch Richard Barret’s speech at the 2nd International Conference on Digital Media and Orthodox Pastoral Care DMOPC18 which took place from 18th-21st June 2018 at the Orthodox Academy of Crete, organized under the High Auspices of His All Holliness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
Judgement is the shameful appropriation of God’s right, and condemnation spells disaster for the soul of those who commit it. Never condemn, even when you see something with your own eyes, because they, too, are often deceived.
Our thoughts, inclinations and desires open a path for us and reflect the whole of our life. If our thoughts are peaceful, full of love, kindness and purity, then we’ll be at peace, because peaceful thoughts make it possible for us to have inner peace which radiates from us. But if we have negative thoughts, then our inner peace is shattered.
To understand what St. Paul is talking about in today’s reading, we have to remember that in his previous Epistle to the Corinthians, the Holy Apostle severely rebuked the Christians of that community for their bad conduct. The result of this was that the Corinthians repented of their mistakes, prompting St. Paul to send a second letter, which offers spiritual consolation and counsel. In the passages we read today, we can admire the deep and sincere concern that the Great Apostle had for his spiritual children. He agonized over their straying from the Gospel, and handled the situation with holy discretion to solve the problems troubling the Church of Corinth. The first thing we can highlight here is St. Paul’s sincere ...
How pusillanimous some Christians are. Although they recognize Christ as the living and all-glorious Lord, they still allow doubt to dwell in their hearts, like a venomous snake that poisons them on a daily basis and buries their life in eternal darkness.
If you fall into sins through weakness, expunge them all immediately through repentance. But, in any case, through rigid vigilance, try to avoid the sins you commit through weakness.
Watch Fr Jonah’s from Taiwan sermon on the feast of the Elevation of the Holy Cross.
Perfection is also giving alms ungrudgingly, willingly and without disdain. Give wholeheartedly, as though you yourself were the recipient, benefiting as though you were the beneficiary. Then God’s will is perfected. This is how we manage to do God’s will, that which is good, pleasing and perfect, according to Saint Paul: by acting in full and proper knowledge.
When we undertake a task unwillingly, we quickly find ourselves resistant to it and repelled by it. Then our life becomes full of resistance and repulsion towards every little thing. The years go by and we grow old feeling like this.
I received your short letter and I share your pain. I brought to mind the image of how things are and, aware of my own wretchedness, sighed at the possibility of being saved. ‘Alas, Saviour of the world, I am overwhelmed by my iniquities and am unable to see. Hasten, as merciful, and make speed, as compassionate, to our aid, for you can do whatsoever you wish’. My fragrant little petal, things seem to be the way they are as the result of some experience or other. But what is it that we want? This isn’t life, my child. It’s not just a long Lent, but also the whole length of our sojourn here. Let’s at least learn to make a ...
Karyes is the capital of Mount Athos. The community already existed at the beginning of the 10th century, then...
Today, on this Sunday after the Elevation of the Holy Cross, we are once again reminded of the blessings that our Lord’s sacrifice on the Cross has given us. The Lord was crucified on Golgotha, and it was there that He took upon Himself the iniquity of sin, and all the personal sins of humanity. They were nailed to the Cross with Him, “killing” these sins and destroying them. Or, as the Prayer of 6th Hour says, our Lord Jesus Christ, “by His precious Cross destroyed the record of our sins, triumphing over the source and power of darkness”; Every person who believes in Christ when they are baptized is freed from their sins, and when they come out of ...
