A bad habit is a heavy burden. It grinds people down, separates them from the truth and from life. It’s a trap, a cess-pool, a precipice, it leads to destruction and perdition. » Saint Nectarios of Pentapolis
We have to keep an eye on ourselves – as grocers do. If they don’t watch their profits and losses they’ll soon go bankrupt. And they have to look after their accounts carefully, as well. Lots of people have lost their houses and been thrown out onto the streets because of lack of attention to detail. » Venerable Païsios the Athonite
Temptations, then, test souls, to see if they love God or not, and it’s these temptations that make souls worthy or unworthy of God. If a soul loves God, He will not allow it to fall into a temptation which is greater than it can handle and then fall into despair. Those who have fallen away from virtue strive to take others with them, so that they won’t be alone in their unseemliness. » Saint Ephraim the Syrian
I think it is only right to stress that the holy New Martyrs were the outstanding resistance fighters during the Turkish Occupation. They carried out their resistance not with acts of sabotage against the occupier which would have provoked reprisals on the part of the barbarous Turks and cost the lives of thousands of innocent people, but through the bold public confession of their faith and the way in which they admonished the occupier. The rage of the Turks therefore was vented upon them, on the martyrs themselves, and not on the rest of the people. » Blessed Georgios Kapsanis, Proegumen of Gregoriou Monastery
If Christ is within you through frequent Holy Communion, then you must become like Him. You must be meek and humble, long-suffering, full of love, not be attached to worldly goods. Your mind should contemplate the heavens and you should be obedient and rational. Take care to allow the Holy Spirit to reside within you. Don’t be proud, impatient, devoted to material things, avaricious or gluttonous. » Saint John of Kronstadt
I don’t want Paradise without you, my children. » Elder Amphilochios Makris of Patmos
Nothing happens without God’s providence, and wherever there’s God’s providence it’s certain that whatever happens, however bitter it may be, will bring benefit to the soul. » Venerable Païsios the Athonite
However well informed you are in terms of human wisdom, this doesn’t cure your deformity. You have to rediscover the true image of God, Christ, so that assuming the form of Christ, you’ll be healed of the deformities of the passions and of sin and thus attain your supreme goal of likeness, of glorification. » Blessed Georgios Kapsanis, Hegumen of Gregoriou Monastery
From my understanding, apart from the greater manliness of spiritual love, it’s also surrounded all the other virtues. It seems that love is the affectionate mother of all the virtues.
At around their thirty-fifth year, that is half-way through our earthly life, people have a great struggle to remain true to themselves. At that age, many of them don’t remain virtuous, but go astray and follow the path of their desires.
Watch Fr. Chris Metropulos’ welcome speech at the official opening of the 2nd International Conference on Digital Media and Orthodox Pastoral Care DMOPC18 which took place from 18th-21st June 2019 at the Orthodox Academy of Crete, organized under the High Auspices of His All Holliness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
If you suffer and are sad, blame your sins and the devil, but, above all, blame yourself. Because the devil couldn’t harm you if he didn’t find a flaw in you that allowed him to do so.
Denigration signals the birth of hatred. It’s a delicate affliction, but also a substantial one. It’s a fat leech, hidden away and unmanifested, sucking out and destroying the blood of love. It means a pretence of love, it’s a weight on the heart and it does away with purity.
When you place your trust in other people, you’re being weak, but when your place it in God you’re being strong. Cleave to God and all His power will be with you. Confess your weakness before Him and He’ll send you His all-powerful Grace.
Prayer is our help in life, a conversation with God, an obliviousness towards earthly things, an ascent into heaven. It’s a general medication against the passions and protects us from them. It brings life, it’s a promise of health, it’s a flower of hope. Prayer’s a powerful weapon, a mighty fastness, a rich treasure, a safe haven, a secure place.
Satan’s a master of his craft. He steals the present from us and promises us the future.
For this particular reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we see the Apostle Paul imparting his spiritual legacy upon the presbyters of Ephesus in an emotional farewell address at the seaside town of Miletus. Our Church, in its wisdom has chosen this passage as the one to be read today, in honor of the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Synod. This is because the Holy Fathers have taken to heart these words of St. Paul in how they lived, and we commemorate this faithfulness today. The Apostle had remained in Ephesus for three years straight, working to found one of the largest Churches in Asia. At the conclusion of his third Apostolic Tour, he set sail for Jerusalem, to ...
Change doesn’t depend on Him Who has sown, but on those who don’t want to mend their ways.
Those who reveal to their spiritual guide the serpents of the temptations are people who show their true faith. Those who hide them are following the road to perdition.
