In English

‘If you don’t want to knead, you’ll spend ten days sifting flour’, that is, finding excuses for your laziness. The folk saying’s got it right. And if that’s true for the genuinely tiring task of kneading bread, how much more so is it of the ‘heavy lifting’ of the acquisition of the virtues. *** In the New Testament, there’s an epistle by Saint James, addressed to all Christians. If you haven’t read it carefully, you’re doing yourself a disservice. It contains all the teaching of the Apostle in brief. Though it’s short, it demonstrates the capacity of his heart. The epistle begins with an exhortation which shows the depth of experience he has in the struggle for salvation. It’s an appeal which sounds ...

When you see somebody becoming rich through wrong-doing and then living prosperously, sigh and weep for them. Because this wealth adds to their punishment. What they’ve saved is lost and what they’ve wasted remains. Nobody can snatch it from the hand of God.

It’s not unusual for people to be very concerned that others should have a good image of them. This demonstrates a lack of self-awareness, humility and seriousness. In the depths of their being, the dominant feeling is one of egotism, the basis for vanity. In other words, it’s a state of spiritual imbalance in which the person is dependent on the opinions of others, takes them seriously into account and acts accordingly. Such people ignore their true self- their weaknesses and their gifts- they ignore the fickleness of others, who aren’t slow to change their views, and they ignore the love of their heavenly Father, the only constant we have, whoever we may be. It’s a well-observed fact that those who ...

The Lord didn’t live among people in order to besmirch them, but to cleanse them. He never sullied anyone, but, on the contrary, cleansed all those who desired to be. What a rebuke for many of us, who try to cleanse ourselves and work twice as hard at vilifying others! We cast mud at our own siblings. Even Christ weeps when He sees us besmirching with the mud of slander those whom He cleansed with His own blood…

From the Kyriakodromion of Monk Agapios ‘At that time, Jesus went to the district of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and cried, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely possessed by a demon”’. The Lord prevented His disciples from going into the lands of the pagans, but He Himself went to Tyre and Sidon which were towns where Hellenes* lived. He did so in order to condemn the lack of faith on the part of the Jews. So the Canaanite woman, who must have learned of the Lord’s reputation earlier, heard that He had come to that part of the country and approached Him crying: ‘Have mercy on ...

Sin never appears as it really is, naked, abstract, because if it did, it wouldn’t deceive people’s minds so easily and make them give in. It always comes wrapped in an excuse and, with this treachery, it deceives people.

Even if you are not what you should be, you still ought not to despair. It’s bad enough that you’ve sinned, without maligning God by regarding Him, in your ignorance, as powerless. He it is Who, for your sake created the great universe that you behold, and yet He’s incapable of saving your soul? And if you say that this, and His incarnation, makes your plight all the worse, then repent. He’ll receive your repentance, as He accepted that of the prodigal son and the harlot. And even if repentance is beyond you, and you sin out of habit, while not wishing to, show humility, as did the publican. This is enough to guarantee your salvation. Those who sin without ...

If you allow the thought that you can rely on your own powers and proceed in that vein, then pride enters. You lose what you’ve gained and you need to start again from the beginning, to humble yourself, to see your weakness, your human sickness, and stop relying on yourself. You have to rely on the Grace of God if you want to keep on the path towards glorification.

Just as we don’t judge ourselves harshly, neither should we judge others. Irritation comes from a lack of self-awareness, from pride, from the fact that we don’t take into account the true baseness of our nature and that we hardly even know meek and humble Jesus.

Anthimos Ananiadis is talking about his plans, about bringing his experience from the American movie factory in Greece and creating a new movie with spiritual characteristics about a Greek orthodox hero. In his job he is realising the presence of God who is not leave Greece go further down in the crisis of the modern time.

Over the course of the centuries there have been many who’ve sought some kind of sign, a miracle, either to convince them to believe in God or to strengthen their existing faith. This is certainly still true today: we want to confirm God’s existence and think we can do so if another world is revealed through the senses via a miracle or some other spiritual experience. The revelation of this other world would bring us to certain faith in God*. Of course, in the Orthodox Church, this is not the way we discover God and are united to Him. In the Church, there’s the path of asceticism, that is cleansing, enlightenment and glorification. Nevertheless, there are also a good number ...

Watch Fr Jonah’s from Taiwan sermon on the parable of talents.

To avoid becoming upset, being worried, being anxious and over-reflective, expect just anything, put up with anything that comes along. Always say: ‘Welcome, illness’, ‘welcome failure’, ‘welcome suffering’. This brings meekness, without which there can be no spiritual life.

Our relations are more difficult when the ‘I’ stands above the ‘You’.

Our sins are like snakes that eat away at our heart and innards. They don’t allow us to find solace. They’re sharp thorns that pierce the soul continuously. Sins are spiritual darkness.

When Saint Maxim fell asleep in the Lord, he was buried at the north-eastern corner of the church of the Holy Spirit, which ‘had been erected by Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich IV in commemoration of the conquest of Kazan’, within the Lavra of Saint Sergei. After Saint Maxim’s death, many people paid their respects to his holy relics. According to a chronographer of old, he was called a great teacher and prophet. The people of Russia considered him ‘a new confessor and martyr for the truth’. They honoured him as a saint, ignoring the condemnatory judgements of the Synods of 1525 and 1531. In honouring Saint Maxim, Metropolitan Platon of Moscow writes that ‘he died at a great age and was ...

Until we receive the grace of the Comforter, we have to study the sacred scriptures, so that the recollection of good is imprinted within us and that, through continuous reading, the motion of the soul towards the good is renewed. This is a way of protecting our soul from the dangerous paths of sin.

We humans find ourselves on the road between paradise and hell, between God and the devil. All our thoughts and reflections, and every one of our feelings, bring the soul a little closer to paradise or hell. If a thought or reflection is rational (that is Godly) and brings us to the Divine Word, Who is beyond comprehension and conception, then that is already paradise for us. But if the thought lacks the Divine Word and is not in accord with Him, it inevitably brings us to absurdity and folly, to the devil, and this is already hell. What is true of thought also holds good for feelings. So, for us, everything begins here on earth, paradise or hell. Our ...

We need to think constantly about the fact that this life, this mortal life in which all of us have different plans, different concerns and different dreams, one day will pass away and depart. We’re all witnesses to the fact that our life is passing so imperceptibly. Each of us will wonder about the years of our life, will see from the experience we have, from getting to grips with the whole situation, that our life flies by so quickly.

1. What are the talents? ‘Talents’ are the various qualities, gifts and endowments which we have received from God. All kinds of things. Different in quality and in quantity. One person receives a lot, another receives less. One spiritually and intellectually, another materially. A talent is wealth, an ecclesiastical or civil office, social position, the various spiritual and intellectual abilities, the gift of speaking, academic accomplishment, literary technique, every kind of art, health, youth, a melodic voice, an attractive appearance and innate politeness. As we’ve said, we don’t all have the same gifts. What’s important, though is that nobody is without any ‘talent’. Even if it’s only one, they still have it. If they’ve got nothing else, they’ve still got their soul, ...