Nobility is the preservation of the properties of the image of God and the equivalence with the archetype. This is achieved through speech, virtue and pure desire. I have known one nobility: devoutness. I have come to know what it was we were born and what we have turned out to be. » Saint Gregory the Theologian
Prayer without repentance is of no help at all. But as soon as prayer is connected to repentance, then it’s heard by God. » Saint Nicholas Velimirovich
Jesus Christ, my Christian brothers and sisters, remained in the grave for three days. The first day was Friday. The second was Saturday and then, sometime during the night between Saturday and Sunday- we don’t know precisely when- He rose. That He did so is certain, because, in the first place, the guards at the tomb bore witness; and then there were the appearances He made as the Risen Lord. There were eleven of these, because it was of great importance to confirm His Resurrection to His disciples. This is why He didn’t ascend into heaven immediately after the Resurrection, but remained on earth for forty days, appearing to them and speaking to them about His kingdom (Acts 1, 3). Christ’s ...
Childhood Years (1871-1888) Elder Ieronymos was born in the village of Reïz-Dere in the Krini region of Asia Minor in 1871 to poor but devout parents, Nikolaos and Maria Diakoyiorgis. The village was wholly Christian and lay five kilometres to the north-east of Alatsata and two and a half kilometres from the sea. Most of the inhabitants were farmers or vine-growers and had come originally from Crete or the Peloponnese. At his baptism, he was given the name Ioannis. When he went to school he was a good student, surpassing the others in intelligence and maturity. As soon as he’d completed Primary School, the teacher sent him to the neighbouring little town for a short time to act as teacher. The village church became ...
Don’t worry if you don’t find Grace in your prayer. It’ll come back. This is why it withdraws: so that you’ll seek it with greater yearning. >Blessed Joseph the Hesychast
It’s a great thing to experience the truth. And you know, the truth isn’t an idea or a philosophy. Truth is a person, it’s God. Didn’t Christ Himself say: ‘I am the way, the truth and life’? » Abbot Ephraim of Vatopedi
‘When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight’. So we’ve seen how, initially, Christ walked along with the disciples in such a way that they didn’t recognize Him and that then He was revealed to them, ‘at the breaking of the bread’. Christ appears in a different form and is recognized at the breaking of the bread, that is, through the holy sacraments, particularly the Divine Eucharist, where we partake of His body and blood in the form of bread and wine, at which point we have the feeling and the certainty ...
Temptations in their various forms sadden people, so that they seek divine assistance all the more, and with tears. This is a dispensation of Divine Providence, in order to strip us bare. >Blessed Joseph the Hesychast
Let us, then, have a look at this mystery and understand it from a single appearance of Christ after His resurrection: to two of His disciples who were on the road to Emmaus, a small town some 10 miles from Jerusalem. This appearance is related only by Luke and is one of the most beautiful and vivid scenes in his Gospel. From the narrative, it seems that the two disciples, Cleopas (one of the seventy) and, perhaps, Luke, were profoundly sad and devastated by the events of the previous few days, that is the conviction, crucifixion and death of their Teacher on Whom they’d pinned their hopes concerning the Messiah. These expectations had been completely dashed. Despite their sorrow, their love ...
Struggle to warm up your heart and you’ll see how a warm heart reins in unruly thoughts. You have to practice violence on yourself. Without toil and intellectual effort you won’t acquire anything spiritual. » Saint Theophan the Recluse
Easter! “The Feast of Feasts and the Season of Seasons”! Tonight we celebrate the Resurrection! The Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ! That’s why our hearts are filled with such an exceptional joy! The faces radiate! The eyes shine! And the lips do not cease repeating the victorious paean: “Christ is Risen”! One may wonder why our souls are filled with so much joy tonight? What is it that motivates the crowds of the faithful, men and women, young and old alike, to come to the Orthodox churches in order to light up their resurrection candle and to proclaim “Christ is Risen”? Even people, who do not go to church very often, feel the need to participate along with all believers ...
In his Easter Homily, Saint John Chrysostom announces that ‘Christ has risen and we can take part in life’*. This means that Christ has risen and we now have true life, or, in other words, Christ has risen and I can live as a free citizen, I’m free from the power of the evil one, I’m free from death, I’m living real life, granted to me by the Lord Who rose from the dead. So the Lord’s resurrection isn’t merely a historical event. It’s something incomparably more sublime and significant than the events recorded by history. Christ’s Resurrection is the source of life, hope and incalculable spiritual power. It may be that no one can express fully this power which is ...
Our Church today celebrates the feast of a martyr. If we try to pay any tribute to the celebrated martyr, we will demean him. This particular Saint is the glory of all martyrs, the boast of the Saints and the prestige of the Heavens and the Church Triumphant. He is the all- mighty George. No Christian exists who has not called upon George’s sweet name, be it a baby or a man on his deathbed. There is no Christian country which does not boast of a church dedicated to his name, even if it is now in ruins. This guiding light of a Saint hides a great mystery not properly deciphered yet. Why do people love him so much? His ...
The times and years of the world are pleasant, but vanish like smoke. They’re like a fleeting dream and our days are like shadows. The evening passes quickly and the morning doesn’t linger… Make haste, then, sinner, to receive forgiveness while the light of day still shines upon you. » Saint Ephraim the Syrian
You can’t concentrate your mind at the time of prayer. What can you do? The Lord sees that your weakness isn’t due so much to your indifference, but more to the conditions of your life. And when he sees that you’re sorry, he forgives you. We can’t expect the same spiritual watchfulness from people who live in the world as we do from those who’ve left the world behind, that is the monastics. There are difficulties. What can we do? That’s life here on earth. Is anybody free of its problems? Just make sure that you’ve got something to do every hour of the day. If your time’s taken up completely, you’ll suffer less from lethargy. At the same time, fight to keep ...
‘You came down to earth to save Adam, and not finding him on earth, Lord, You descended into Hades to seek him’. This verse, from the Lamentations on Great Saturday, states, in a very concise yet apt manner, the plan of Divine Providence for the salvation of humankind, in the persons of Adam and Eve. The second person of the Holy Trinity, that is the Son and Word of God became a perfect human being in order to save us. He came down from heaven into the womb of the Virgin Mary, so that He could become the same as us and in order to call us to our heavenly home. In this verse, the hymnographer refers to the aim of ...
We all need to be loved and to have this love demonstrated, in word and deed, because we were created from love and we’re kept alive by it. When we feel loved, we dare to attempt difficult tasks, to continue on our path, to endure trials. If even human love has such power, how much more so has God’s love for us. Because our God, the God of our Fathers, loves us enormously, limitlessly. He showed it by sharing our human existence, our pain and death. As Metropolitan Anthony Bloom put it, Hell is a condition, it’s the deprivation and loss of God. This is apparent from Christ’s cry on the Cross: ‘’My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?’ ...
Pastoral Letter of Metropolitan Silouan of Byblos, Botrys and dependencies on the 6th Anniversary of the Kidnapping of His Eminence Metropolitan Paul of Alepo April 22, 2013-2019 ______________________________________________________ The “Master of Eloquence and Silence” Between the Silence of Man and the Silence of God “God finished on the seventh day His work, which He had done: and He rested on the seventh day of all His work, which He had made” (Genesis 2:2) “Metropolitan Paul of Aleppo is on an ecclesiastical mission.” This is an expression that occurred to me in the first days after Monday, April 22, 2013 (the day he was kidnapped), an expression that opened a window through which I have tried to explore the mystery of that great day, a day of God’s work in the history ...
PATRIARCHAL ENCYCLICAL FOR HOLY PASCHA Prot. No. 257 + B A R T H O L O M E W By God’s Mercy Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch To the Plenitude of the Church: May the Grace, Peace and Mercy of Christ Risen in Glory be with you All Venerable brothers and beloved children in the Lord, Having run the course of the race of Holy and Great Lent in prayer and fasting, and having reached the salvific passion of Christ God, today we are rendered participants in the joy of His splendid Resurrection. The experience of Resurrection belongs to the core of Orthodox identity. We celebrate the Lord’s Resurrection not only during the feast of Holy Pascha and the ensuing paschal period, but on each Sunday ...
We’re like nettles. From a distance, they look green, fresh, like a plain or a garden, but when you get close to them and touch them, then you see their ugliness and feel their sting. » Venerable Païsios the Athonite
