In English

There are times, in religious circles, when confusion arises over which people are mentally ill and which are possessed by demonic energy. When Saint Païsios the Athonite was asked how the mentally ill can be distinguished from the possessed, he answered: ‘Any ordinary doctor who’s in the Church can diagnose that. If people are possessed and they approach a sacred object, they go to pieces. From this it’s obvious that they have a demon. If you give them a little holy water or make the sign of the cross over them with a holy relic, they react, because the demons are cringing inside them. If, on the other hand, they’re suffering from a mental illness, they don’t react at all. Even ...

Apart from the conventional and social character which the retrieval of the bones of the departed at the time of exhumation has always had, it is also an act of care and enhancement, which, in the Church takes on an essentially loving and eschatological meaning. We don’t merely see to the cleaning and ordering of the bones of a person we love; we liturgically prepare the bones of a brother or sister who ‘awaits the resurrection of the dead’. Although there’s no evidence that retrieval of the bones is clearly deemed to be an obligatory action, it has come to be established now as the care on the part of the Church militant for the Church triumphant. In the Church, ...

We all love life. We’re anxious and want to make life happy. But this life of ours is polluted by our passions. Why? Because we don’t seek itin the right place. Saint John Kronstadtskij

When you’re grafted onto the Body of Christ, that is the Church, through the sacraments, particularly Baptism, Confession and the Divine Eucharist, you acquire an ecclesiological mode of being. Though you’re not yet actively a person, you begin the task of repentance with a will. Elder Efraim Vatopaidinos

In accordance with the Lord’s commandment, Christians have a duty to become holy and perfect. Perfection and holiness are first etched deeply in the soul of these Christians and from there make a mark on their thoughts, desires, words and actions. In this way, God’s grace, which resides in the soul, wells up into the whole of the external character. Saint Nektarios of Pentapolis

The path of wickedness is easy; the path of goodness is difficult. ‘As easy as it is for the upright to change and fall away, it’s just as difficult for the others, the wicked, to alter’ (Saint John the Sinaite, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, discourse 24, 11). Changeability is a characteristic of human nature. God alone is immutable and utterly unalterable- he alone is truly stable. We aren’t now talking about created spirits, the angels and demons. After the fall of the first angel, Lucifer, they were made partially immutable: the angels, on the one hand anchored in goodness; the demons, on the other, fixed in evil and wickedness. What a tragedy for us humans, however. Shifting towards wickedness is infinitely easier ...

Relations with other people require a great deal of tolerance. If somebody wants to reject you and you reject them then you burn your bridges with them. Elder Gavriil Tsafos

(Edited by Stelios Koukos) - ‘I suggest we pray together, both of us, at exactly the same time. We’ll each pray for the other’. We agreed and promised. We even set the time for the prayer-10 p.m. He explained that he had great faith in this kind of prayer. ‘The results of common prayer are astonishing. You’ll see for yourself. But I want you to be exactly on time for our rendezvous. Don’t fail to keep your promise even once. I’ll do the same’. I went with Father Porfyrios as far as the bus terminal for Polygono. This time he wouldn’t let me see him home as he usually did. ‘No, don’t come with me. Go home. We’ve just promised something. We have to ...

Saint Gregory the Theologian: ‘When they fittingly and worthily partake of the most holy Body of our Lord, this becomes a weapon for those under attack and a return for those who have abandoned God. It fortifies the weak, gladdens the healthy, heals the sick and protects our well-being. Through Holy Communion we’re more easily corrected, we become more patient and resilient as regards pain and sorrows. It makes us warmer in our love, subtle in knowledge, willing in obedience and sharp and swift in the exercise of our gifts. With those who do not commune frequently, however, the opposite is true, since they aren’t sealed with the Precious Blood of our Lord. The Lamb is slaughtered and, through the ...

Humble people don’t provide handles for temptation to latch on to. But if they are caught out and thrown to the ground, they know the art of getting back up and saying; ‘Forgive me, God; forgive me brother/sister’. They accept their mistake and confront their fall and sin with a proper attitude of repentance. Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol

In the name of prayer, the Fathers defined the notion of introversion and particularly that of ‘private’ conversation with God. This is where people throw themselves on God’s mercy and goodness and with tenacious confession, supplication, pleading and thanksgiving reveal their pain and desire to Christ our God, ‘who is able to save’. Elder Iosif Vatopaidinos

How often do we do something considered spiritual- prayer, church attendance, fasting, some alms-giving- and think we’ve become ‘Saint Anthony’. Because we compare ourselves… to ourselves. We ourselves are the criterion. It’s like somebody going on a run and thinking they’re running quickly. Then a proper athlete turns up alongside them and they realize that they might as well be running on the spot. Scripture points this out directly: ‘Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight’ (Is. 5, 21). So our delusion is obvious: we’re living in a dream-world, under the false impression that we’re  ‘magnificent’ and ‘saintly’. Because naturally, we could, in fact, compare ourselves to other people and become aware ...

Saint John Chrysostom praises Job not for his former life, when he was merciful, compassionate, hospitable and a man of prayer. No. He praises Job’s patience in the great trial which God allowed to befall him, his temptation and sickness. Saint Efraim Katounakiotis

‘The Seed is the Word of God’ Very often the Lord would speak in similes and parables. One of his most important parables is that of the sower, the subject of today’s Gospel reading. A farmer was sowing his seed in a field, and, of the four portions, three fell on the road, on rocks or among thorns. The remaining portion fell on good ground and brought forth fruit: in one place thirtyfold, in another sixtyfold and in another one hundredfold (Mark 4, 20). Let’s see how the word of God bears fruit. The interpretation of the parable. The Lord explained the parable and said that the good ground is those who have good and pure hearts (Luke 8, 15); they’re people ...

‘The holy and ecumenical seventh synod took place in Nicaea in Bithynia (787). This was the second synod in Nicaea, after the Fathers of the 1st Synod convened there in 325,  during the reign of Emperor Constantine and his mother Helen. The Patriarchs present or represented at the 7th Synod were Hadrian (Rome), Tarasios (Constantinople), Politianos (Alexandria), Theodoritos (Antioch) and Ilias (Jerusalem) and the Fathers who convened there numbered three hundred and sixty-five. They all came together against the iconoclasts and anathematized in writing every heresy, as well as all the heresiarchs, and then all the iconoclasts. They set out in writing and recorded that those who do not venerate the holy icons are strangers to the faith of the ...

Those who’ve been poisoned by the virus of pride are contemptuous towards everything, even that which is divine and sacred. Pride destroys and pollutes every good thought, word or deed, every work of the Creator. It’s the deadly breath of Satan. Saint John Kronstadtskij

When Christ, the Apostles and the Fathers speak about peace, they don’t mean abstention from bodily or spiritual warfare, but an altogether more profound spiritual state. It begins with the pacification of our conscience, but also involves participation in the uncreated energies of God. People have to self-identify positively before God; they have to be at peace with themselves, with their neighbor and with God. Elder Efraim Vatopaidinos

The consistency of the pattern in Christ’s life is a challenge for the rational thinking of people in the world and a reversal of everything they hold to be a constant. Why? Because, having expunged God from their life, they seek comfort, complete acceptance by others, the power of wealth, and domination, all of which constitute sin itself and subjugation to the Evil One. What’s worse is that this sinful state is expanding without let or hindrance, because, according to Saint Paul, ‘wicked people and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived’ . No Messianism- as the expectation of any improvement in the state of the world- is acceptable to us. The world is bad and it’s ...

Concerning the harm the devil can cause us, Saint Gregory the Theologian said: Don’t put the blame for all your sins on the hapless devil. We’re the ones who collect the brushwood and he sets fire to it. If there weren’t any brushwood, what sort of fire would the devil be able to light? It follows, then, that the devil can do us only as much harm as we allow him to. We’re the ones who give that right to him. Dimitrios Panagopoulos

The ‘forgive me’ which comes from a heart in pain over a mistake breaks down the hard wall of remoteness, of animosity, and unites that which was divided. This is why it’s neither easy nor painless. Because the easy and painless ‘forgive me’, expressed as a formula for restoring relations on a superficial level, isn’t capable of breaking down walls. There’s ‘forgive me’ to God and to other people, to our neighbor. In reality, it’s one and the same, since according to the Fathers, ‘if you sin against your brother or sister, it’s as if you sin against God’. Or, as Abba Apollo puts it: ‘If you’ve seen your brother or sister, you’ve seen God’. The excuse that ‘Things are fine ...