In English

Monasticism is an imitation of the life of the Mother of God, which was from the beginning to the end an imitation of the way of Her Son and God. In essence, the handmaiden of God Mariam had prophetically followed the way of the Lord in Her life even before He came into the world, and She partook more than all in the judgment of the Son of God. The life of the Holy Virgin was prophetical, because She was not only overshadowed by the Holy Spirit at the Annunciation, but also filled with the Holy Spirit. Rather, She was carried about and led by the Holy Comforter. She uttered a word only once, singing Her hymn to the Lord, after She ...

The Coexistence of Wickedness and Virtue Good and evil are comingled in such a way that they’re colored by each other, so that the wickedness of evil can show, as can the benevolence of good. In this way, we can learn from both. Let us see, then how this interlacing occurs and what we can learn from it. A) The intertwining of wickedness and virtue. three people represent wickedness and three represent virtue. The former are Herod, his wife and his daughter, Salome. See what happens. Herod’s celebrating his birthday and, instead of thanking God for the occasion when he first saw the light of day, he troubles God with his drunkenness. Instead of releasing the Forerunner, who was his prisoner, ...

Expressed with great inspiration in a poetical form, today’s apostle reading is rich in meaning. The first Christians lived with the greatest fulness of fervour and grace in comparison with the later generations, as they were ready for martyrdom at any moment. And yet the apostle never ceases to instruct them through his word and persistently remind them of their lofty purpose to become the temple of the Living God. ‘We are labourers together with God.’ God fashioned man from clay, out of nothing, but He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life which made him a living soul. He granted him the great honour of being created in His image and destined to become His likeness. God calls man to ...

Seek love. Ask God every day for love. Together with love come all the other benefits and virtues. Love, so that you’ll be loved by others. Give your whole heart to God, so that you’ll dwell in love. Saint Nektarios of Pentapolis 

We shouldn’t be bothered with sins, nor should we think about them. We should confess them and then change course and deal with beautiful things instead. Abbess Theosemni, Monastery of Chrysopiyi, Hania, Crete

Nothing makes a soul so philosophical, conciliatory and mild as continuous recollection of its sins. Saint John Chrysostom

However difficult a bodily struggle might appear, a spiritual one is far more so. Because, as Saint Paul says, you’re not dealing with ‘flesh and blood’, in other words with something visible, but with the invisible forces of darkness which labor, striving ceaselessly, in order to wound people and make them spiritually moribund. Elder Efraim Vatopaidinos

Stand firm: watch yourself, watch your feelings. If you keep the memory of God peacefully in your heart, then you see the robber demons that want to take it from you stealthily, on the sly. Because if you guard your thoughts carefully then you can sense those who want to enter and pollute you. Wicked thoughts bring turmoil to the mind. But those who recognize this wickedness remain calm and pray to the Lord. Saint Isaiah the Anchorite

Living as we do among pressing and sometimes frightening temptations, it’s good to keep the Lord before us at all times and, through his presence, to pray continuously and retain this greatly-desired presence of our sweetest Christ. Saint Seraphim Romanchov of the Monastery of Glinsk

The saints are our friends and the friends of God, the people we always flee to. On the one hand to receive comfort and strength; on the other to have as models tested by God for our everyday life, our everyday tribulations, people who’ve been tried and been found to be ‘like gold in the furnace’. Their lives aren’t merely moving stories, but a guide to our own way of living. Elder Christodoulos, Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Koutloumousiou

The logicality of the Christian faith is often so paradoxical and strange, especially for Orthodox Christians today, that we need to delve into the texts of the Fathers in order to have a feel for it and attune ourselves to it. Though it must be said, of course, that the acceptance and gradual familiarization with this reasoning leads to the ‘jolt’ of the taste of the other way of life which was brought by Our Lord Jesus Christ- to the opening of the eyes and spiritual senses so that the faithful can see and feel eternal life even in what’s considered this narrow and wretched life. So that they can see the unseen and eternal, as Saint Paul says. To be ...

At its historical core, the narrative has the experience of the danger Jesus’ disciples once felt on a stormy sea and the way in which the presence of their teacher saved them. The event took place immediately after the miraculous feeding of the five thousand, which is the subject of the Gospel reading on the previous Sunday. Apart from the actual experience, which shook the disciples emotionally, the Evangelists preserved the event because they saw in it a more profound meaning for the Church. The crowd which had witnessed the multiplication of the loaves was in a frenzy of messianic enthusiasm, believing that the moment had arrived when their needs would be met. Jesus knew that this fervor could mean the ...

After the multiplication of the five loaves and the two fishes in the desert and the feeding of the multitude, the Gospel states that Jesus ‘constrained’ His disciples to board the ship and go to the other shore of the lake so as to disperse the crowds. The multitude had been following the Lord and were amazed at the signs He was performing. However, they had not been able to enter into the mystery of His word. Having been satisfied by the bread and fish, and, of course, the blessing that went with them, the crowd were ready to declare Christ King, in the worldly sense. Before the Resurrection and, more specifically, before the coming down of the Holy Spirit, the disciples ...

All the sins and passions are ready to invade the soul. Fight against them vigilantly and with courage to your last breath. See your sins and passions as dreams of your fantasy, as illusions from the evil spirits. Saint John Kronstadtskij

We’re engaged in an on-going spiritual struggle, because we’re continuously being attacked by an enemy who ‘prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour’. Elder Efraim Vatopaidinos

All people have the same nature. It’s so natural for us to love other people, that those who cease to do so cease to be human beings. Elder Efstratios Golovanski

We must absolutely test whether God exists, and there’s a way. Our Fathers, the saints of the Church even showed us the tool to use to discover whether God exists. What is it? The heart. Christ said: ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God’. The organ of sight, the organ through which we’ll locate and see God is none other than our heart, and the method is cleansing of the heart. Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol

Real love is giving without expecting to get anything. Abbess Gavriilia Papayianni

We can’t stop the passions bothering the soul and attacking us. But stopping wicked thoughts from becoming in-dwelling and activating the passions is something that depends on us. The first is without sin, because it doesn’t depend on us. If, in the second case, we resist boldly and then triumph, that’s a herald of crowns; but if, through laxity and cowardice, we’re defeated, that’s a harbinger of punishments. Saint Porfyrios Kavsokalyvitis

At the feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God we kiss the holy icon which depicts her falling-asleep. The whole icon is not only a pictorial representation of what happened at the funeral service of Our Lady, but also shows us what the Church is. It’s an icon which shows in the sharpest relief exactly what the mystery of the Church is. The Church isn’t a human organization, but the theanthropic Body of Christ. It’s the union of God and humankind in the person of Christ. In the holy icon of the Dormition,  we see that, at the center, the Church has Christ and his Mother, Our Lady, and the Apostles around them, the Bishops and the Angels. Then it’s ...