When people really enter the realm of their relationship with God, the powerful hope of God’s love arises slowly within them. They overlook the fact of their sins, they overlook the fact of their apostasy, they overlook the fact of their sickness and experience the joy of hope. Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol
The times we live in demand people like Prometheus, not Epimetheus. The ancient hero, who loved humankind, taught us how important it is to think ahead (pro= before, metheus = wise thinker), rather than with hindsight (epi= after, metheus = wise thinker). In the myth by the Platonist Pythagoras, Prometheus assigned to his brother the task of giving specific features to animals in such a way that they could retain their diversity and continue to survive . He did so for all creatures except humans, whom he left naked, barefoot, in a primitive condition and defenseless. Prometheus then stole practical wisdom from the gods, and this became science and technology. He also stole fire to help people survive. This wonderful tale ...
On the occasion of the commemoration of the holy six hundred and thirty God-bearing Fathers who attended the 4th Ecumenical Synod in Chalcedon, the Church reminds us of its answer to the ever-present question, which of course is expressed in different ways at different times, regarding the method and measure of God’s cooperation with humankind. It does this by recalling the historical vicissitudes of the 5th century, when the Christian world was thrown into turmoil by heresies which contradicted each other. On the surface it seems as though they were at odds with each other, but in reality they both attacked Orthodoxy. At issue was the extreme rivalry between Nestorianism and Monophytism. Arius had considered Christ to be a created being ...
4th Sunday of Matthew In the Gospel reading for the 4th Sunday of Matthew (5, 14-19), Christ calls his disciples ‘the light of the world’. That Christians have always accepted that they should set an example to non-believers can be seen from, among other texts, the Epistle to Diognetus, which was written some time between the mid-2nd and mid 3rd century. What is particularly interesting is that the man who wrote it (he simply describes himself as ‘the Disciple’) was obviously well-educated and capable of expressing himself in very elegant Greek. The recipient would also have to have been well-educated in order to understand it. So this epistle is an insight into how curiosity about the faith began to spread among ...
Really, I see that when Thomas was absent, that’s when he lacked belief. But when he came back with the other disciples, he never went wrong in the faith. So I entertained the thought that, if only sinners would avoid keeping company with the wicked and would associate only with the righteousness, they’d never go wrong in terms of righteousness and spiritual salvation. Saint Gregory Palamas
How we came into bondage to the passions and are delivered by the Cross. Also the power of tears and the divine fire. How then should we not be serpents, since we don’t behave in obedience to God, but in the disobedience which came by the serpent? Given this, I don’t know how best to lament the calamity. I don’t know how I should cry and weep to him who has the power to expel the delusion entrenched within me. ‘How shall I sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?’. How shall I lament for Jerusalem? How shall I flee from the grievous bondage of Pharaoh? How am I to leave this vile dwelling-place? How can I renounce the bitter tyranny? How ...
None of the problems you face has been caused by chance. Nothing can happen to us without the Lord’s consent. And his consent doesn’t spring only from his all-knowing wisdom, but is dictated by his love for us. Saint Makarij of Optina
(Ed. Stelios Koukos) Love is the product of faith and of our submission to the divine will: it’s the ‘fulness of the law’ and a ‘more excellent way’, according to Saint Paul. The three chief apostles, Peter, John and Paul have this to say about it in particular: ‘above all, love one another with all your soul’ (1 Peter 4, 8), stressing the ‘above all else’. In his Gospel and Epistles, John, who is considered to be the outstanding apostle of love, describes its origins and its place in the realm of rational beings. But here we’ll restrict ourselves to the description of love attempted by Paul in his 1st letter to the Corinthians, since it’s more detailed and practical. Paul doesn’t merely ...
If you pray in the morning as you should, your whole day will be blessed. Don’t despair if your efforts appear to be fruitless. Remember how you learned to knit or write. How much effort you expended then… Now it’s easy for you. The same will be true of your spiritual progress. Saint Theophan the Recluse
An experience which isn’t genuine produces Christians who, instead of being saved within the Church, feel as though they should save the truth. Instead of discerning the face of Christ in our brother and sister Christians, we see opponents whom we must overcome, or we see ‘our own people’, who have to support our views. Instead of entrusting the state of our soul to the power of the grace of God, we place it, with unforgivable negligence, at the disposal of the dubious scalpel of psycho-therapeutic methods, or scientific assessments or rationalistic forecasts. Instead of nourishing our soul with humility of the heart, we feed it with the answers of knowledge and reason. In the modern bio-ethical challenges which touch our ...
How insignificant is the earth and life here compared with heaven and the eternal kingdom of Christ. And despite that, we cling so fast to worldly things; we’re negligent and indifferent to the salvation of our soul and to eternal life. Saint John Kronstadtskij
If your heart has reached the stage of naturally hating sin, then it’s victorious, it’s far removed from the things which give rise to sin and has put a reminder of hell in your mind. And you should know that He who helps you is with you; so don’t sadden Him with any sin. Saint Isaiah the Hermit
Cleansing the heart of the passions should be our main priority in life. In this struggle, we don’t try to conform to some external moral code, but rather we strive, with Christ at the center of our way of life and our thinking. It’s difficult, but I say it’s pleasant and it’s easy, though there are two requirements: humility and love. If God’s grace comes, everyone and everything changes; but for it to come, we need first to humble ourselves. Love for Christ is everything. Then all problems are resolved. Elder Efraim Vatopaidinos
Like a good boxer, concentrate the eyes of your soul on your opponent and guard against his punches. Like a fast runner, go as fast as you can to get to the tape and claim the prize of virtue. That’s how God wants you: not lazy and sleepy, but a watchful and careful master of yourself. Elder Cleopa Ilie
Saint Nicodemus the Hagiorite was one of the greatest figures on Mount Athos in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He was born on Naxos in 1749, and his baptismal name was Nikolaos. He received his elementary education on his native island, going on to the Evangelical School in Smyrna. In 1775, he retired to the Holy Mountain, where he lived a strictly ascetic life as a monk. Here he was closely associated with Saint Makarios Notaras and Saint Athanasios of Paros, and was the author of many works on ecclesiastical and spiritual matters. When in 1801 the Athonite School was passing through a difficult period, the Holy Synaxis of the Athonite Fathers appointed Saint Nicodemus a member of a ...
The Christian faith doesn’t doubt the existence of fear in people’s lives. It accepts it as a reality and interprets it. Fear is the product of our Fall into sin- that which opened the gates for every kind of fear to enter our life, and therefore the tragedy of our time on earth. But with Christ’s coming, we found our true path again and once more felt the love and friendship of our surroundings, on all sides. Christ shed abundant light on our life, so that we could see that God is truly our friend and Father, a person like us, our brother, our nature and our sister. In reality, after Christ’s coming, there’s nothing in our life that can threaten ...
We should put question marks against speculations – Elder, what helps to dismiss speculation? – Everything’s always the way you see it. Always put a question mark against every one of your thoughts, because you usually see everything in a bad light. Do the same for any good thought you might have about somebody else, in case you sin in your assessment. If you put two question marks, that’s better. And if you put three, that’s even better. In this way, you stay calm and gain some benefit, and you also benefit other people. Let me give you an example so you can see what bad thoughts can do. One day a monk came and said to me: ‘Old Haralambos is a magician. ...
We thank Thee, O Christ our God, for that Thou hast given the place of this Monastery to Thy servant, our holy Elder Sophrony, as a refuge, as a comfort, unto sanctification, as an indestructible link with the communion of all Thy Saints and a wondrous antechamber of Thy heavenly Kingdom. We thank Thee in like manner, O holy Father Sophrony, for that, by way of the perpetual refrain of suffering throughout thy whole life and the inconsolable cry of thy repentance, Thou hast possessed for our inheritance the knowledge of the mystery of the ways of salvation. Being drawn toward God without return through self-hatred, Thou didst detach Thyself from every created thing and renounce every passionate attachment to earth. Thou ...
‘So if your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light’. People are erratic. They can ascend to union with God, ‘a little lower than the angels’; and they can also descend into total depravity, becoming like the demons and worse than animals. Given that we’ve been endowed with free will, we’re called upon to put into effect the ‘likeness of God’, to become god-like, to be united with God. In this process, that is spiritual maturation, we have to evaluate the priorities in our life and make our way forward on the basis of our choices. We’re free to determine the direction of our life and God respects our freedom. God has to dwell at the center of our ...
There are those upon whom the divine law is written, not with ink and letters, but implanted in their hearts of flesh. These people have had the eyes of their mind enlightened and they reach after a hope which isn’t tangible and visible, but is immaterial and invisible. They’re able to overcome the stumbling-blocks of the evil one, not by their own strength, but through the power which is invincible. But those who have not been honored with God’s word, nor instructed by divine law, are ‘vainly puffed up’ (Col. 2,18) and imagine that by their own will they can be rid of the causes of sin, though sin is condemned only through the mystery contained in the cross. It lies within ...
