Just think whom you’re standing before at the time of Holy Communion and who are there with you- the cherubim, the seraphim and all the heavenly powers. Bear in mind who you’re praying and singing with. It’s a sobering thought if you remember that, even though you have a material body, you’re being allowed to hymn the Lord of creation together with the bodiless angels. Saint John Chrysostom
Christ is the miracle that astounds us. He is the sign of God for all generations until the end of times, for in His Person every impasse has found its solution. During His earthly life, ‘He lived the tragedy of the whole mankind, and yet tragedy found no place in Him.’ On the contrary, before His utter humiliation, He granted peace to His disciples. In the Person of Christ was revealed the inapproachable and eternal God, but also the true man, as God had conceived him before the foundation of the world in the bosom of the Holy Trinity in His wondrous and pre-eternal Council. In His Person all things were fulfilled, for He is ‘the way, the truth and the ...
Place the greatest weight in your efforts on prayer, because that’s what keeps us in touch with God. And this contact has to be continuous. Prayer is the oxygen of the soul, it’s a need of the soul and shouldn’t be thought of as a chore. Saint Païsios the Athonite
What are the characteristic features of the authentic Christian experience? We can begin by looking at the end of the first chapter of the Gospel according to Saint John, the section regarding the call of the disciples. This passage is of particular interest, because it’s an image of how Christ calls each Christian separately and what, in the end, the grace and love of God offer us in the ark of salvation, the Church. In this particular passage, three calls are made, three invitations to three disciples. One is to the apostle Andrew, the second to Philip and the third to Nathaniel. Initially, all three respond to the call with an abundance of spiritual enthusiasm. Andrew says: ‘We’ve found the Messiah’; Philip ran ...
Repentance is the feeling we have that we really are transgressing against God’s commandment. Now this commandment is our cure, but it’s been distorted. When we feel the distortion in our relationship with God, then we begin to pray. This prayer is a quest for God’s mercy, for his existence, because God’s a person; he isn’t an idea. Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol
How does unceasing prayer lead to humility? Because, if you look into the depths of your soul, you’ll see that there’s nothing good there and that you can’t achieve anything without the help and the grace of God. Then you won’t tire of asking him to have mercy on you and to save you. And you’re deeply humbled, trembling in case you lose the help and grace of God. Then you pray with humility, prayer humbles you further and you progress spiritually. Saint Dimitri of Rostov
Ardent love of Christ is something else. There’s no end to it and it’s never satisfied. It gives life, it gives resilience, it gives health, it gives and gives and gives. And the more it gives, the more we want to love. Human love can eat away at us, can drive us mad. When you love Christ, all other loves fade. Other loves have a saturation point. Love for Christ hasn’t. Saint Porfyrios Kavsokalyvitis
Prayer can have many forms, as regards it’s extent and expression. It’s shaped according to the instance and the need of the moment. If we need defence and aid, we turn to ‘God who is able to save’ and form our prayer on the basis of the need of the moment. Intercession, supplication, petition, encounter, confession, thanksgiving, glorification or anything else that’s a pressing need. Elder Iosif Vatopaidinos
The most frequently heard exhortation of the Church which the faithful who attend daily Services hear is, “Let us commend ourselves and one another, and our whole life to Christ our God.” The Celebrant says this multiple times (as many as ten during Matins and the Divine Liturgy), and some may wonder: Why is this repeated so much? The answer to this question is simple, in that its repetition shows how important it is for a person to entrust their whole life to our Lord and God Jesus Christ. This desire to do so is also expressed elsewhere in the Divine Liturgy, in the Prayer just before the Lord’s Prayer: “We entrust to You, loving Master, our whole life and hope…” ...
Our religion is love, it’s burning love, it’s excitement, it’s madness, it’s longing for God. It’s all of this, within us. Our soul demands that we make these things our own. For lots of people, though, religion’s a struggle, a worry and an anxiety. This is why we think of many of the ‘religiously-minded’ as being unhappy, because we see the mess they’re in. And it really is like that. Because unless you understand the depth of religion and you actually experience it, then it ends up as an illness, and a terrible one at that. It’s so bad that people lose control of their actions, they become witless and weak, they suffer from worry and stress and behave ...
‘He called them’ In the Gospel reading for the 2nd Sunday of Matthew, Jesus invites the first four disciples to follow him. These were Peter, Andrew and the brothers, James and John. In the Gospels, it appears that Christ called these disciples twice: the first time was by nature of a trial and the second was definitive and occurred during the period after John the Baptist had been killed by Herod. The call described in this Gospel reading is the second, which, as we’ve said was conclusive. The Apostles’ standard of living Who were these fishermen whom the Lord called to be his disciples? They were humble, illiterate and socially insignificant. They didn’t belong to the class of the Scribes and Pharisees. Archbishop ...
Today’s apostolic reading (2nd Sunday of Matthew) speaks about the theme of judgment and conscience. Our God is a God that ‘trieth the hearts and reins’. The day of Judgment will come as a surprise because the Lord will judge the hidden intents of the heart. The judgment will not be the same for all. According to the word of the Lord, those to whom much is given, from them much will be required. And the Apostle confirms: ‘For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law.’ In other words, divine grace is an honour but at the same time a cross, ...
It’s painful and unfair that the Church should appear in the eyes of people today, particularly the young, to be a religion that imposesitself on the insecurities, weaknesses and illusions of people. Or even that it takes away the enjoyment of life, creates guilty feelings and encourages antagonism and division. It may be, of course, that this impression is, indeed, given to the outside world by some people who are in a position of responsibility in the Church but are unaware of the spirit of the Holy Fathers who interpreted the Scriptures correctly, because they had the grace of the Holy Spirit. One such Father is Saint Nektarios, who continues the tradition of the Church and teaches ‘right thinking’ (= Orthodoxy). ...
Let’s not believe that we’ll always have inner fervor and that we’ll continuously enjoy inner sweetness. Don’t hope for that. On the contrary, always expect sudden ups and downs. So when you’re under attack from sloth and depression, treat them as being normal in the spiritual life. Saint Theophan the Recluse
For those of us who’ve been fortunate enough to be baptized, good deeds aren’t offered to God in order to receive a reward, but so that we can preserve the purity of holy baptism. Saint Mark the Ascetic
Usually when people feel they’re in a small grouping, they don’t feel comfortable. They’d rather be with a larger entity, even if they’re all rushing over a cliff. Elder Georgios Kapsanis
In the Gospel readings, we often come across the Apostles invoking the authenticity of their personal witness in order to be convincing: ‘which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have touched’ (1 Jn. 1, 1). ‘We know that his witness is true’( Jn. 21, 24). The Samaritans and the Honorable Forerunner also have recourse to their personal experience . The authenticity of the experience is the most compelling argument in favor of what they’re saying. So let’s see what the meaning of authentic experience is in the life of a Christian. Peter is authentic, because, even when he falls, he’s spontaneous. He asks for proof and the Lord ...
It’s only in sorrows, in pain, in sickness and in abandonment that we have spiritual benefit. When everything’s running smoothly, it’s all a bed of roses. People have to be convinced by the events and sorrows of their lives to pray and to seek help from God. Dimitrios Panagopoulos
I’ll tell you another secret now. At night I speak on the telephone to a monk on the Holy Mountain. He studies the Fathers a lot and explains many things to me. We talk about spiritual matters. Crazy, what can I say? … This happened again early this morning, that’s to say three o’clock at night. The bells were ringing at the time we were talking. For half an hour we spoke about really wonderful things. Honestly, I felt great joy; greater than I can express. Glory to God. While we speaking about these spiritual matters, he said to me: ‘The bell’s ringing for church. I have to go’. I said to him: ‘Elder don’t leave me’. ‘Gladly’, he replied. ‘Come ...
God answers our prayers in many ways. Sometimes through events that we think are coincidences, whereas in fact they’re not that at all but acts of divine providence. At others times he’ll answer with an unexpected outcome of events. And he’ll answer with silence, if that’s what’s best for our souls. Elder Germanos Stavrovouniotis
