Ξένες γλώσσες

(From a letter to a school-teacher and her mother). Both you and your elderly mother are interested in the Orthodox faith. Since you began to fulfil the commandments of fasting, prayer, charity and communion, the secrets of the truth have become ever more apparent to you. And this, indeed, is the proper path: by practicing what we know, we arrive at the unknown. Silent prayer over long years reveals the truth. But your heart is burning with the desire to direct many others onto the path of truth. People are people, however: in one, the mind is darkened by lies; in another, the heart is hardened by the passions; and what you desire won’t come easily. It requires much cleansing, many washings ...

So make haste. Say the prayer all the time. Don’t let your mouth stop at all. In this way you’ll become accustomed to it internally and then it’ll be taken up by the mind. Don’t be put off by negative thoughts, because then you’ll become feeble and besmirched. ‘Force continuous prayer, against nature’, and see what grace you’ll receive. Our life is sorrow, son, because we’re living in exile. Don’t seek perfect ease. Christ took up the cross, and we shall, too. Provided we endure sorrows, we’ll find grace from the Lord. This is why the Lord allows us to be tempted: to test the zeal and love we have for him. This is why we need patience. Without patience, people ...

Saint John Koukouzelis, a native of Dirrachia (now Bulgaria), was orphaned in childhood. Endowed with a very fine voice, he entered the Constantinople court school. He found favor with the emperor John Comnenos (1118-1143) and became a chief court singer. The sumptuousness and luxury of the imperial court bothered the pious youth. Once, when asked what he had eaten for dinner, he replied, “Beans and peas.” The name Koukouzelis (beans and peas) stuck with him ever after. John began to seek ways to escape the enticements of the court, as well as a marriage arranged for him by the emperor. By the will of God, John met an igumen from Mt. Athos who had come to Constantinople on monastery business. John ...

Back in the old days, he was a child raised in the Church, the right hand of the priests. He attended to all the jobs that were to be done and was always the first to get to the services. He knew the psalms and prayers by heart, and served with reverence in the altar at every liturgy. He really enjoyed singing. Sometimes he’d make his way to the choir stall, with the singers, and wanted very much to sing to God. But they kicked him out: the boy had a tin ear. So much so that they didn’t even know what he thought he was singing. They couldn’t bear to listen to him. They used to say to him: ‘Romanos, do ...

The monk who strives to offer the Lord a mighty love, as He showed unto us, and tries to invent ways to find stronger contact with Christ so that his heart may confess this mighty love towards Him, will surely make progress. Monasticism is indeed a matter of love. I once told Father Sophrony that without the love of Christ it is better for man not to live even one day upon earth. He took it even further and increased my tension, answering: ‘Without the love of Christ it is better for him not even to come upon earth.’ The hymns of the Church say: ‘Thou hast shown us a mighty steadfast love, O Lord, for Thou didst give Thine Only-begotten ...

We also encounter the presence of animals later, in ascetic literature. After the time of the persecutions, the figure of the ascetic began to appear. Ascetics were Christian hermits who chose a life dedicated to God and the ascetic struggle. For this reason, they made their way into neighboring deserts and, living in caves, spent their time in prayer, praise of God and daily asceticism. They understood the wild animals living in these inhospitable places to be instruments of the devil, as temptations aimed at deflecting the tenacity of the hermit. Of course, Platonism played an enormous role in this attitude, because it had affected the whole of human thought at that time. So wild animals were presented as passions ...

People enlightened by God say that when people take their last breath, their actions are tried in a pair of scales. If the right arm is weighted more heavily than the left, it’s clear that the dying person will yield their soul to the holy angels. If the arms are level, then certainly God’s love for us will prevail. Even if the scale dips a little to the left, the theologians say, God’s mercy will provide what’s needed. These are the three judgments of the Lord: the first is just; the second is merciful, the third is abundantly good. After these comes the fourth, when the sinful actions are much more serious. Then woe betide you. But this judgment is ...

Even if we were to fill an ocean with our tears of repentance, it wouldn’t be enough to thank God for the gift of his body and blood which wash away the filth of our soul, purify us, give us new life and resurrect us. Saint Seraphim of Sarov

Our love for our neighbor shouldn’t end with our words, but should expand into deeds. Real love illumines with supernatural light the face of those who love. Those face of those who hate is scowling, saturnine and even dark. Elder Germanos Stavrovouniotis

Today the Church honours and celebrates the sacred memory of Blessed Kyriakos the Anchorite, who was born in Corinth in 408. His father was called Ioannis and was a priest, while his mother was Evdoxia. The then bishop of Corinth, Petros, who was Kyriakos’ uncle on his father’s side, ordained him reader. But Kyriakos did not find inner peace in Corinth and so, at the age of eighteen, he left for Jerusalem. There were many monasteries there at that time and some great ascetics, among whom he wished to live. His soul took wings and soared with divine love; he was captured and drawn by the eremitic life. Going to Jerusalem, Saint Kyriakos found Saint Eythymios who made him a monk ...

In Saint Mark’s Gospel, in the course of the narrative of Christ’s sojourn in the wilderness, we see the Lord living with wild animals and interacting with Satan and the angels (Mk. 1, 13). So, for the forty days that Christ dwelt in the wilderness, he had no contact with any other human person. The order in which the beings he encountered begins with the most dangerous and ends with the ministrations of the angels. The wild animals are in the middle and represent the animal kingdom. The phrase in the narrative ‘and he was with the wild animals’ has been interpreted in two main ways. The first considers that the existence of wild animals is an indication of the trial ...

In our prayers, we should say: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, heal your servants who are in hospital, help those in prison, help such and such a sinner’. And someone in prison will see the light, some sinner will be saved. And you say: ‘How did that person come to repent. How did that happen?’. It comes from the prayers of all of us. Abbess Makrina, the Holy Monastery of the Guide, Portaria

When we find ourselves in the tempest of sorrows, what we should ask for isn’t for our senses to be dulled, nor for some method of making us immune to feeling, but the art of accepting and patiently bearing any sadness. Saint Makarios of Optina

a) Theology, as discourse concerning some god, can be found in a variety of religions, even primitive ones. In ancient Greek thought, a theology developed which was founded on human discourse. But Christian theology, as the experience and record of personal communion with the God of Christian revelation, who ‘appeared in the flesh,was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory’ (1 Tim. 3, 16), is entirely different. This is a spiritual event of a different order. b) Although many holy Fathers and ecclesiastical writers have written important tracts, only three have had the designation ‘Theologian’ attributed to them: Saint John the Theologian, bosom friend ...

‘My beloved, God has no need of tears nor does he want people to mourn from the pain in their hearts. Rather, he wants us to rejoice and be glad out of love for him’ (Saint John of the Ladder, Discourse 7, 45). You hear and read that the Lord blesses those who mourn. Over their sins and the sins of the whole world. You see the holy Fathers doing the same: they all stress the necessity for tears and mourning in the spiritual life. But don’t think that this is so because God enjoys our generally mournful condition. If that were true, God wouldn’t be who our Lord Jesus Christ revealed: God the Father, with boundless love for us. Instead, ...

There are qualitative degrees in the way in which we share Christ’s peace. In the end, we can reach the point where we, too, can become peacemakers, as was Christ. In this way we confirm Christ’s beatitude: ‘blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God’. Elder Efraim Vatopaidinos

The spiritual life is realized through faith, but faith is confirmed through deeds. If you want to defeat the demons, you have to give way in the face of other people’s wickedness. Has someone insulted you? Ignore it and then peace and calm will return and they’ll stop you feeling upset. Saint Seraphim of the Monastery of Glinsk  

The saints faced sorrows, trials and temptations with patience. They never asked to be given a break from them and so they gained their reward in heaven. Saint Efraim Katounakiotis

Many people take communion once a year; others twice; others more. Which of them should we applaud? Those who partake once a year, many times or a few? Neither those who take communion once nor those who do so frequently, but those who approach the Holy Chalice with a pure heart and an irreproachable life. People like that can take communion all the time. Saint John Chrysostom

Among the choir of the saints of the new martyrs of our Church, there are a number who are called ‘Hagarenes’*. These were Turkish Muslims who, during the time of time of Turkish rule in the Balkans, embraced Christianity and proved themselves faithful enough to undergo martyrdom. One such is the holy new martyr, Ioannis ‘of the Hagarenes’, from Vrahori, a Turk by descent, son of a famous sheikh of Konitsa**, a dervish, who was the religious leader and teacher of the region. He was born in about 1790 in Konitsa and was named Hasan. His rich and noble father ensured that he knew the principles of Islam and he studied under the finest available Islamic scholars. He was then sent ...