When you turn to Christ, pay no attention to what’s going on inside you. Keep your attention focused on the Lord and beg Him for help. There’s no room for malicious thoughts in a mind focused on the Lord. “Saint Theophan the Recluse”
Kafsokalyvia is a very simple community of ascetics, situated in a place where the torrents of Athos are channelled into a broad rocky and resonant ravine. The forty or so kalyves encircle the Kyriakon like a chain. The kalyves are separated from each other by rings of green, which consist of a small garden, a minute vineyard, and a few citrus trees, which, together with the few olives and other fruit-bearing trees, provide the only consolation for the ascetics, who break their backs to dig amongst the rocks and fill the cavities with earth brought from the surrounding area, despite […]
He who has given his heart to Christ will not suffer, however many difficulties he experiences. He is glad, he is full of inner joy. He is dynamic. He is careful. He does not make mistakes or cause harm. His mind, his hands and his feet are all propelled by God’s Grace. “Saint Porfyrios of Kavsokalyvia”
The man who belongs to Christ should love Christ, and when he loves Christ he will be freed from the devil, from Hell and from death. “Saint Porfyrios of Kavsokalyvia”
Burning love for Christ is something else. It’s not the end, it’s not satiety. It gives life, it gives resilience, it gives health, it gives, it gives, it gives… And the more it gives, the more we want to be in love. Human love can diminish us, can send us crazy. When we love Christ, all other loves recede. “Saint Porfyrios of Kavsokalyvia”
God sees what each of us has in our soul, what our heart is attached to for most of the course of our life. If the Lord had given us the ability to read the depths of the human heart, then we’d certainly turn away our eyes in horror at the host of sins and iniquities we’d see there. “Saint John Kronstadtskij”
We think we know a lot, but what we know is very little. Even those who work hard all their lives for the improvement of humankind, realize in the end that their knowledge is no more than a grain of sand by the sea. All our achievements aren’t enough. “Elder Tadej Vitovnički”
It’s better for parents to talk more to God about their children than to talk to their children about God. “Dimitrios Panagopoulos, preacher”
When children are hurt and wounded by something serious, don’t let it bother you if they behave badly. They don’t really want to, but can’t help it when it’s hard for them. They’re sorry afterwards. “Saint Porfyrios Kavsokalyvitis”
We should not be disturbed in our spiritual life by any hostile force. On the contrary. we should have trust in the words of God: ‘Do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it, for God is with us, the Lord our God. He it is you are to regard as holy, he it is you are to fear’ (Cf. Is. 8, 12-13) “Saint Seraphim of Sarov”
Through repentance we receive a second baptism and are cleansed of the sins we’ve committed after baptism. When we repent, when we acknowledge our iniquities and decide not to commit any more sins, to hate them, we immediately received forgiveness of our transgressions and from being sinners, from one moment to the next, become righteous, like the robber [on the Cross] who gained paradise because he repented. “Elder Filotheos Zervakos”
Pride is a wide-open window out of which all the virtues and good works are blown. Nothing makes us so empty towards people and so unworthy before God as pride. “Saint Nikolaj Velimirović”
When people who are Christians in name only ask us to solve their differences (when they’re at loggerheads) we should agree, but as long as they also accept a solution from the Gospel, because any other solution is just a constant headache with aspirins. “Saint Païsios the Athonite”
For God, the world’s nothing more than an insignificant spider’s web. Equally insignificant is our body. Yet every particle of matter is testament to wisdom and is preserved with wisdom, with the eternal laws of wisdom. All of us owe our very existence to divine wisdom. My death and decomposition show what an insignificant spider’s web I am. “Saint John Kronstadtskij”
People who preserve the experience of painful contrition before the Lord in all its potency, an experience which comes from the recognition of the dangers and difficulties of the spiritual life, these people have found the right path. “Saint Theophan the Recluse”
The strong faith of the human heart demands prayer and, at the same time, produces it, and a life of prayer over many years produces love. The aim of our life is nothing other than the purification of the heart to the point where it’s able to sing for joy. Consequently, prayer of the heart leads to joy of the heart. Nothing’s difficult for joyful people, because they’ve got love. “Elder Tadej Vitovnički”
Evil has no natural existence and no-one is evil by nature. Because God did not make anything evil. If people desire evil, then what’s not actually there is called into existence, because that’s what they want. So, by the remembrance of God, we have to disregard the habit of evil. Because the nature of good is more powerful than the habit of evil. That’s because good exists, whereas evil doesn’t, except when we do it. “Saint Diadochus of Photice”
A sign of the soul that’s indifferent is that it doesn’t listen gladly to Holy Scripture, whereas the soul that’s watchful accepts the divine words in the same way as thirsty land welcomes rain. “Saint Efraim the Syrian”
The heavy, soul-destroying burden of the heart will flee quickly. You’ll feel relief and you’ll be convinced that there are evil spirits flying around us and ever seeking our downfall. They besmirch our hearts with the poison of dark and evil thoughts. “Saint John of Kronstadt”
People who seek Christian perfection renounce all their possessions. And those who wish to be saved give alms, in accordance with their means. They avoid misuse of their wealth. “Saint Ignatius Brianchaninoff”
The Mother of hell is vainglory, which makes a fierce flame and feeds the poisonous snake. Whereas everything else ends with death, it continues to squabble even after death, to show off its nature over the dead body. “Saint Nectarios of Pentapolis”
There’s no worse torture than thought itself. There’s no hell greater than thought that’s completely cut off from the Creator and God of all thought, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Divine Word. Human thought without the Lord Jesus can know neither itself nor the world around it. “Saint Justin Popovich”