It is a great good to give oneself over to the Divine will. Then the Lord alone occupies the soul. No thought can enter in, and the soul prays undistracted to God and is full of love for God, even though the body may be suffering.
The main difference between heaven and hell isn’t the difference of place. There is also a place difference but the main difference is the difference in the existential response of an intelligent being – human or angel – to the same uncreated divine energy which is much more intense than here on earth, both in heaven and in hell.
In the time of war, the real heroes are glorified by God. However, the unknown heroes have a special glory from the Heavenly King because besides their bravery they have the crown of humility. That’s why at the end of time, we will have a lot of surprises about who will be in Heaven and who in Hell …and justice for all.
The sign of a person that loves wisdom is that he always gives thanks to God. If you have suffered evil,
Orthodox religious thought lays the utmost emphasis on the image of God in the human person. Because one is an icon of God, each member of the human race, even the most sinful, is infinitely precious in God’s sight.
When a person is unable to profit from spiritual knowledge,
The mind of the upright man ought not to be like wax, or any other soft material, which always yields to the shape of what presses on it, and is stamped with its form and impress and keeps it until it takes another shape by having another seal stamped upon it; and so it turns out that it never retains its own form, but is turned and twisted about to correspond to whatever is pressed upon it….
All visible things get their light from the sun, and all that is done according to reason gets its force from humility.
We know when we will die. Unfortunately this knowledge is lost in the labyrinth of our mind, due to our darkness generated by our sinful life. An enlightened mind will tell us three things:
To learn how to pray, simply pray more often and with more zeal and you will learn it: you do not need anything else.
Let us consider two sentences: 1. I am very happy when I see you. 2. I laugh a lot when I see you. Are these two sentences equal?
Prayer, patience, obedience, simplicity and toil are the key to making wonders.
Let us take care because the devil tries to steal from us one of the biggest gifts which we have from God: our present. He pushes us into the future with worries, plans and prophecies or throws us back into the past with memories, sentimentalism, sorrows and over-analysis.
Three works are approved in the eyes of the Lord; the first, when a man is ill and temptations fall upon him, if he welcomes them with gratitude;
We must be professionals in everything. A professional doesn’t have better equipment or does what he does for the sake of money.
The Holy Monastery of Zographou (Greek: Ζωγράφου; Bulgarian: Зограф) is located on the southwestern side of the Athos Peninsula in northern Greece. The monastery is dedicated to St. George. According to tradition, the monastery was founded during the tenth century by three Bulgarian brothers, the monks Moses, Aaron, and John from Ohrid. While the monastery initially was inhabited by Bulgarian, Greek, and Serbian monks, since 1845 the monks are only of Bulgarian background…
There are many causes which generate sorrows and trials in our life. Besides that, their combinations can be quite complex, so we are in a labyrinth of factors.
If you want to be rich, you must be poor. Then you will be rich in everything, if you are poor in spirit. It isn’t property that makes you rich, but the spirit.
I saw two men traveling to the Lord in the same way and at the same time. One of them was old and more advanced in labours;
It is a spiritual gift from God for a man to perceive his own sins. However we should take care of this gift because
First we must know that we should be just one man united with the one God but, because of Adam’s fall, we are many separated between us and separated from the Holy Trinity. This generated a chaotic behavior inside and outside of us –
The sinners are in the Church also. The sinners too? Of course, the sinners too. God never shuts them out. He keeps them within His body until the very last moment, tied to Him,
Saint Constantine the Great witnessed a great sign on the sky – he saw with his own eyes in the heavens and a trophy of the cross arising from the light of the sun, carrying the message, “In Hoc Signo Vinces” (“with this sign, you shall defeat”) before the decisive battle with Maxentius. After this vision, among other things, Saint Constantine made three crosses and positioned them in the frontline of his army at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312.
Saint George is a great saint. He has two monasteries dedicated in his honor on the Holy Mountain (Zographou and Xiropotamou) and a lot of cells. Besides that he is the patron saint of England, Ethiopia, Georgia, Malta, the Spanish region of Catalonia and several other national states, cities, universities, professions and organizations which claim Saint George as their patron saint.
Fasting is a means and not an end. It is “a tool for training those who desire self-restraint.” Without fasting, it is almost impossible to conquer the passions and attain dispassion.
When Scripture says ‘He will reward every man according to his works’ (Mt 16:27), do not imagine that works in themselves merit either hell or the kingdom. On the contrary, Christ rewards each man according to whether his works are done with faith or without faith in Him; and He is not a dealer bound by contract, but God our Creator and Redeemer.
If you believe firmly that God cares for you, then you do not need to worry about the body, nor need you be concerned about discovering ways to conduct your life.
Ask for repentance in your prayer and nothing else, neither for divine lights, nor miracles, nor prophecies, nor spiritual gifts – nothing but repentance.
Christ validated the simplicity of obedience and the purity of Saint John the Theologian. Also, He praised the repentance of the Apostle Peter and gave him the keys of Paradise.
We think we know a lot, but what we know is very little. Even all those who have striven all their life to bring progress to mankind — learned scientists and highly educated people — all realize in the end that all their knowledge is but a grain of sand on the seashore. All our achievements are insufficient.