After giving the wronged person the good advice, Saint Paul goes on to give him advice of a higher tone, telling him not to be overcome with evil but overcome evil with good. For he knew that even if the enemy was a brute he would not go on being an enemy once he was fed.
The Skete of Prophet Elijah (Greek: Σκήτη Προφήτη Ηλία, Russian: Ильинский скит) is a cenobitic skete of Pantokratoros monastery in Mount Athos, Greece.
Don’t set any store by your thoughts, whether they tell you’re terrible, or when they tell you that you’re a saint.
If you pursue virtue in a monastery or community, you are not likely to be attacked much by fear. But the man who spends his time in more solitary places should make every effort to avoid being overcome by that offspring of vainglory, that daughter of unbelief: cowardice.
If a man has some spiritual gift and feels compassion for those who do not have it, he preserves the gift because of his compassion. But a boastful man will lose it through succumbing to temptations of boastfulness.
We must know that the divine light is not a natural phenomenon, like when we hit our head or other causes which generate electrical signals through the nervous system which our brain (more exactly our visual cortex) interprets as light.
God made us in His image and likeness—that is, just a single created god—a single Human in many persons of two kinds (man and woman), as He is a single God in three persons. God created a giant mind, a created god, in which all persons would cooperate flawlessly through their minds in real time to accomplish the same goal, even if each person would keep his specificity.
Saint Paul says “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”
New Skete on Mount Athos is one of two sketes attached to St. Paul’s Monastery. It is located between St. Paul’s Monastery and St. Anne’s Skete. The skete was founded in the 18th century. In 1760, the central church of the skete (the kiriakon) was built and dedicated to the Nativity of the Theotokos. Next to the kiriakon is the chappel of the cemetery, with the dedication of All Saints.
So he who desires to come to the rest of the Lord and not be defeated by the evil one, lovingly withdraws from people in all things, so as not to criticize them or praise or justify, or bless another or to upset someone else in any respect, or to observe his downfall, and to leave no needle of enmity in his heart against him, and to submit to those who are demented.
We ought to be careful never to do anything rashly or carelessly, or anything at all for which we cannot give a reasonable ground.
Few words, much love. To all. No matter who they are because every one of us is ‘sent’, every one of us is created with a purpose, every one of us is unique in his own way.
It’s not that God overrode Pharaoh’s free will; that is, it isn’t that Pharaoh was inclined to let the Israelites go but then God stopped him from doing so. It’s that Pharaoh was not inclined to let the Israelites go, but the miracles worked by God through Moses made him timid; God gave Pharaoh the strength of will to follow through on what he really wanted to do: keep the Israelites enslaved in Egypt. In that sense, God didn’t suspend or override Pharaoh’s free will; actually, God enhanced it, so Pharaoh could make the choice that was in his heart.
We who are given the fullness of true Christianity are obliged to be working on ourselves, to be watching the signs of the times, and to be extremely joyful, as St. Paul is constantly saying: ‘Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say: Rejoice!’ (Phil. 4:4). We rejoice because we have something which all the death and corruption of this world cannot take away, that is, the eternal Kingdom of Jesus Christ.
Let us now carefully consider whether God ever allows evil to be forced on his saints, either by himself or by someone else.
The Esphigmenou Monastery (Greek: Εσφιγμένου) is located on the northeastern coast of the Athos Peninsula in northern Greece close to the Monastery of Chilandari. It is ranked eighteenth in the hierarchical order of the twenty monasteries located on the peninsula. As is the case with the other institutions on Mount Athos, life at Esphigmenou is cenobitic.
But someone might say, “Then, if heaven is so great, why don’t you all just go and kill yourselves, and pass over to your God right away, and not bother us anymore?”
One may ask: Who wove the Holy Belt of the Virgin Mary? Well, She did, of course. Although the answer may be obvious, let us think a little more deeply about it. The Virgin Mary was full of Grace and spiritual knowledge – she was, after her Son, the most perfect being in the world.
Once, the trees went forth to anoint a king over them, and they said to the olive tree, “Reign over us!” But the olive tree said to them, “Shall I leave my fatness with which God and men are honored, and go to wave over the trees?”
There are some people who impress us more and help us more than others do, even if they say almost the same things as the others.
Every created nature is far removed from and completely foreign to the divine nature.
If someone is not under obedience to you, do not rebuke him to his face for his faults. For that would imply you have authority over him, and are not just giving advice.
The St. Panteleimon’s Monastery (Greek: Άγιος Παντελεήμων, Agios Panteleimon; Russian: Ρωσικό, Rossikon)) is one of the twenty monasteries located on the peninsula of Mount Athos in northeastern Greece.
Someone who wanted to do evil, prayed Someone wanted to do evil, but first prayed as usual; and finding himself prevented by God, he was then extremely thankful.
There is among the passions an anger of the intellect (mind), and this anger is in accordance with nature – that is courage . Without this anger a person cannot attain purity: we have to feel angry with all that is sown in us by the enemy. When Job felt this anger he reviled his enemies, calling them ‘dishonorable men of no repute, lacking everything good, whom I would not consider fit to live with the dogs that guard my flocks’ (cf. Job 30:1, 4). If we wish to acquire the anger that is in accordance with nature we must […]
In the Christian context: by “mystery,” we do not mean merely that which is baffling and mysterious, an enigma or insoluble problem.
One of the biggest noblemen from Gaza asked Saint Zosimas, “How can you say that you are nothing? You make miracles, you heal people, you are a saint!”
There are two basic ways of a cure. The first is for a person to abandon “wealth” of the mind. In speaking of poverty, Saint Niketas Stethatos maintains that poverty is not only the renunciation of material goods, but is also the denial of the “wealth” of the mind.
When a man lies, he murders some part of the world These are the pale deaths which men miscall their lives All this I cannot bear to witness any longer Cannot the kingdom of salvation take me home? Adorn yourself with truth, try to speak truth in all things; and do not support a lie, no matter who asks you. If you speak the truth and someone gets mad at you, don’t be upset, but take comfort in the words of the Lord: Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of truth, for theirs is the Kingdom of […]
The Monastery of Konstamonitou (Greek: Κωνσταμονίτου) is one of twenty monasteries on the Mount Athos peninsula and is located on the southeastern side of the peninsula at an elevation of about 200 meters (650 feet) above the sea. It is twentieth in hierarchical rank among the monasteries. Having fallen in decline after a fire in the sixteenth century Konstamonitou was revived in the early nineteenth century.
