Koliva: Definition Koliva is a dish, consisting of boiled wheat that is used liturgically in the Eastern Orthodox Church for commemorations of the dead.
True fasting lies in rejecting evil, holding one’s tongue, suppressing one’s hatred and banishing one’s lust, evil words, lying and betrayal of vows.
In any society there are richer people and poorer people. People who find a job, people who can’t find a job for a variety of reasons. All of this God has left on earth in order to need each other and to learn to love one another and not to judge too much why. In any case, Jesus does not want the sinner’s death but to return and be alive.
Many wonder why Great Lent holds forty days. To be very accurate, Great Lent does not last forty days but thirty-six days. However, people generally think it holds forty days.
One should not think about the doings of God when one’s stomach is full; on a full stomach there can be no vision of the Divine mysteries.
The disciple’s question Father, I suffer terribly from rheumatism, and I am afraid that it is from demons. Tell me if this is so. What is it, then, that I see in dreams, on the wall, some wild beasts? I am very upset because I cannot fast and I am forced to eat a lot. What should I do? The answer of the Elder
A complete guide on how to resist the devil, especially if you are under demonic attacks and there is a danger of demonization is outlined below. We must be always aware of this danger and must take the precautionary measures, especially if we have grave sins or we are targets of concentrated demonic attacks because of Spells or curses cast against us.
There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, “Father, give me my share of the estate.” So, the father divided his property between them. Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and, there, squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So, he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. […]
Know that there are eight evil thoughts that bring about all that is vile: those of sensuality, lechery, love of money, anger, inappropriate grief, despondency, vainglory and pride. All these wage warfare against every person.
Avarice (“the love of money”) is the worship of idols, the daughter of unbelief, a lying excuse for illness, a foreboder of old age, a harbinger of drought, and a herald of hunger. The lover of money sneers at the Gospel and is a willful transgressor. He who has attained love scatters his money. But he who says that he lives for love and for money has deceived himself.
Self love, as has often been said, is the cause of all impassioned thoughts. For from it are produced the three principal thoughts of desire; those of gluttony, avarice and self-esteem. From gluttony is born the thought of unchastity; from avarice, the thought of greed; from self-esteem, the thought of pride.
In a metropolis in Northern Greece, there’d been no rain for some time. It was a terrible drought and, due to the situation, the local metropolitan and clergy began to pray for rain.
My child, I hope you are well. Just recently, I got somewhat better too. This is how my life has passed, with pain and illnesses. Now I have approached death once again for your sake. I said, “Let me die, only let my spiritual children live.” And I didn’t eat at all.
Like most things, it’s not the outward actions and situation that matter most, it’s our inner state.
All vice is caused by self-esteem and sensual pleasure; you cannot overcome passion without hating them.
Do you fast? Then feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, visit the sick, do not forget the imprisoned, have pity on the tortured, comfort those who grieve and who weep, be merciful, humble, kind, calm, patient, sympathetic, forgiving, reverent, truthful and pious, so that God might accept your fasting and might plentifully grant you the fruits of repentance.
Sleep is a particular state of nature, an image of death, inactivity of the senses. Sleep is one, but, like desire, its sources and occasions are many: that is to say, it comes from nature, from food, from demons, or perhaps, sometimes, from extreme and prolonged fasting, through which the flesh is weakened and at last longs for the consolation of sleep.
God is the source of every virtue, as the sun is of daylight. So, when you have done something good, remember the words ‘without Me you can do nothing’ (John 15:5).
Wait a minute! Is it not possible, they say, to enjoy ease both here and hereafter?
They also found that the eating of greens or pulse did not agree with everyone, and that not everyone could live on dry bread. One man, they said, could eat two pounds of dry bread and still be hungry, while another might eat a pound, or only six ounces, and be satisfied.
But wealth, someone may say, bring honor to those who possess them, and give them the power to take vengeance on their enemies easily.
The physician is not to be praised only when he leads the patient into gardens and meadows, or baths and pools of water, or when he sets a well-furnished table before him.
All vices grow feeble when conquered, and when beaten are day by day made weaker, and lessen and subside both in place and time—or at any rate, as they are unlike the opposite virtues, are more easily shunned and avoided.
The day-by-day spiritual life of an orthodox layman should be settled between him and his priest, in accordance with the Holy Tradition of the Church. This is the norm and the best way to do so.
First of all we should mention that our illnesses are a result of Adam’s fall. In paradise there were no illnesses. So, demonic energy is more or less involved in various degrees and because of various causes and for various purposes: to pay off for a particular sin, to stop someone from a wrong path or for one to receive a higher degree of spiritual knowledge etc.
Any addiction is a bad habit, an illness of the soul, a brain disorder characterized by compulsive engagement in rewarding stimuli, in the causes of sin, despite the adverse consequences.
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.
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 […]
There is a lot of anxiety and distress about the famous 666 in some circles, which most of the time (if not always) distracts us from our main aim in life – the salvation of our eternal soul.