If you want to serve God, prepare your heart not for food, not for drink, not for rest, not for ease, but for suffering, so that you may endure all temptations, trouble and sorrow.
At the approach of the great feasts, you must be especially watchful over yourself.
Jesus said “This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.”
You only have power over people so long as you don’t take everything away from them. But when you’ve robbed a man of everything he’s no longer in your power — he’s free again.
Many wonder why and how monks can live a longer and healthier life, compared with the people of the world outside of Mount Athos.
Let us now speak in particular about the interior man. A wheel, as you know, rests upon the ground with a very slight base. Nor does it merely rest; it rolls along; it does not stand still but barely touches the ground and passes on.
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?
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.
While struggling against all passions, let us who are in communities struggle every hour, especially against these two:
Mourning, according to God, is sadness of soul, and the disposition of a sorrowing heart, which ever madly seeks that for which it thirsts; and when it
The intellect is made blind by these three passions:
Let us show that we eat for the sake of living, and not
Love of pleasure opens the door of our soul to the enemy. If you fight this with firm resolve, then it will be very difficult for any passion to overcome you. “Saint Theophan the Recluse”
Just as a healthy eye desires the light, so, if fasting’s undertaken with discretion, it’s followed by a desire for prayer. “Saint Isaac the Syrian”
It’s not food or favourable living conditions that ensure our health. It’s a holy life, the life of Christ. I know ascetics who fasted very strictly and never had anything wrong with them. Nobody risks getting ill from fasting. Nobody’s ever done so. “Saint Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia”
Bodily fasting needs to be accompanied by a spiritual fast. There is, for example, no point in abstaining from certain foods, on the one hand, but, on the other, reviling people. A saintly ascetic once said: ‘It’s better to eat meat and drink wine than to eat the flesh of your brothers and sisters with whispers and censure’. Fasting also loses its meaning when it’s separated from love. Lots of people fast meticulously, they observe the letter of the rules for fasting, but retain hatred for their brothers and sisters in their hearts. They won’t even wish them “Good day” […]
Fasting isn’t an end, but rather a means for purification from the passions. This is why the Fathers liken it to a sword or a knife which cuts off the passions.
Through the Cross, Christ sanctified His body- the link with the world. He rejected the temptations sent to Him by the world, that is to taste the pleasures, to satisfy His needs unrestrained or to avoid pain and death. If we, in the same way, ward off the temptations of sin and patiently suffer the pain of death, sanctity can spread from His body to all bodies and throughout the world. The Orthodox Church doesn’t say that, through the Cross, Christ left the creation, but that He restored it to paradise- the paradise of virtue for those who, out of […]
God didn’t send us to earth so that we could live comfortably but for us to prepare for the eternal life that awaits us.
No fasting from food is of any benefit to those who don’t fast from their other feelings,
An the word of Lord came to Elijah: “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He replied,…
View of a typical monastic settlement on Mount Athos. It is hidden away in a dense forest, in a peaceful area conducive to prayer and spiritual development. A person must live like an exile from this world in order to…
The self-controlled refrain from gluttony; those who have renounced possessions, from greed; the tranquil, from loquacity; the pure, from…
For the whole array of passions: wrath, fear, cowardice, impudence, depression as well as pleasure, hatred, strife and merciless cruelty, envy as well as flattery, brutality together with brooding over injuries — they are all many despotic masters…
God’s action in creation and creation’s role in our journey towards God culminate in the…
It is a shame to cut down or destroy a tree recklessly, but…
People who work for Christ, but with pride, make their virtues smell bad. It’s like if you’re…
In truth there is only one freedom…
With all your power, ask the Lord for humility and brotherly love, because God
“The whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one”. Material things with their