Avoid the negative people but do not judge them
Oct
07
2019
When we focus on good, good grows. When we focus on bad, bad grows.
When we focus on good, good grows. When we focus on bad, bad grows.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
Cain, where’s your brother? With this began the history of the human race on earth, namely with a brother’s murder. A murder of a brother in your life!
There are three ways that we can please God:
Father Seraphim Rose of Platina, himself a convert to Orthodoxy, was once asked to compose a “Manual for Orthodox Converts”. In his notes for such a manual, he jotted down the following “convert pitfalls”, or what he called “obstacles in the Orthodox mission today” – or, shortly, “convertitis”. Based on these notes we have:
If you are truly interested in the welfare of your children, why do you not watch as strictly, but once a week, how they attend to their lessons in the study of the Law of God, as you do in some home-work, which the children seemed to be forced to have prepared within the next twelve hours for their public school?
Many are interested in solving “hot” topics in their minds. We are interested in how Elijah was lifted up to heaven with the chariot of fire, how is the vision of paradise, the angels, the creation of the world, and other things like this.
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.
What we know as the inflammatory faculty of our soul is a non-rational aspect of our soul which is responsible to avoid or attack, that is a flight or fight response.
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.
Even if the rules of iconography insist that the holy image depicted (the saints) should be with black hair and black eyes, however, from tradition and from visions, we are informed from the saints which saw the Mother of God that her hair texture resembles that of ripe wheat with blue eyes.
The almighty Christ was the only one which had the right, the power and the capacity to be a tyrant.
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.
The devil uses a similar technique with us when we want to attack something. So, we must know how to defend. It depends on us to do it.
Many wonder why and how monks can live a longer and healthier life, compared with the people of the world outside of Mount Athos.
Perhaps you are saying, “Why are the wicked joyful? Why do they live in luxury? Why do they not toil with me?”
We struggle to learn various things and slowly try to understand their meanings in order to gain knowledge.
There may be some who, in the beginning, believed rightly and assiduously labored at virtue. They may have even worked miracles and prophesied and cast out demons.
Birds are fooled, and the animals of the forest, by the very charms that bring their destruction. Caves as well as food deceive them. They do not know how to avoid evil, and they are not restrained by the law.
Blessed is the man who knows his own weakness, because this knowledge becomes to him the foundation, root and beginning of all goodness.
Many times we yell at our children “do this” or “don’t do that” – but unfortunately the end results are not what we expected.