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
The state leadership called the greatest doctor in China and asked, “Are you the greatest doctor in China?“
The man who has come to hate the world has escaped sorrow. But he who has an attachment to anything visible is not yet delivered from grief. For how is it possible not to be sad at the loss of something we love?
The parable of the Last Judgment begins by saying that Jesus will separate us “as the shepherd divides the sheep from the goats.” Okay, but what is the connection between sheep and goats with the Fearful Judgment?
The nous (mind, intellect) which has rebelled against God becomes either bestial or demonic and, after having rebelled against the laws of nature, lusts after what belongs to others.
You ask, will the others be saved… Why do you worry about them? They have a Savior Who desires the salvation of every human being. He will take care of them. You and I should not be burdened with such a concern. Study yourself and your own sins and not so much how to preach to others.
One of the most delicate—yet important—issues in the Church is the distinction between the essence of God and His energies.
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. […]
We must never forget that reality is our game. Do not say: ‘I do not know what is right, therefore I am not to blame when I fail to do it.’ For if you did all the good about which you do know, what you should do next would then become clear to you, as if you were passing through a house from one room to another. It is not helpful to know what comes later before you have done what comes first. For knowledge without action ‘puffs up’, but ‘love edifies’, because it ‘patiently accepts all things’ (1 Cor. […]
Asceticism is the branch of medicine that aims at healing the human soul which is eternal and reaching eternal personal perfection.
It was in the parish of perpetually-depressed Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a number of decades ago. The colors of the land were washed out. The sky was drab with winter, even in spring, and the view from the parish rectory grimy, looking over the grey mountain-range and a tired horizon. Much of the area’s industries were shuttered and moved. Alternating houses sat with their eyes boarded-up.
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.
As enticing as is the temptation of a sinful life, it ultimately leads to the disgust of sin, and then we seek the true path which we find in faith.
While praying to Christ, I felt a certain difficulty. The Mother of God – She was just like my own Mother to me. The same was with St. Euphemia. “My dear Saint Euphemia”, I addressed to her… But it was difficult to pray to Christ. I venerated His icons with fear. When during the Jesus Prayer my mind began to distract from prayer, I did not upset me at all. “Who am I to constantly keep Christ in my poor mind?” – I said to myself. And then something happened what I want to tell you about.
Just as parents have a special affection for the children who are the fruit of their own bodies, so the mind naturally clings to its own thoughts.
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.
From the last words of Metropolitan Paul (Yazigi) of Aleppo on the Holy Mountain: Love is not measured among virtues. Love does not count together with fasting, prayer, etc. Love is the purpose and the driving force of all virtues. The virtues build a new person, radiating love to the world. So, as Saint John Chrysostom says, you do not have to be among people to be the true friend of people. True friendship is love—not spatial or temporal closeness. Look at the monks: everybody looks for them, and the pilgrims come from far away to see them, because they […]
After Adam fell by sin and sank into corruption, at once impure pleasures rushed in, and the law of the jungle sprang up in our members. So nature became sick with sin through the disobedience of one, Adam. Then the many became sinners, not as fellow transgressors with Adam, for they did not even exist, but as being of that nature which had fallen under the law of sin. Human nature in Adam became sick through the corruption of disobedience, and thus the passions entered into it.
Many people think that cremation is an easy solution and wonder, ‘Why not?’
In the last 3 decades, the concept of ‘Children’s Rights’ has emerged to define their interests in international law. Although the intention is, theoretically, to be praised, ‘Children’s Rights’ is an abstract, meaningless notion, in a world separate from God.
He who secretly mingles his own wishes with obedience is an adulterer, as the Book of Proverbs indicates (cf. Prov. 6:32-33); and because of his stupidity he suffers pain and dishonor.
The baptism of Saint John had not remission of sins, but only brought men to penitence. He preached therefore the baptism of repentance, that is, he preached that to which the baptism of penitence led, namely, remission of sins, that they who in penitence received Christ, might receive Him to the remission of their sins.
First of all, if you want to come to Mount Athos and become a monk, you must be sure that you are free of legal bindings. One of the most common bindings, is of one’s debts in this world, which you must to pay yourself. Another binding is that of marriage.
As we have already frequently said, this—we mean despondency—is very often one of the branches of talkativeness, and its first child.
Generally speaking, by “apocalypse” (ἀποκάλυψις) the people understand “revelation” or, more literally, “uncovering”. The term is tied, mainly, with Saint John Theologian’s work – Book of Revelation – from the New Testament which describes using pseudonymity and symbolic imagery for the expectation of an imminent cosmic cataclysm in which God destroys the ruling powers of evil and raises the righteous to life in a messianic kingdom.
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.
In every beginner, there is a twofold work, committed in the heart in a double but unmixed way: one work is of grace and the other work is of the deception of demons. Yet still, we can divide the twofold work into three, if we also consider the body—thus, there is a triple warmth of this energy which burns in people: one of grace, a second of deception or sin, and a third of a surplus of blood, from natural causes—of which, this latter can be quenched and brought to order through measured restraint and abstinence. Work of grace First, […]