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.
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.
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 […]
Sin is distorted pleasure, so we need pain analogous with the severity of sin in order to re-establish an equilibrium, according to spiritual law.
The Mother of God died, as all people die by the necessity of their mortal human nature which is indivisibly bound up with the corruption of this world as the result of Adam’s fall.
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:
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.
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.
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.
You have a spiritual nature. The soul is the image of the Creator. Honor the image of God by being in agreement with all humanity.
We struggle to learn various things and slowly try to understand their meanings in order to gain knowledge.
I also maintain that those who are punished in Gehenna are scourged by the scourge of love.
Dispassion is the total cure of the soul, the experience of the heavenly state of total liberty, power and happiness. The correct way to be.
Perhaps the greatest trial of Saint Paisios of Mount Athos happened when he was still a child.
Man is created in the image of God and he must reach His likeness. This is, I could say, the final aim and the mystical entelechy of man. As long as this yearning is not satisfied and man remains far from God, he suffers all the more.
Narrow is the way of life, and broad the way of torment; prayer is able to bring a man to the house of the Kingdom. This is the perfect work: prayer that is pure from iniquity.
Elder Joseph of Vatopaidi (+2009) was a very pious monk and we honor his memory each year with much devotion and dedication. His holiness was acquired through his great ascetical feats along with good deeds which he performed throughout his entire life, and in most cases in discretion, just like any other spiritual person.
In order to define sin, we must firstly clarify which is the aim or purpose of our transitory life.
Just as people do not enter a war in order to enjoy war, but in order to be saved from war, so we too do not enter this world in order to enjoy this world, but in order to be saved from it. People go to war for the sake of something greater than war.
