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.
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.
During the reign of Emperor Anastasios I (491-518), a young deacon moved to Constantinople. He led an ascetic life of prayer and fasting, but in his humility he thought of himself as being rather worldly.
Our good God gave us Time to draw us closer to Him, and space to draw us closer to each other. However, we can’t approach God without approaching ourselves, and vice versa, because of this, we have the notion of a spacetime continuum.
Eternity cannot simply be an unchangeable substance, it cannot be like eternal self-sustaining law. Such eternity cannot be inexhaustible and creative.
The Resurrection of Christ is the most significant event to take place in History. It is the event that differentiates Christianity from every other religion. Other religions have mortal leaders, whereas the Head of the Church is the Resurrected Christ. “Resurrection of Christ” implies the deification and the resurrection of human nature, and the hope for deification and resurrection of our own hypostasis. Since the medicine has been discovered, there is hope for life.
The greatest gift God has made to people is the possibility of union with Him. This gift has become concrete through the incarnation of God, through the birth of Jesus Christ.
My child, always be careful, both when you are happy and when you are sad. When you are happy you should not lose control through vivacity and laughter, nor when you are sad should you be so gloomy that it shows.
Elder Archimandrite Ephraim (Ioannis Moraitis – June 24, 1927) was an archimandrite and former abbot of Philotheou Monastery on Mount Athos, spiritual guide of four monasteries on Mount Athos and of eight women’s convents in Greece, as well as the founder of 19 monasteries in the United States and Canada. He resided in Arizona at St. Anthony’s Greek Orthodox Monastery until his repose (December 7, 2019).
The delicacy and the knowledge of the saints is above anything we can concieve. In fact, without God’s grace, we are just barbarians—without God’s grace, we humans are wolves among other humans.
Many say Father Arsenios Boca is holy, while others say that man was not normal. The same thing happened with Saint Porphyrios, Saint Paisios, and other saints in the past – for example Saint John Chrysostom, Saint Symeon the Stylite or Saint Symeon the New Theologian. In fact, both opinions are true, but an explanation is needed to understand.
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.
Loneliness – voluntarily or not – is your time for prayer and knowing God better. This knowledge comes mainly via prayer because prayer is the union of the mind with God.
Some people tell me that they are scandalized because they see many things wrong in the Church. I tell them that if you ask a fly, “Are there any flowers in this area?” it will say, “I don’t know about flowers, but over there in that heap of rubbish you can find all the filth you want.” And it will go on to list all the unclean things it has been to.
After fulfilling a commandment expect to be tempted: for love of Christ is tested by adversity. So, never belittle the significance of your thoughts, for not one escapes God’s notice.
A person cannot choose the time in which he is born or lives; it is not up to him, who his parents are, or the nation he will be born into, but what he is responsible for is how he will act in that given time: will he be human or inhuman, no matter his nationality nor parents.
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 whole planet wants the freedom of eternal happiness, but most people seek it where it is not and seek it in an inappropriate way.
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.
If a man has some spiritual gift and feels compassion for those who do not have it, he preserves the gift because of his compassion. But a boastful man will lose it through succumbing to temptations of boastfulness.
We must know that the divine light is not a natural phenomenon, like when we hit our head or other causes which generate electrical signals through the nervous system which our brain (more exactly our visual cortex) interprets as light.
So he who desires to come to the rest of the Lord and not be defeated by the evil one, lovingly withdraws from people in all things, so as not to criticize them or praise or justify, or bless another or to upset someone else in any respect, or to observe his downfall, and to leave no needle of enmity in his heart against him, and to submit to those who are demented.
We ought to be careful never to do anything rashly or carelessly, or anything at all for which we cannot give a reasonable ground.
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.
