There was a young monk/brother who was puffed up with pride about his abilities. He was very strong, with a lot of dexterity and, hence, he could work a lot and, also, do a lot of prostrations.
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.
When there’s respect for small things, there’ll be even greater respect towards the bigger ones. When there’s no respect for small things, then neither will there be for the bigger ones. This is how the Fathers maintained Tradition.
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.
He who has lost sensibility is a brainless philosopher, a self-condemned commentator, a self-contradictory windbag, a blind man who teaches others to see.
Forgetfulness in and of itself has no power, but acquires embodiment in proportion to our negligence.
God made us in His image and likeness—that is, just a single created god—a single Human in many persons of two kinds (man and woman), as He is a single God in three persons. God created a giant mind, a created god, in which all persons would cooperate flawlessly through their minds in real time to accomplish the same goal, even if each person would keep his specificity.
It’s not that God overrode Pharaoh’s free will; that is, it isn’t that Pharaoh was inclined to let the Israelites go but then God stopped him from doing so. It’s that Pharaoh was not inclined to let the Israelites go, but the miracles worked by God through Moses made him timid; God gave Pharaoh the strength of will to follow through on what he really wanted to do: keep the Israelites enslaved in Egypt. In that sense, God didn’t suspend or override Pharaoh’s free will; actually, God enhanced it, so Pharaoh could make the choice that was in his heart.
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?”
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:
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.
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.
The almighty Christ was the only one which had the right, the power and the capacity to be a tyrant.
Perhaps you are saying, “Why are the wicked joyful? Why do they live in luxury? Why do they not toil with me?”
We should have always room for one more. Perhaps this should be obvious but the hell of egotism in our minds teaches us that the state of necessity and war is an excuse for domestic tyranny.
I also maintain that those who are punished in Gehenna are scourged by the scourge of love.
Who killed Jesus? Many would say “the Jews” – however, if we look closely at the Gospels we will see that the answer isn’t correct and besides that, such forms of judgment of people based on their ethnic or cultural appurtenance of a certain group have dire consequences, as we saw in history.
Many times we yell at our children “do this” or “don’t do that” – but unfortunately the end results are not what we expected.
Orthodoxy is a divine-human co-operation in which the Lord Himself will settle any crisis within His Body – the Church – and the most common way is the following one:
We all sin and the effect of any sin is the increase of demonic energy upon us. Devils, like any angel, are spirits – noetic existences – so our minds can communicate with them but because the demons are very good “theologians” and very intelligent – even if their intelligence is distorted – that’s why we cannot escape from them when we are under their influence by using logic. We will just tangle more in their nets.
The question of forgiveness is not a moral issue. We do not forgive because it is the “correct” thing to do. We forgive because it is the true nature of the life in Christ.
Now, it’s true that most people who don’t have much sense expect to be content with avoiding hell. But I say it’s a far worse punishment than hell to be excluded from the glory of the other world. I think that someone who has failed to reach it should be sorry, not so much because of the miseries of hell, but because of his rejection from heaven. For that by itself is more dreadful than any other kind of punishment.
A humble person never behaves like a teacher; he will listen, and, whenever his opinion is requested, he responds humbly. In other words, he replies like a student. He who believes that he is capable of correcting others is filled with egotism.
Thoughts are the movements of the mind which can be motivated by: 1. God and His angels or even by His servants, ie the saints. from which pure & positive thoughts are always generated.
During confession, especially one’s first confession – it is much better to list the sins in front of the priest – that is in front of God – and to seek His forgiveness in order to show your repentance.
The aim of the Christian is to attain the blessed state of deification. Deification is identical with `likeness’, that is, to be like God.
Depression suppresses us from the lack of God’s grace in our heart and soul for without God nothing makes sense anymore, we lose our aim and purpose in life and since the result of God’s grace is love, happiness and peace, then that is why we fall victim to depression. Besides that we suffer from depression as a result of a cronical bad habit or because of the devil’s warfare of the thoughts which have succeeded to convince us that we are good for nothing and that nobody loves us.
Pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit.
When the soul betrays itself and loses the blessed and longed for fervor, let it carefully investigate the reason for losing this. And let it arm itself with all its longing and zeal against whatever has caused this. For the former fervor can return only through the same door through which it was lost.
