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?”
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.
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.
Someone who wanted to do evil, prayed Someone wanted to do evil, but first prayed as usual; and finding himself prevented by God, he was then extremely thankful.
In the Christian context: by “mystery,” we do not mean merely that which is baffling and mysterious, an enigma or insoluble problem.
One of the biggest noblemen from Gaza asked Saint Zosimas, “How can you say that you are nothing? You make miracles, you heal people, you are a saint!”
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.
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.
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:
You who have decided to strip for the arena of this spiritual confession, you who wish to take on your neck the yoke of Christ, you who are therefore trying to lay your own burden on Another’s shoulders, you who are hastening to sign a pledge that you are voluntarily surrendering yourself to slavery, and in return want freedom concretely written to your account, you who are being supported by the hands of others as you swim across this great sea — you should know that you have decided to travel by a short but rough way, from which there […]
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?
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.
The almighty Christ was the only one which had the right, the power and the capacity to be a tyrant.
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.
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.
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.
I also maintain that those who are punished in Gehenna are scourged by the scourge of love.
We often conceive of worldly life as merely a kind of default existence that anyone who is not specially called to monasticism or ordination simply ends up leading. We assume that it is only the monk, nun or priest who has a special call, while the married woman, for instance, has merely been passed by.
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.
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.
It is worth noticing that, after acquiring spiritual understanding, the defects and faults of one’s neighbor begin to seem very slight and insignificant, as redeemed by the Savior and easily cured by repentance—
There are many ways in which we can categorize prayer. A simple one is the following:
With Christ, the truth is no longer hidden. Now people are hiding from truth.
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.
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.
Let us imitate John the Baptist: leaving luxury and drunkenness, let us go over to the life of restraint.
He showed me many trees that had no leaves; they were withered, and they all looked alike to me. And he said to me, “Do you see these trees?” “I see, sir, that they are all alike, and all withered,” I replied. “These trees that you see,” he answered, “are those who dwell in this world.”
