Independence of mind is the will of the rational soul, which turns immediately to whatever it is it wants. We should urge it to be always ready to turn only to what’s good so that with good thoughts we can expunge the memory of evil.
As well as the liturgy and other services, Fr. Symeon also held ‘silent’ assemblies. No-one spoke. Or rather, no-one heard because everybody was speaking mystically to God, using a prayer-rope and saying the Jesus Prayer: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me’. The church of Saint Athanasios was completely full. Everyone seated, heads bowed, holding a prayer-rope and seeking God’s mercy. These assemblies also lasted an hour. Fr. Symeon laid great stress on sermons. He considered it as importance as a service, as indeed it is. The Word of God must first be received through the hearing, as the proclamation of the Gospel, so that people will believe and then receive Him as Holy Communion. The Elder spoke ...
Even though the blessed Elder Iosif was a great hesychast, he considered obedience to be the most important virtue for a monk. This is why he trained his disciple to gain the spirit and the fruits of true obedience, even though to some it may appear that his manner of doing so was harsh. He himself used to exclaim and urged his disciples: ‘Oh, blessed obedience- and again obedience. Without doubt the scepter belongs to you. Elder Arsenios and I have shed lots of blood in our ascetic life in order to taste the good things of heaven. Just with the observance of obedience, you’ll enjoy the same Grace as us. Cleave to obedience with all your soul. There’s no ...
When Julian the Apostate came to power as emperor (361), he scorned both the good that had been achieved by Saint Constantine the Great and everything he had gained from his own Christian upbringing. He upset public order with his tyranny and railed against God, doing his level best, with all means at his disposal to bring back the worship of idols. He sent officers faithful to his own aims into various provinces in order to force people to comply. With this in mind, Capitalinus, his deputy in Thrace, moved to Dorostolos (today’s Silistra, in Bulgaria), the capital of Skythia. Once he was established in his court, he directed threats against not only Christians but also those who were reluctant ...
When we keep Christ’s commandments, we’re not offering anything to Him. Because He has no need of anything and is the Giver of all good things. In fact, we’re simply benefitting ourselves by making eternal life and the enjoyment of its ineffable bounties available to us.
For us Christians, who are enlightened and illuminated in Christ, everything in this world is of value and has meaning, insofar as it’s a means and path to eternity. Because we see what isn’t apparent and gaze upon the invisible. We arrange the whole of our life in time on the basis of what’s eternal; what’s human on the basis of the God/Human. As long as there’s something eternal within the bounds of time, we survive on this. But when it’s absent we seek it beyond time, in the kingdom of the unending and the invisible. We gaze upon everything through the prism of eternity, that is, through the prism of Christ, since He is the eternal God and Lord.
Elder Iosif the Hesychast had reached a level where he was replete with divine Grace and was able to transmit it to his disciples. Elder Efraim Katounakiotis confessed that ‘you couldn’t get enough of the Grace that the Elder gave you’ . This is unusual and difficult for even many virtuous elders to achieve. It’s something which indicates the greatest boldness towards God and manifests the authentic, true nature of an Elder in all its magnificence. An Elder who possesses spiritual riches can pass them on to his disciple and the disciple, with fear of God, is able to receive this gift, so that he can guard it and pass it on in turn to those who come after him. ...
When they’d suffered many tortures and had shown endurance unto death, the holy martyrs became worthy of crowns and glory. The more cruel the tortures they underwent, the more glory and boldness they acquired before God. In the same way, and provided they were patient to the end and didn’t complain, souls that were subjected to great sorrows, (either from other people or from bodily diseases), were also rewarded with the same crowns and glory as the martyrs. And such people will not only enjoy all this in the future, from God, but even here they’ll be granted the consolation of the Holy Spirit. Since the path leading to heavenly life is, indeed, narrow and full of sorrows, and there ...
It is with some trepidation that I set pen to paper to record -what? What can one write about a personality whose holiness and spiritual wisdom stretched over many decades, who was shepherd to thousands of souls, saving them from destruction and bringing them into ‘a place of verdure’? About the comforter, the advisor, the father, the refuge of every soul in pain and every confused thought? About the last person who walked and strove in the ascetic life with the holy fathers whom God was pleased to give our generation, those who died to live, because, in living they were dead to the world. ‘so that the world may live’ through Christ, to Whom he brought it through his ...
Almsgiving is a good and God-pleasing effort, provided you make sure to rid your heart of pride, wickedness, envy greed, deceit and other passions. Unless people try to cleanse their hearts and if they rely solely on their almsgiving, they won’t receive much benefit. Because they’re building with one hand and knocking down with the other.
At some point, the Cell's door, of the old and poor building, would open and the Elder, who had been inside involved in discipline and heart prayer for the salvation of his soul and the souls of his brothers, would appear. His face was always exhilarated and his attitude cordial. He would receive us and ask us to sit in the "outdoors dorter" on seats made of pieces from tree trunks. He would shake our hands and at the same time offer us loukoumia and water according to the tradition of Mt. Athos. There, under the trees, with the songs of the birds "as the vocal drone", the Elder would start talking to us with "the words of eternal life" (John ...
Living with Elder Iosif, Father Sofronios learned empirically that monasticism is nothing other than living in the kingdom of heaven, experiencing divine Grace. He stressed that he never forgot those days and the enthusiasm engendered within him by this spiritual way of life which quickly elevated those determined to follow it to a sublime spiritual state. What Father Sofronios wanted was to be formed spiritually by an elder experienced in the hesychast life. He was especially interested in acquiring the Jesus prayer. ‘When I went’, he relates, ‘from the very first day the Elder interpreted in detail for me the meaning of the spiritual life. In particular, he tried to interpret the matter of Grace, that it’s the main factor that ...
There have been cases where women severely injured in accidents or suffering from some other terminal medical problem such as stroke or advanced heart disease have been kept alive by artificial means in an attempt to save the child they carried. Usually, if all goes well, the child is delivered through spontaneous or induced labor or is taken by surgery at the earliest possible moment. In most cases the child is unaffected by the mother’s condition and will be perfectly healthy. After the birth, if no further medical intervention will benefit, the woman is allowed to expire naturally. In cases where the mother’s condition is not as extreme and life is still in evidence, the birth of the child has, ...
Christ, as the most biased referee and umpire in our contests, keeps the balance between us and our opponents, tempers the excessive power of their attacks and, besides, ‘together with temptation;’ gives us ‘the strength to win once and for all’. If we didn’t have this divine assistance the demons would certainly overwhelm us.
