In English

But let’s leave all those under the old law and go on to Christ Himself, for Whom and through Whom all things were made and Who said just before the crucifixion that those who don’t take up their cross and follow Him aren’t worthy of Him. He also said that those who wished to follow Him should deny themselves and take up their cross. The commandment ordains that we have to deny the body and take up our cross. People who live close to God still have their body, but they aren’t particularly attached to it; they use it as a collaborator in necessary things, but when the time comes, they’re prepared to give it up, as they would possessions and ...

Criticize yourself and you’ll get rid of the tendency to criticize others.

The Cross of Christ was forecast and mystically predicted from of old and no-one has ever become reconciled to God without the power of the Cross. After the transgression of our forefathers in God’s paradise, through the tree, on the one hand sin spread and, on the other we died, having suffered the death of the soul- separation from God- before that of the body. God is spirit and goodness and virtue and our spirit is the image and likeness of His. If we’re to be renewed and reconciled to God in spirit, sin must be eradicated. This is Christ’s Cross. Many friends of God were in evidence before God and the law, even prior to the appearance of the Cross. David ...

In his first Epistle to the Corinthians, Saint Paul says that ‘the Jews seek a sign’ (1, 22). That is that they wanted a supernatural sign, such as the resurrection of the dead or cure of demoniacs, which would allow them to believe in the message of the Cross. They were looking for some supernatural sign, ignoring and discounting the signs and wonders that God had already given them in the past, every time they found themselves in any kind of danger. In fact, the sign they were seeking could not have been anything other than that of the cross, which, on the one hand, was prefigured throughout the Old Testament, and, on the other, was permanently present and saved ...

The Work of Redemption As were the Jews when they gazed upon the bronze serpent, so we, too, are cured when we see Christ crucified. Let’s investigate what this cross of Christ’s is, what its benefits are and what it teaches us. A) The cross. In the cross of the Lord we see heaven, earth and hades united. We see God, a human person and the devil. To be specific, we see the love and justice of God in the form of sacrifice, in the following way. People sinned. They had to be punished. The punishment had to be the final penalty, death, because the sin, the fall, of Adam and Eve was hubris against God, since, guided by the advice of ...

I knew a man who loved other people so much that he said ‘God, I want to save my brethren and to save everybody. If you don’t save everybody, I don’t want you to save me either. Because I can’t see what Paradise would be without everybody else’.

Being without shame is the special characteristic of wicked and worthless people and is the shame of the great.

We have many examples of young people who’ve been disappointed with one and all and have turned to Christ as the last and sole resort to escape their situation. Lots of young people who’ve been involved with drugs and are from good families have said to me: ‘Father, we didn’t do drugs because we’d gone off the rails, but because we were disappointed with everything and were trying to find a way out of this impasse’. The devil deceives them and they think that in drugs they’ll find that depth that the human soul longs for. Another thing that young people can understand from their own experience is that, at bottom, all sins are selfishness, that is a sick, egotistical love ...

Deal with everything with good thoughts. No other ascetic practice helps as much as good thoughts.

Obscurity surrounds the birth of St. Euphrosynos the Cook. No one knows when or where he lived. The names of his country and parents are unknown. The end of his life is also obscure. No one knows when or where Euphrosynos died. Fortunately, the time and place do not matter much, because we know the story of his goodness and humility. Euphrosynos was the son of country folk, so poor and obscure as to be nameless. His family was poorer than the mice that lived in the empty little chapels in the countryside. The parents could scarcely feed, clothe and house their children. Euphrosynos never went to school. He never learned to read or write. To the end of his life he ...

If you want God in your heart, mind you don’t do anything unworthy of His will. Otherwise He’ll depart from you and you’ll lose the treasure within you. Respect Him as much as you can in all things and, as long as He resides within you, accept nothing that’s against His will, in case you anger Him and He leaves you.

After His dialogue with Nicodemus, Christ embarks on a monologue on His own work of redemption, under three headings: revelation, redemption and judgement. In the Gospel of Saint John (3, 11), the Lord says: ‘In all truth, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony’. ‘I’m telling you honestly’, the Lord says to Nicodemus, ‘that rebirth in this manner is my teaching and that of John the Baptist, and it’s real, because we speak of what we know’. In other words, ‘We preach what we know from a trustworthy source. ‘As for what we saw, this is confirmed by the Holy Spirit, Whom we ...

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Even if you’ve scaled the heights of the ladder of the virtues, still pray for the forgiveness of your sins.

It’s difficult for young people today to approach the mystery of repentance. Modern young people find it hard to approach the Church in general, or the clergy, because there’s now a certain prejudice against the Church. Today, the Church is ridiculed, it’s slandered, it’s attacked and reviled in the eyes of people in general and of young people, too, so that any of them who declare their faith become objects of mockery. And then modern upbringing- psychology, philosophy, politics- has given an anthropocentric character to people and this creates a false sense of self-salvation. People cultivate self-sufficiency, self-love and egocentrism. All of this is contrary to the spirit of repentance and confession. Some systems, such as existentialism, in fact stress that ...

We all know that the beginning of any fruit is the flower. It’s also clear that the beginning of our salvation is God’s decision regarding Mary, the Spotless and Pure Ever-Virgin. As we honour this birth today, we celebrate it as being of great importance. Because, in order that the whole year might be blessed by her, she was born in this month, which is the first of the Church’s year; and then she fell asleep into immortality in the last month, so that the intervening 10 months were all blessed by her birth and her life-giving dormition. We’ll briefly mention her birth and say whatever her grace inspires us to express. The parents of this child of God were Ioakeim ...

What forgiveness will we find when we’re only half Christians: that is, half with Christ and half with the devil? We’re Christians in order to imitate Christ and to obey His commandments.

The choir of the Fathers of Vatopaidi sings the short setting of 'What a strange wonder' at the vigil for the feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God. %audio%

The Saint Martyr Athanasios came from Koulakia (now Halastra), near Thessaloniki. He was originally a pupil of Athanasios of Paros, who was then in charge of the Thessaloniki School, but left to continue his studies on the Holy Mountain at the Athonias. After leaving the School, he went to Constantinople, where he became friends with Philimon, Patriarch of Antioch, who took him to Damascus with him for two years. He then returned to the Holy Mountain, where at that time Athanasios of Paros was teaching at the Athonite School. Thereafter he returned to his own village, where his faith was demonstrated in a devout life. One day, he was talking to a Turkish emir on matters of religion when the ...