Sometimes, people think they’re praying fervently, but, in their heart, their prayer doesn’t bear fruit, that is the peace and joy of the Holy Spirit. How is this? Because they’re praying without having genuinely repented of the sins they committed in the day that’s passed.
They say about blessed Anthony, that he never thought of doing anything that was of more benefit to himself than to others. This was because he believed that any gain for other people was the best thing he could do. And again, they said about Abba Agathon that he used to say: ‘I wanted to find a leper so that I could take his body and give him mine’. Do you see what perfect love that is? And if he had something useful he couldn’t rest until he’d passed it on to someone else. He once had a chisel for cutting into rocks. Another monk came to see him and, since he saw it and liked it, Abba Agathon wouldn’t let him ...
Conscious, calculated or artificial humility is a mix of numerous and varied stratagems through which human pride attempts to attire itself in the glory of humility in the eyes of the blind world, the world which clings to its own things, the world which fawns on faults when these are concealed behind the mask of virtue, the world that hates virtue when this appears before it in its divine simplicity and its unwavering submission to the Gospels.
The prophet Habakkuk , one of the twelve minor prophets of the Old Testament, lived in Palestine in the 7th century B.C., at a time before the southern kingdom was conquered by the Babylonians (587) and lost its religious centre, the Temple of Solomon. In his book, he paints a picture of social injustice as a result of religious decadence and moral turpitude. He gives the causes of the suffering of the people and attempts to rally them. He goes up into the watch-tower, where he sees God, and receives the commandment to record this theophany in the form of a hymn. He expresses his complaint to God that those who love Him and are righteous suffer hardships and are oppressed ...
When people fall ill, they go to the doctor to have tests done, to diagnose their illness and to be given the appropriate medication so that they’ll recover. But the greatest sickness is sin. And the remedy is confession and repentance. We have to attend church and live within the grace of God.
An excerpt from Put Bogopoznanja (The Path to Knowledge of God) Only the nous that has been cleansed of the passions and the darkness of sin and has been sanctified by the Grace of the Holy Spirit is in a position to sense and conceive of and love that which is holy, to live from it and for it. Only those who are pure can come to know the only Pure One. ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God’. First they’ll see Him in the face of His saints, because ‘God is at rest in the saints’. They will also see there every divine gift which has been placed within every one of God’s creations. The human conscience ...
The Lord visited every city and region of Judea, where He cured all manner of diseases and bodily ailments. He preached repentance, bringing back those in error to the knowledge of the truth and confirming His teachings with strange miracles. He did so because people are usually more easily convinced by words rather than by deeds. As He went up to Jerusalem, Jesus passed through Jericho. Outside the city, a certain blind man was sitting. He was blind as regards his bodily eyes, but not in terms of the eyes of his heart, since Jesus told him that he was saved because of his faith. The man asked helped from those who passed by, or to put it another way, he ...
‘Don’t let us fall into temptation that we can’t withstand’. As if we were athletes wishing to compete and asking for the strength to resist our opponent, which in this case is sin. The Lord, Who took our sins upon His shoulders and forgave our errors, is able to protect us and guard us against the stratagems of the devil who wages war against us. The devil is the enemy who always engenders evil in order to overcome us, but if we trust in God, we don’t fear him.
In this Apostolic reading from St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, we see an inspiring description of the suit of armor a Christian needs for warfare. Of course, the kind of example that St. Paul is presenting is a spiritual one, aimed at effectiveness in the spiritual warfare of a Christian. This is because the Christian has a constant enemy, the Devil (Satan), who with his tricks is trying to deceive people and lead them away from Christ. In order to help us appreciate the magnitude of this danger, St. Peter adds: “… Your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). That is why St. Paul urges us, like a ...
Continual study of the Holy Scriptures is the light of the soul and it protects us from the passions.
Nous and reason In order to understand better the difference between the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ use of human reason (the latter being rationalism), it would be useful to set out in brief the teaching of the Church regarding the way it works. According to Saint Maximos the Confessor and the Orthodox Patristic tradition, we have two centres of cognition. In other words, there are two paths, two ways through which we can come to know things, natural creation and God Himself. These two centres are the nous (which the Fathers identify with the heart) and reason (that is logic, thinking and the brain) The seat of the nous is the heart and that of reason (or logic) is the brain. The nous is ...
In the first years I was a spiritual guide, I used to tell people: ‘Lean on Christ’. Now I tell them: ‘Cleave to Him’.
When the soul’s churned up by anger, befuddled by drink or bothered by terrible sorrow, the intellect can’t retain the remembrance of Christ, even if you try to force it to do so. Because, darkened as it is by the cruelty of the passions, it loses its spiritual sensitivity. But if the soul is free of these passions, even if it forgets the name it desires for a short time, the intellect immediately recovers its vigour and takes a strong hold on its much-desired and redemptive prey.
Temptations aren’t stronger than God’s gifts. With the power of the name of Jesus, our Saviour Who gives us strength, we can do anything. If your faith’s weak, a speck of dust will seem like a mountain to you.
We might say that rationalism is excessive confidence in our reason, its elevation into the supreme authority and absolute value. It’s a sinful way of thinking and living rather than a simple sin in itself. In essence, it’s unbelief. Rationalism is the most characteristic and devious expression of pride, which is at the root of all our sins; it steals into every one of our actions; and it poisons all our good works. It leads to self-justification and, in the end, to unrepentance. Thus closing the door on divine mercy. Pride is the beginning and end of all evils. According to the late Elder Sophrony, in Essex, pride is ‘the implacable enemy of human life; it lies at the root ...
How very, very sweet Jesus is! Full of joy, full of love, full of peace, full of serenity, full of rejoicing, full of elation. How very, very sweet Jesus is!
If you pray in the morning as you should, your whole day will be blessed. Don’t be downcast over efforts that seem fruitless. Remember how you learned to knit, or read and write. What efforts you made then… Now you can do all of these things easily. The same will be true of your spiritual development. For the moment, it seems difficult to defeat bad thoughts. But it’ll become easier over time.
The feasts of the Mother of God are a matter of joy for the whole Church. Our Lady, who is honoured at these, is the person who glorified the whole of the human race when she answered God’s invitation to participate in His incarnation, thus ushering in the dawn of the time of our salvation. The feast of the Entry of the Mother of God reminds us that Our Lady is the most important person in the task of our salvation. Without her presence, our return to paradise would have been nigh impossible. This feast was established in the 6th century, in Jerusalem, on the basis of the ancient tradition of the Church and is also mentioned in texts by Saint Sofronios ...
Some people say, and believe they’re right in doing so, that we should ‘get along well with everybody’, meaning our behaviour shouldn’t cause people not to like us and that we should be friends with everybody. But do Christians who wish to have Christ in their lives really have this as their aim? Saint Paul advises: ‘If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all’. (Romans 12, 18), hinting that it isn’t actually possible to have peaceful relations with everyone, even though that’s what we would prefer. In another Epistle (2 Cor. 13, 11), Saint Paul urges us to ‘agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with ...
We have weaknesses, passions and faults deeply rooted within us, many of which are also inherited. These can’t be cut off by any spasmodic effort, nor by worrying or stressing about them, but only by patience and persistence, by endurance, by care and attention. Excessive sorrow conceals pride. This is why it’s harmful and dangerous. It’s often exacerbated by the devil to throw us off course.
