Saint of God, intercede in our behalf !

St. Abba Anthony the Great

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.

- 1 John 4:18

Each time we have a bad thought

In the desert, Christ opposed the temptations of the devil by immediate rejection, even giving the theological bases for His answers. It is a lesson for us. Each time we have a bad thought, we should reject it immediately, and refuse to enter into dialogue with it. But this practice can only be assimilated by long ascetic effort, and by the action of grace in us.

- Elder Sofrony

diakrisis of the Divine will

… diakrisis [discernment]  of the Divine will is one of the most delicate and complex matters in our lives. Especially for those who try to discover it through prayer – even though this is required, according to the saying ‘knock, seek, ask and it will be given you’ (Mt. 7:7) – it must nevertheless be preceded by patient endurance, trials and tribulations and experience so as to remove the passions and the individual will, which the exceeding subtlety and sensitivity of divine grace abhors. Anyway, whether it is arduous or whether it requires patient endurance, the method of prayer remains a requirement as the only means whereby we communicate with God, and by which we shall also know His Divine will.

- Elder Joseph the Hesykast

How to Conduct Ourselves in Wealth

If you are rich, that is, if you have much more than you need for the basic requirements of your life:

1. Never think, as many foolish people among the rich do, that you owe your wealth to your intelligence, your cleverness, or your energy. Although you, perhaps, really are intelligent, clever, and energetic, never attribute the acquisition of your wealth only to these attributes; for consider: who gave you your intelligence? Who gave and gives you health and strength, so that you can work? Who blesses your labors with the success you desire, while many other people no less intelligent and hardworking than you are hardly able to get their daily piece of bread? And who looks after your wealth, which you could lose at any moment from any number of circumstances? Is it not God, your Creator, Who does this? Remember the word of the Spirit of God, 1he Lord … maketh rich (1 Kings 2:7) and so do not take pride in your wealth, but be humble when you are rich, consider it a gift from God, and fervently thank the Lord God for it.

2. When you pray, never in your prayer ask the Lord God for permanent continuation of your earthly plenty, and especially do not ask for increase of wealth, because, although the Lord God does give wealth to some people, nowhere is it commanded for us to ask for wealth, but it is said that even when, so to speak, it “flows in” to us by itself, we should set not [our} hearts thereon (Psalm 61: 11).

3. Do not cling to wealth with your heart, lest it begin to rule your heart and you become its slave, but hold your heart in relationship to it in such a way that you would be able to get along comfortably without it, as soon as it is the Lord God’s will to take your wealth from you. If you become attached to wealth, it will immediately draw you towards countless vices and put you in an extremely dangerous state of soul. Jesus Christ says that wealth can be very perilous for the soul: a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom if heaven (Matt. 19:23), and they that will be rich fall into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition, as the holy Apostle says (I Tim. 6:9).

In making use of wealth, beware especially of acting as did the foolish rich man that the Lord mentioned in the Gospel (Luke 16: 19 and following). While he himself made merry sumptuously, he preferred to give even the crumbs from his table to dogs, rather than to the poor man wasting away from hunger at the doors to his house. After his death, that rich man immediately found himself in hell (Luke 16:23) and will burn there eternally, not receiving even a drop of water from anywhere to cool his tongue (Luke 16: 25, 26).

How to Live a Holy Life

by Metropolitan Gregory of St. Petersburg

How to Conduct Ourselves in Poverty

If you are poor, that is, if you are hard-working and in spite of all your labors you barely get enough to provide daily bread for you and your children, then bear your poverty with equanimity. Bear this difficulty with equanimity until the time that it is pleasing to the Lord God to take it from you; bear it to death itself, if it is pleasing to Him. Always be cheerful, do not grief, do not grumble, and especially do not become despondent, no matter how your poverty deepens and how long it lasts. Especially avoid using any kind of improper means that are contrary to God’s will to rescue yourself from poverty. Not only should you not use any kind of theft, any kind of deception, forced seizures of property, and so forth, but except in the most unavoidable extremes, do not even ask for alms. Lead not a beggar’s life; for better it is to die than to beg, teaches the Wise one (Ecclesiasticus 40:28). So that you may be able to bear up better in this disposition of soul, do the following:

1. Continuously remember the words of the Holy Spirit, the Lord maketh poor (I Sam. 2:7). But when the Lord God places any of us in some condition, He places him in that condition because that person can always be saved much more easily in the condition appointed him. Because the Lord God has no other desire concerning us except that we be saved (I Tim. 2:4), whatever He may do with us He does to facilitate our salvation.

2. Never forget that the Lord God never will lay upon you a burden greater than you can bear (I Cor. 10:13), and that He is always near you to offer you His aid (Matthew 28:20). He will never forget you or leave you. No mother can ever forget the off-spring of her womb; even less can He forget you, as He Himself affirms through the holy prophet: yea, a woman may forget the son if her womb, yet will I not forget thee (Esaias 49:15). Thus, if you in your poverty are not fainthearted, the Lord God will without fail lead you to salvation–to eternal bliss.

3. As often as possible, remember the earthly poverty of our Savior. He is God; everything is His: both what is in the heavens, and what is on earth, in the earth, and beneath the earth, but He lived on earth in complete poverty, as He Himself said,foxes have holes, and birds if the air have nests; but the Son if man hath not where to lay his head (Luke 9:58). For what purpose did He live so poorly? Of course, not for any other purpose than to incline all of us to accept poverty with equanimity and to be satisfied with what is most necessary for sustaining life; for poverty, as St. John Chrysostomos says, leads to piety more easily than wealth.

4. Remember often the much-suffering Job, whom the holy Apostle James holds up as an example of patience. Job was utterly impoverished. All his flocks, all his slaves, all his children had been taken away from him, and he said, Naked came lout of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; as it seemed good unto the Lord, so hath it come to pass: blessed be the name if the Lord (Job 1:21). Even when he had been struck by a malignant and excruciating disease and when even his closest friends and his wife mocked him–even then he did not lose his patience, but said placidly to everyone, What? shall we receive good at the hand if God, and shall we not receive [endure] evil? (Job 2:10).

5. Call to mind as often as possible that the majority of the saints spent their lives in poverty. The holy apostle says of the majority of the saints of the Old Testament that they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves if the earth (Heb. 11:37, 38). In the New Testament, as is known, all the best people passed their lives in the greatest poverty: all the holy apostles, all the first bishops, all the first priests, all the ancient desert-dwellers. Of the last, many completely lacked clothing to cover their nakedness and, like the wild animals, lived only on green plants.

6. If in your poverty some other burdens oppress you, again do not lose your spirits, but comfort yourself with holy thoughts. For example, people hate you or despise you. Think: “What does it matter? My Lord and Savior was God, but they hated and despised even Him. He was not at all diminished because of this. Should I not endure hatred and scorn, when the Lord also says, Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you (Luke 6:22).” Do they oppress you and insult you? Think: “What does it matter? Who did they oppress and insult more than the Lord Himself? Finally, they oppressed and insulted Him to the point that they crucified Him. But what did He lose because of this? For His patience God the Father exalted Him to such a degree that at His name should bow every knee … of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth (Philip. 2:10).”Think further: “If people do not despise and humiliate someone, how can that person get practice in humility? If they do not insult him, how can he learn patience, meekness, and so forth?”

7. Finally, think more often about the heavenly blessings, which you will surely enjoy if you patiently endure your poverty to the end. The pauper mentioned by the Lord in the Gospel was on earth poor as almost no one else, and how glorious was the end of his life. The angels took and carried his soul to the bosom of Abraham. There his condition was suddenly changed. He had not had the slightest joy during his entire life, but now he is delighting in the greatest joys, continuous and eternal. The same will happen also with you: you will not have to endure necessity always; you will not suffer always; a reward is being prepared for you, and the reward for the faithful in heaven cannot compare with any of our earthly sorrows. The holy Apostle says, the sufferings if this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us (Rom. 8:18). Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart if man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him (I Cor. 2:9).

- How to Live a Holy Life by Metropolitan Gregory of St. Petersburg (1784-1860)

we suffer according to temperament

The joyful and the sad should be advised differently. Before the joyful are to be set the sad things that accompany [eternal] punishment, but before the sad the joyous promises of the kingdom should be set. Let the joyful learn by severe warnings what things they should fear, and let the sad hear about the rewards that they may anticipate. Indeed, it is said to the former: “Woe unto you who laugh now, for you will weep:’ [And to the latter it is said]: “I will see you again and your heart will rejoice and no one will take your joy from you:’ Some are joyful and sad not by circumstances, but by temperament. These people should be informed that certain vices are often linked to certain personalities. For example, the joyful are subject to luxury, while the sad are prone to despair. It is necessary, therefore, that everyone not only consider what he suffers according to temperament, but also understand what worse things press on him in association. Otherwise, if by not fighting against what plagues him, he may succumb to the vice that he assumes does not threaten him.

- St. Gregory Dialogos: Pastoral Guidance

Our true country

We regard paradise as our country — we already begin to consider the patriarchs as our parents: why do we not hasten and run, that we may behold our country, that we may greet our parents? There a great number of our dear ones is awaiting us, and a dense crowd of parents, brothers, children, is longing for us, already assured of their own safety, and still solicitous for our salvation. To attain to their presence and their embrace, what a gladness both for them and for us in common! What a pleasure is there in the heavenly kingdom, without fear of death; and how lofty and perpetual a happiness with eternity of living!

- St. Kyprian of Carthage

of fire and the Spirit

Christ baptizeth in the fire of the Last Day them that disobey, and think that He is not God; but through the Spirit and by uncreated energy (grace), He doth renew through water all who acknowledge His Divinity, delivering them from their iniquities.

- Ode Six, Canon One of Holy Theophany.

the ‘wonder’ of pride

The proudest person is not he who brags about himself with pride, but he who brags about being very humble.

He who justifies himself when he makes mistakes, transforms his heart into a demonic refuge and will continue to err, but even more so. If he does not crush his ego, he will be crushed by his egoism to no avail. He who justifies his passions gradually falls seriously ill, his cough even betraying him then.

Whoever is not aware of his sinfulness and brags about himself, suffers from two (spiritual) illnesses, scabies and flakes. No matter how much he wants to cover his wounds and look dignified, the itching harasses him and the abrasions betray him.

Those who do not accept criticism, even from their loved ones, receive the mockery of all those with a worldly attitude, and, in the end become quarrelsome and spiritually useless. They resemble those planks that refuse to be sanded by the carpenter in order to be made into furniture. They end up being used for concrete or as scaffolding, are stepped on, covered with mud until they fall apart and end up in the fire.

He who is very proud, especially when ill tempered, derives no benefit from the very humble when they humble themselves before him; on the contrary, he oftentimes becomes even more insolent.

Humility, however, causes even the devil to disappear. This is why Divine Grace deserts the proud and goes to the humble.

He who has a great idea about himself reveals that he is outside of himself (demented), for, instead of being grateful to God for all the good He has given him, he wrongs Him, appropriating for himself the gifts of God.

He who continually boasts about himself continually wrongs himself for he will never have spiritual flights but continual falls, until he collapses, since he does not have a contrite heart and a humble attitude.

All those who don’t experience falls in this world and yet have all the pride in the world, reveal that their pride has exceeded its limits (has, in fact, reached a satanic degree), and that their fall occurred from the back side of a high peak (a luciferian fall).

He who has much pride is worse than one who has a demon, for pride continues to swell until it suddenly bursts, whereas the man with an unclean spirit, besides being tormented and paid back (or collecting his savings, if he is not to blame), is necessarily humbled in the eyes of men, finally being liberated by God, with a twofold profit remaining in his soul.

Pride greatly obstructs the Grace of God. Even a mere prideful thought adulterates our virtues; not unlike when bird droppings fall on fried eggs, making  both the fried eggs and the frying pan fit only for the garbage.

Those who are able to endure the very proud without, however, flattering them, are the most humble, the most faithful and just, for they will be continually wronged and looked down upon by the proud.

We owe greater gratitude to those who humble us, wrong us, and douse us with venom, than to those who nurse us with honour and sweet words, or feed us with tasty food and confections, for bile is the best medicine for our soul.

Let us not examine whether we were justly or unjustly embittered, out of love or viciousness, or whether we are at fault slightly or not at all. We should accept with joy the spiritual benefit that every trial leaves behind, glorify God for everything and be grateful to the people who wrong us.

Blows are necessary for the salvation of our soul because they purify the soul. The more someone scours and scrubs his clothes, the cleaner they get. The same applies to the octopus and the squid; the more you beat them, the softer they become and the more the fluid is washed away.

On the contrary, the worldly caressing of praises is very harmful to souls which are spiritual damaged and the virtuous get paid back in this vain life (with praises) when their virtues are flouted. We should rather receive fewer praises than are our virtues, so that the spiritual scale may incline toward the just on the Day of Judgement, that we might see the face of God.

Woe unto us, when they advertise us as comely watermelons when we, in fact, within we are pumpkins. (God help you, wretched Paisios!)

Woe, and three times woe, unto him who is careless and gives everyone the impression that he is a saint. In this, he eternally wrongs himself, since when he dies no one will pray for the repose of his soul, even though he will need it; instead, everyone will beatify him. (Unfortunately, I was not careful about this either and have transgressed against my soul. Pray that the Good Lord grant rest to my soul.)

Worldly relaxation and being at ease in our thoughts never bring rest to the soul, neither in the present life, since divine consolation is absent, nor in the life of the age to come. Instead, they begin torturing us in this life and have their end in the eternal and unbearable torment of Gehenna (‘hell’).

He who is wounded because he abased himself in the eyes of others due to his carelessness yet is not hurt because he has wounded Christ, will be continually grieved and downcast, and will fall constantly until he changes his ways and humbles himself. Only then will he be saved from his temporal falls and the eternal descent that awaits him.

Whoever rejoices when admired by people is mocked by demons.

No one will ever find spiritual fruits in a vainglorious man, but if he does find some, they will be hollow. For the humble man, however, to be in spiritual poverty is to have spiritual riches.

Worldly people, who feed their bodies with rich food and their souls with flattering words, remain hungry and spiritually empty. The thrones and power they pursue will be left behind in this vain world. They will be left alone with their dreams, which will torture them more in the next life, having become the cause of their loss of heavenly goods. (cf. James 4:7-5:9) Those, however, who struggled spiritually, preferred plain food and a humble stool (instead of thrones) and sat themselves down on the seat – judging their own selves – are released from the trial of the Righteous Judge on the Day of Judgement and inherit Paradise as children of God who have philotimo.

When we seek to be justified in this life and avoid being rebuked, we reveal that the worldly way of thinking is still robust within us. This sorrow has no repentance whatsoever but rather seeks human recognition, which poisons the soul and body with the bitter gall that it exudes.

Whoever weeps with philotimo, because he has wounded Christ with his sins, immediately receives divine consolation, in proportion to the degree of his sorrow.

Until a sensitive soul who has philotimo is spiritually strengthened, it is not benefited by the detailed analysis of its faults because the evil one wars against it using its hypersensitivity, in order to induce anxiety. The evil one does not go against the grain in this case, but goes with the flow. In other words, he tries to increase the cries and distress in order to cause grief to the soul and strangle it with anxiety.

Women, naturally, are warred against more due to the over-sensitivity that the evil one fosters, inasmuch as their very tender heart and their less logical minds, in comparison to men, do not help them. (Men have more logic and toughness but a less sensitive heart.)

If it happens, however, that there is a woman who has a sharpened mind in devilishness, and who has by nature more wickedness and less love, and yet considers these traits as manliness and brags about them, then – God forbid – she can surpass both the Pope in infallibility and Mussolini in brutality.

The worst enemy, even greater than the devil, is evilness combined with pride, because not only does this defile the virtues and render them useless, but exhausts the body as well, and plunges the soul into Gehenna (‘hell’).

Just as a small hole in a tin causes food to spoil, because air seeps in, similarly, a single prideful thought, if it crosses our mind, puffs us up and makes us boastful, rendering the virtues useless.

Most of the time, egotism causes us the greatest spiritual harm, because egotism is the most vigorous and wrongheaded child of pride.

Of course, if the “I” did not exist and human beings used only the “you, he or she” humility, love, and the blessing of God would exist in the world and people would then live a heavenly life on earth. May the Good God grant this blessing to His creatures. Amen.

Elder Paisios

worldly flatterers

Worldly people, who feed their bodies with rich food and their souls with flattering words, remain hungry and spiritually empty. The thrones and power they pursue will be left behind in this vain world. They will be left alone with their dreams, which will torture them more in the next life, having become the cause of their loss of heavenly goods. (cf. James 4:7-5:9) Those, however, who struggled spiritually, preferred plain food and a humble stool (instead of thrones) and sat themselves down on the seat – judging their own selves – are released from the trial of the Righteous Judge on the Day of Judgement and inherit Paradise as children of God who have philotimo.

- Elder Paisios of Mount Athos