An Elder said; “It is better to live with three men who fear the Lord than with ten thousand who do not have fear of God. For in the last days, among the hundreds in the cenobitic monasteries, very few will be saved; for all will turn into devotees of the refectory, and to gluttony, love of power, and avarice. Many are called, but few are chosen” (St. Matthew 22:14).
The Evergetinos: A Complete Text (Volume One)
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Categories: Apostasy · Arrogance · End Times · Passions · The Evergetinos · avarice · carnal
KONTAKION
Plagal of Fourth Tone
THE preaching of the Apostles and the doctrines of the Fathers confirmed the one Faith in the Church. And wearing the garment of truth, woven from the theology on high, she rightly divideth and glorifieth the great mystery of piety.
OIKOS
IN the lofty preaching of the Church of God, let us hearken as she crieth: He that thirsteth, let him Come to Me and drink. The cup I bear is the cup of wisdom. This drink have I mixed with the word of truth. I pour fourth the water, not of contentions, rather of true confession. As Israel (holy Church) doth now drink thereof, it beholdeth God, Who saith: See, see, that I AM He, and have not changed. I AM God, I AM first, and I AM hereafter, and besides Me there is none other. Hence, they that partake shall be filled, and shall praise the great mystery of piety.
The Synaxarion of the Menaion … + On this day we commemorate the Seven Holy Ecumenical Synods (Councils): that of the 318 God-bearing Fathers who gathered together in the First Council in Nicaea against the Arians in the year 325; that of the 150 who who gathered together in Second Council in Constantinople in the year 381 against them that fought against the Holy Spirit; that of the 200 who gathered together in Third Council in Ephesus in the year 431 against Nestorios; that of the 630 who gathered together in the Fourth Council in Kalcedon (Chalcedon) in the year 451 against the Monophysites; that of the 165 who gathered together in the Fifth Council in the year 553 against Origen and his followers; that of the 170 who gathered together in the Sixth Council in Constantinople in the year 680 against the Monothelites; and that of the 350 who gathered together in the Seventh Council in Nicaea for the second time, in the year 787, against the Iconoclasts.
Verses
The Seven Councils, with divine words as weapons,
Have put to flight seven heretical factions.
By the intercessions of Thy Saints, O Christ God, have mercy on us. Amen.
Categories: Ecumenical Councils · Holy Fathers · Holy Spirit · Orthodox Christianity
Sobriety is a spiritual method or way that entirely frees the man, with the help of God, from impassioned mental representations and impassioned words and wicked works when it persists and is willingly travelled upon. Travelled upon, it bestows, to the extent that this is attainable, secure gnosis of the God who is incomprehensible and the solution of divine and hidden mysteries. It is productive of every commandment of God, of the Old as well as of the New, Testament, and causative of every good of the Age to come. In its proper sense, it is purity of heart, which very thing because of its grandeur and beauty, or, to speak more precisely, because of our negligence, is extremely rare today among monks. Christ blesses it when he says ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.’ [Matt. 5, 8.] Being a thing of this sort, it is bought for much. Sobriety persisting in a man becomes the guide of a righteous life pleasing to God. It is also the stepping-stone to contemplation; and it thoroughly teaches us to set the three parts of the soul in motion justly and to guard the senses securely; and daily it increases the four cardinal virtues in him who shares in it.
- St. Hesychios the Presbyter
Categories: Sobriety · St. Hesychios
A thick rope is made from thin, fibrous strands of hemp. One thin fiber cannot hold you tied nor can it strangle you. For you will easily, as in jest, break it and free yourself from it. If you are tied by a thick rope, you can be held bound and even be strangled by it. Neither can you break it easily nor free yourself from it. As a thick rope consists of thin and weak fibers, so the passions of man consist of minor sins. Man can break off and turn away from the beginnings of minor sins. But, when sin after sin is repeated, the weave becomes all the more stronger and stronger until in the end a passion is created, which then turns man into some kind of monster as only it knows how. You cannot easily cut it off, nor distance yourself from it, nor can you divorce yourself from it. O, if only men would beware and take care of the beginnings of sins! Then, they would not have to endure much in freeing themselves from passions. “To cut off rooted passions is as difficult as cutting off the fingers,” said a monk from the Holy Mountain. To free himself from sinful passions, St. Aimilianos was helped by thinking thoughts of death and, understandably, the Grace of God, without which it is extremely difficult to rid oneself of the fetters of passion. To think often of impending death, to repent and to implore Grace from Almighty God, these three save a man from the bondage of sin. St. Sisoes was asked, “At which time can passions be uprooted?” The saint replied, “As soon as one passion takes root in you, uproot it immediately.”
-Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich
Categories: Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich · Passions
