If you are a friend of Christ you should have as friends persons who are of benefit to you and contribute to your way of life. Let your friends be men of peace, spiritual brethren, Holy Fathers. It is of such that our Lord was speaking when He said: My mother and brethren are those who do the Will of My Father Who is in Heaven. (Matthew 12:49-50).
– St. Theodoros the Great Ascetic of Edessa
Featured image: Mother Theodosia. source
Man is sublime when he cares for the living; man is more than sublime when he cares for the dead. A man often cares for the living out of selfishness. But what selfishness can there be in a man’s caring for the dead? Can the dead pay him, or express their gratitude?
Some animals bury their dead; giving them to the grave, they give them over to forgetfulness. But when a living man buries a dead one, he buries a part of himself with the dead man and returns home carrying a part of the dead man in his soul. This is especially clear – terribly clear – when a kinsman buries a kinsman, and a friend a friend.
Featured image: St. Nikolai with soldier, WWII
Simplicity in our lives and the practice of the Jesus prayer, is a knife against the enemy.
– Elder Christodoulos Katounakiotis
Featured image: Elder Christodoulos stands on the right, with a disciple. source
A person who is raised by the king from extreme poverty to wealth, who is invested by him with high office and a splendid uniform and commanded to stand in his presence, will be full of devotion for the king and will revere him as his benefactor. He will be fully aware of his splendid robes, of his high office and the wealth he has been given. Similarly, if a monk has truly withdrawn from the world and its affairs and has come to Christ, if he is fully conscious of his calling and has been raised to the heights of spiritual contemplation through the practice of the commandments, then he will look unwaveringly on God and be well aware of the change that has taken place in him. He will see the grace of the Spirit always illuminating him – the grace that is called a garment, the royal purple or, rather, that is, Christ Himself, if it is indeed true that those who believe in Christ are clothed in Christ (Gal. 3:27).
– St. Symeon the New Theologian, “Practical and Theological Texts.” Philokalia, Vol. 4
Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again; for forgiveness has risen from the grave.
Featured image: Pascha bread decoration.
If we want to endure every affliction and trial readily, let us long to die for Christ and let us keep this death continually before our eyes. For we have been commanded to take up the cross and to follow Him (Matt. 16:24); and this means that we must be prepared and ready for death. If we have this disposition we will endure every affliction, visible and invisible, much more easily. How can he who is anxious to die for Christ’s sake have any difficulty in putting up with suffering and distress? Yet we think afflictions are hard to bear, for we do not keep death for Christ’s sake before us or fix our mind always on Christ. But if we want to share His inheritance we must be willing to share His sufferings with an equal zeal. Those who love the Lord may be recognized by the fact that because of their hope in Him they bear every affliction that comes, not simply courageously but also wholeheartedly.
– St. Symeon the Metaphrast, “Paraphrase of the Homilies of St. Macarius of Egypt,” Philokalia, Vol. 3
Unbelievers are busied with philosophy, reflection and achievements, but all of this is short term consolation and melancholy and loneliness soon attack once more. Evil is the abuse of good on the part of rational beings who have fallen into base philosophising and create chaos in themselves and around them with their thoughts and desires.
May the Lord give you the wisdom and strength to bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ, with love and peace. May the mistakes, faults, and sins of the brethren be mine.
Featured image: Mt. Athos, 1917-18. From a private photo album, shot during the First World War by a French “Aviateur.” Panteleimonos monastery, blacksmiths. source
A life lived in humility and with an irreproachable conscience brings peace, tranquility, and true happiness. But wealth, honor, glory and exalted position often serve as the cause of a multitude of sins, and such happiness is not one on which to rely.
Featured image: Monk of the Konevsky Monastery in a cell at a tea table, c. 1900s. Photographer Bulla Karl Karlovich. source