There is no profit in studying doctrines unless the life of one’s soul is acceptable and conforms to God’s will. The cause of all evils is delusion, self-deception and ignorance of God.
Featured image: Diptych from the vestry of Ipatevskii Monastery. Kostroma. Photographer Sergeĭ Mikhaĭlovich, 1911. Prokudin-Gorskiĭ Collection, Library of Congress
If you yearn to be enriched with holiness you should abide in your own cell, enduring hardship and praying with humility. For the cell of one rightly pursuing the monastic life is a haven of self-restraint. But all that lies outside, and especially what is found in market places and at fairs, constitutes an obscene medley of ugly sounds and sights, drowning the wretched soul of the nun who exposes herself to them.
One might also call this evil world a raging fire that devours those who come into contact with it and bums up every virtue they possess. The fire that did not burn was found in the desert (cf. Exod. 3:2)….you should abide in your cell and hide yourself a little until the tempest of passion has passed over you. When it has passed, spending time outside your cell will do you no harm.
– St. Gregory Palamas. To the Most Reverend Nun Xenia, Philokalia, Vol. 4
Featured image: Sinai desert. Photo department of American Colony, c. 1920-1933. Library of Congress
Fathers and mothers: Go and lead your child by the hand into the church.
Not one heresy that has rocked the Church is as dreadful as the heresy of iconoclasm. Demonic in its acts and words, it denies Christ and destroys His personhood. On the one hand, it foolishly claims that it is impossible to depict Christ’s bodily form. In so doing it denies the incarnate Logos; even if He did become incarnate, He cannot be depicted.
It says that He is a phantom-which is typical of the Manichean gospel. On the other hand (iconoclasm) destroys to the foundations and burns up God’s temples and all sacred objects on which are depicted the face of Christ, of the Theotokos, or any of the saints.
Featured image: In the icon studio of the St. Elizabeth Convent
How mistaken are those people who seek happiness outside of themselves, in foreign lands and journeys, in riches and glory, in great possessions and pleasures, in diversions and vain things, which have a bitter end! In the same thing to construct the tower of happiness outside of ourselves as it is to build a house in a place that is consistently shaken by earthquakes.
Happiness is found within ourselves, and blessed is the man who has understood this. Happiness is a pure heart, for such a heart becomes the throne of God. Thus says Christ of those who have pure hearts:I will visit them, and will walk in them, and I will be a God to them, and they will be my people. II Cor. 6:16) What can be lacking to them? Nothing, nothing at all! For they have the greatest good in their hearts: God Himself!
– St. Nektarios of Aegina, The Path to Happiness
Featured image: source
“He experienced much and hid much. Within his hard outer shell, he concealed his sweet, spiritual fruit. A very harsh father to himself, but also a very loving father to his children. He never beat them with the law.… As minister of the Most High, he did not tread the earth, and as co-administrant of the sacraments he shone upon the world.”
– Elder Paisios
St. Arsenios, godfather of St. Paisios of Athos, shepherded the Anatolian region of Pharasa while under Ottoman rule. After Turkish-perpetrated genocidal violence, he guided his flock along a 400 mile journey to Greece, dying 3 months after their arrival. A collection of Psalms, as assigned by St. Arsenios for particular occasions, was brought on the journey from the mother church in Pharasa. Later, this Psalter as a Book of Needs was shared by St. Paisios of Athos, and published in O Geron Paisios by Hieromonk Christodoulos.
This Psalter is arranged by need. It also contains a table so that a particular Psalm can easily be found. Further, at the end of each Psalm is the page of the next, in case one would like to read them in order. I designed and arranged, formatted, then hand-bound with hard covers these editions. The first edition is sold out.
The body cannot be purified without fasting and vigil, the soul without mercy and truth, and the intellect without contemplation of God and communion with Him. These pairs constitute the principal virtues in these three aspects of the human person.
– St. Ilias the Presbyter, “A Gnomic Anthology.” The Philokalia, Vol. 3
Featured image: Pyx made by Archimandrite Pimen, 1736. From the vestry of the Ipatevskii Monastery, Kostroma. Photographer Sergeĭ Mikhaĭlovich, 1911. Prokudin-Gorskiĭ Collection. Library of Congress
People hate the truth for the sake of whatever it is they love more than the truth. They love truth when it shines warmly on them, and hate it when it rebukes them.
Featured image: Ascension of Our Lord Russian Orthodox Church. Karluk, Kodiak Island Borough, AK. Library of Congress
All people have a cross to carry. There is no man in this world without a cross. Those who met Christ from the time of their childhood have for their Cross, the Cross of our Christ. Those who met Jesus and have repented on behalf of their previous life, have a cross, the cross of the good and penitent thief. And those who have met Jesus and have not received Him, have in their life the cross of the unrepentant thief. So we all have our cross. Everyone carries his cross and ascends his own Golgotha, the Golgotha of his personal life.
– Archimandrite Chrysostom, Abbot of the St. Nikodemos Holy Monastery in Pentapolos, Greece. From the homily: “A Few Flowers from The garden of St. John of Sinai”
Featured image: Abbot Alexios, 79, center, reciting a prayer during the early morning prayer in the church of Xenophontos Monastery, Mt. Athos. source