A man deadened by the passions is impervious to advice and will not accept any spiritual correction.
– St. Thalassios the Libyan, “On Love, Self-control and Life in Accordance with the Intellect.” Philokalia, Vol. 2
A man deadened by the passions is impervious to advice and will not accept any spiritual correction.
– St. Thalassios the Libyan, “On Love, Self-control and Life in Accordance with the Intellect.” Philokalia, Vol. 2
Do not try to embark on the higher forms of contemplation before you have achieved complete dispassion, and do not pursue what lies as yet beyond your reach…Do not pursue theology beyond the limits of your present state of development: it is wrong for us who are still drinking the milk of the virtues to attempt to soar to the heights of theology, and if we do so we will flounder like fledglings, however great the longing roused within us by the honey of spiritual knowledge.
– St. Theognostos, “On the Practice of the Virtues, Contemplation, and the Priesthood.” Philokalia, Vol. 2
Featured image: “Nasa Bro, Mo.” c. 1860-1900. Photographer Ole Tobias Olsen. National Library of Norway.
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
Orthodox Christians must steadfastly remain in Orthodoxy, preserve oneness of mind with one another and un-hypocritical love, guard purity of soul and body, reject evil and unclean intentions, temperately partake of food and drink, and above all adorn themselves with humility, not neglect hospitality, refrain from conflicts and not give honor and glory in anything to earthly life, but instead await a reward from God: the enjoyment of heavenly goods.
Featured image: The cross of St. Sergius of Radonezh, with which he blessed the Venerable Irinarkh at the founding of the monastery. From the Prokudin-Gorskiĭ Collection. Photographer Sergeĭ Mikhaĭlovich, 1911. Library of Congress
Nothing so fills the heart with contrition and humbles the soul as solitude embraced with self-awareness, and utter silence.
And nothing so destroys the state of inner stillness and takes away the divine power that comes from it as the following six universal passions: insolence, gluttony, talkativeness, distraction, pretentiousness and the mistress of the passions, self-conceit.
Whoever commits himself to these passions plunges himself progressively into darkness until he becomes completely insensate. But if he comes to himself again, and with faith and ardor makes a fresh start, he will once more attain what he seeks, especially if he seeks it with humility.
Yet if through his negligence even one of the passions that we have mentioned gets a hold on him once more, then the whole host of evils, including pernicious lack of faith, moves in and attacks him, devastating his soul till it becomes like another city of Babylon, full of diabolical turmoil and confusion (cf. Isa. 13:21).
Then the last state of the person to whom this happens is worse than his first (cf. Matt. 12:45), and he turns into a violent enemy and defamer of those pursuing the path of hesychasm, always whetting his tongue against them like a sharp double-edged sword.
– St. Gregory of Sinai, Philokalia, Vol. 4
Featured image: St. Herman Russian Orthodox Church, King Cove, AK. Jet Lowe, 1990, Library of Congress.