On Self-Restraint
Book of the Elders Some monks from the skete set out to visit Abba Anthony. So they got on a boat and there found another Elder who also wanted to go the same place. The brothers didn’t know him, though. Sitting amidships, they talked about the sayings of the...
Human Tape-recorders
Saint Paisios the Athonite Because of so much reading, people today have ended up as tape-recorders and their cassettes are full of superfluous things. But according to Abba Isaac, teaching without action is a ‘repository of shame’. You see, lots of people who are interested in sports read sports...
Saint Anthimos, the Fool for Christ (+1867)
Saint Anthimos was from Sofia, Bulgaria, where he was a married, parish-priest. In 1841, after his wife reposed, he went to Mount Athos and was tonsured as a monk at Simonopetra Monastery. He began to act like a fool for Christ in order to hide his spirituality and closeness to...
Let’s not be overwhelmed
Saint Ambrose of Milan ‘Don’t let us fall into temptation that we can’t withstand’. As if we were athletes wishing to compete and asking for the strength to resist our opponent, which in this case is sin. The Lord, Who took our sins upon His shoulders and forgave our...
True Knowledge of God and of the Self
Saint Justin Popovich An excerpt from Put Bogopoznanja (The Path to Knowledge of God) Only the nous that has been cleansed of the passions and the darkness of sin and has been sanctified by the Grace of the Holy Spirit is in a position to sense and conceive of...
Saint Nicholas, the Saint of the Seas
Alexandros Christodoulou Saint Nicholas was born at the south-east corner of Asia Minor, in the town of Patara, in the 3rd century (at the time of the persecutions of Diocletian and Maximian) of devout and rich parents, who had been childless for many years. From an early age it...
Faith as a Prerequisite for Salvation, in the Prophet Habakkuk and the Apostle Paul
Protopresbyter Spyridon Lontos The prophet Habakkuk , one of the twelve minor prophets of the Old Testament, lived in Palestine in the 7th century B.C., at a time before the southern kingdom was conquered by the Babylonians (587) and lost its religious centre, the Temple of Solomon. In his...
Syrian Saints: Barbara of Heliopolis & John of Damascus
James W. Lillie The Holy Great Martyr Barbara lived and suffered during the reign of the emperor Maximian (305-311). Her father, Dioskoros, was a rich pagan, a prominent citizen in Ilioupolis in Syria. After the death of his wife, he devoted himself to the upbringing of his only daughter....
Sermon on the Apostolic Reading – 14th Sunday of Luke (Ephesians 6:10-17)
Metropolitan of Pisidia Sotirios In this Apostolic reading from St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, we see an inspiring description of the suit of armor a Christian needs for warfare. Of course, the kind of example that St. Paul is presenting is a spiritual one, aimed at effectiveness in...
Great faith
Rafael Ch. Misiaoulis, Theologian The Lord visited every city and region of Judea, where He cured all manner of diseases and bodily ailments. He preached repentance, bringing back those in error to the knowledge of the truth and confirming His teachings with strange miracles. He did so because people...
It seems hard
Saint Theophan the Recluse If you pray in the morning as you should, your whole day will be blessed. Don’t be downcast over efforts that seem fruitless. Remember how you learned to knit, or read and write. What efforts you made then… Now you can do all of these...
Saint Andrew, Christ’s First-Called Disciple
Alexandros Christodoulou Andrew the Apostle was one of Christ’s twelve disciples. He came from Bethsaida, a town located on the western bank of Lake Tiberias. He worked in the family business run by his father, Jonah, which was based on the rich fishing to be had in the lake....
