Pavlos Mouktaroudis From the moment when our first ancestors ‘inclined their ears’, paid attention, to the proposition of the devil that they set aside God’s commandment and eat the fruit which wasn’t blessed for their consumption, they suffered death. Their decision to eat that fruit resulted in the severance Read more…
Protopresbyter Georgios Dorbarakis ‘Whoever falls is pitiable. But more wretched is someone who entices another into falling because that person then bears the burden of both, as well as the burden of pleasure tasted by the other’ (Saint John of Sinai, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, discourse 15). The saint Read more…
Metropolitan Agathangelos of Fanari At the sacrament of the bloodless sacrifice, we interact with the Cross of the Savior, since the Cross is the glory of Christ and the glory of the Church. But the Lord says that those who wish to follow him must first deny themselves and Read more…
Protopresbyter Themistoklis Mourtzanos ‘People beyond the passions are revolted with excessive hatred by evil; those who have progressed even further beyond the passions are voracious for the riches of the virtues’ (Saint John of the Ladder) These days we’ve identified wickedness only with whatever conflicts with secular laws. Anything that Read more…
Saint John of Kronstadt It’s difficult to trample down the passions, which become like our natural members. Saint Paul says: ‘Put to death your members which are on earth’. When you’re constantly vigilant, when you pray and practice self-control all the time, then, with God’s help, you’ll manage to Read more…
Saint Nil of Sorskij During the period of relentless warfare, we must arm ourselves against the spirit of ingratitude and blasphemy, because it’s with those weapons that the enemy attacks us at that moment. Satan defeats people with doubt and fear and directs wicked thoughts at them like arrows: Read more…
Saint Nil of Sorskij Sorrow We have a great struggle to wage against the evil spirit of sorrow, which brings the soul into despair and perdition. If the sorrow is occasioned by other people, we have to suffer it with joy, and pray for those who have saddened us, Read more…
Saint Nil of Sorskij Avarice The passion for the acquisition of wealth, said the Fathers, is not part of human nature and is due to a lack of faith and people’s sick way of thinking. This is why it requires no small effort to combat this passion, if, with Read more…
Elder Ephraim of Arizona Do not feed your passions by yielding to them, so that you do not suffer pain and affliction later! Labor now, as much as you can, because otherwise, if the passions are not tended to, in time they become second nature, and then try and Read more…
Metropolitan Ioïl (Frangkakos) of Edessa, Pella, and Almopia ‘When he heard this, he became sad’ The nobleman who approached Christ wasn’t a person of bad intentions. On the contrary, he was well-disposed, a strict observer of the commandments of the Law and, indeed, the sort of person who was Read more…