It feels the betrayal
Elder Joseph of Vatopaidi Breaking the commandment brought about the fall, which is our separation from God and everything to do with Him. God accepted our repentance, return and submission to Him once He’d repaired our relationship through His own love and holiness. According to the Fathers, the most...
It doesn’t go away
Saint Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia Some Christians, either through their own fault or that of others, become trapped in the sickness of guilt. Secular people become trapped in a worse sickness: that of pride. If you’re close to Christ, religious guilt disappears with repentance and confession. But the pride of...
Christ and the Social Problem
† Archimandrite Georgios Kapsanis, Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Gregoriou The more that people are cleansed of the passions, the greater their capacity for real communion with God and other people. Those who take a romantic and external view of the human person transfer wickedness from the person...
It has to find its way
Saint Basil the Great From our first steps in life, the soul must be brought to the performance of every kind of good work, when it’s still pliable, smooth and soft as wax. It responds easily, depending on the forms and shapes presented to it, by those who are...
They feel alone
Elder Tadej Vitovničk There are times when people despair and lose heart, which, in its own way, is a kind of pride. If people love the things of this world, they’re sure to be brought to disappointment, because they aren’t going to find God in them. All people feel...
The Good of Our Soul
Saint Isaac the Syrian It takes a great struggle, because the passions are very powerful. But by God’s grace those who are courageous and fight with all their strength will be victorious. Bodily effort and study of the holy Scriptures preserve the purity of the mind. And then it...
On Not Despairing
Saint Amfilokhios Bishop of Iconium Saint Amfilokhios’ feast day is the 23rd November There was another brother who, after sinning, repented and then withdraw into solitude. It happened, though, that he struck his foot on a rock and injured it so badly that blood came pouring out of the wound....
It doesn’t protest
A wicked conscience is when people transgress God’s moral law, living in order to impose their own will, which is whatever their ego dictates. The conscience of these people has been distorted by their darkened understanding and the dominion of the law of sin. It no longer reacts, nor does...
It’s the same
Archimandrite Zacharias Zacharou We should also note that we priests often lose the wonderful entry into the presence of God at the Holy Sacrament of the Anaphora, because we weren’t in God’s presence enough before we came to the Divine Liturgy. The same is true for all of us...
The result of judging others
Saint John of the Ladder Listen to me, listen to me all you bad judges of other people’s sins. Because if it’s true- and it really is- that ‘For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged’ (Matth. 7, 2), then rest assured that we shall fall into...
