“The goal of reading is the application, in our lives, of what we read. Not to learn it by heart, but to take it to heart. Not to practice using our tongues, but to be able to receive the tongues of fire and to live the mysteries of God.” Elder Paisios the Athonite

If we were to receive the entire universe as a gift, that gift would be less than the Grace of God. St. Nikolai Velimirovich

The First Ecumenical Council [Nicaea, 325] decreed that the Church year should begin on September 1.   The month of September was, for the Hebrews, the beginning of the civil year (Exodus 23:16), the month of gathering the harvest and of the offering of thanks to God. It was on this feast that the Lord […]

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because of which He anointed Me. He sent Me to proclaim good news to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to preach liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind; to declare the acceptable year of the Lord, the day of recompense, and to […]

“He (Fr. Sophrony) said many times that the conditions of the modern world are such that hesychastic life, as he himself had known it in the desert, is no longer possible. But the only thing which is left to us now is the Liturgy. If we celebrate the Liturgy with reverance and attention, we find […]

Why do demons wish to excite in us gluttony, fornication, greed, anger, rancor and other passions? So that the mind, under their weight, should be unable to pray as it ought; for when the passions of our irrational part begin to act, they prevent the mind from acting rationally. St. Nilus of Sinai

O Christ, who are covered with light as though with a garment, who for my sake stood naked in front of Pilate, clothe me with that might which you caused to overshadow the saints, whereby they conquered this world of struggle. May your Divinity, Lord, take pleasure in me, and lead me above the world […]

If you wish to remember God unceasingly do not reject as undeserved what happens to you, but patiently accept it. St Mark the Ascetic

And I, a sinner, have been trying to love God for more than forty years, and cannot say that I perfectly love Him. If we love someone we always remember him and try to please him; day and night our heart is occupied with that object. Is that how you, gentlemen, love God? Do you […]

“Every physical and spiritual task which does not involve pain, toil and trouble never bears fruit for the person who engages in it, for the Kingdom of Heaven is taken by violence and the violent lay hold of it – ‘violence’ here meaning the laborious exercise of the body in everything.’ Elder Porphyrios,  Wounded By […]