Glory to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Savior

Once, in order to correct a brother for his many faults, the Elder, using examples from nature and life, said to him: ‒ Know, my child, that nothing is accidental in this life. Everything has a purpose and nothing happens without a cause. Not a needle falls from a fir tree unless God wills it. Therefore, you should not grieve, whatever happens to you. This is how we become holy! Look, now you grieve because of your household, but they are actually helping you to reach spiritual heights. If it weren’t for them, you wouldn’t grow at all. God gave them to you. You will say to me: “But is it good for a person to suffer because of their loved ones?” Well, that is exactly what God wants from us! And you are very sensitive and, from anger, your stomach hurts; you feel empty in your stomach, don’t you? ‒ Yes, Father, but it is so bad to be sensitive. ‒ Yes, it is bad to be sensitive as you are, because, because of your anger, you have acquired various physical illnesses. Don't you know yet...

Holy Communion is truly the greatest desire

The heart is the deepest part of us. I could say that it is an extra being in our being. Why does God say: “I made your heart to live in it”? He does not live anywhere. God, Who feels so praised in the glories of heaven, takes pleasure in living in a human heart. It is the place that He made especially to be hosted. The mind is subordinate to the heart. Our being of responsibility and true joy through union with God is the heart. Purification of the heart would therefore be a reason that must be respected in view of Holy Communion with the Body and Blood of the Savior. To share in the Body and Blood of the Savior means to be one with Him, to truly be a doer of His words and to truly recognize that you were lost and have found yourself. Because, yes, it is necessary to lose yourself. But not in the sense of abandoning the true teaching, but of giving up a weak or strictly human identity and finding yourself in an angelic personality. Holy Communion is truly the greatest desire from heav...

Depression arises from a lack of reconciliation of the soul with itself, with God, or with people

– Life has never been easier than it is now. And yet, there is more and more suffering in the world. Where does it come from? – Depression is a state of decline. It arises from a lack of reconciliation of the soul with itself, with God or with people. It is a state of conflict, of inner rupture, between the soul and the intellect. A lack of balance. Depression means, first of all, a lack of love. People suffer when they can no longer find shelter in the other souls around them. When they cannot find free support from their fellow men, people become discouraged and in their relationship with God, it is difficult for them to imagine a loving God. But if people still betray, because they are powerless, God is the only one who never betrays. However, it is very difficult to reach the measure of the relationship with God, without relating to people. We also need confirmation from our fellow men, that we are not useless in the world. That is why one cannot escape depression without that unco...

The Church Must Return to the Holy Fathers

For the Church to be rejuvenated, she must look to her treasures, to the preserved Tradition, to her sources of life. The Church must return to the Fathers. From there, she will take what is pure, authentic and true, in order to regenerate herself. Based on this, we could say that renewal does not mean eliminating and modifying all previous elements; developing new theological theories; inventing new ideas, methodologies or forms. We are often tempted to invent new sermons to use in our pastoral and ecclesial activities. True renewal consists in searching, theologizing and using existing sources. This gold mine already exists; it is stored and available. We only need to dig deeper to discover it and to offer it in its pure form. This is the meaning of renewal. In the early 1900s, the Russians implemented such a renewal. The Russians of the diaspora, the educated, intellectual Russian Orthodox Christians, successfully carried out this experiment. When they left Russia, they founded scho...

Healing through the spiritual father

When I was younger, I lived with my father. And it happened to me that after we ate, I would get up from the table and steal a piece of food, prompted by the devil, and eat it without the elder's knowledge. So, having persisted in this way for a while, I was overcome by this habit and could no longer resist it. My conscience rebuked me, but I was ashamed to tell the elder. However, it happened, through the care of the man-loving God, that some brothers came to the elder for spiritual benefit. They asked him about their thoughts. And the elder answered: – Nothing harms the monks and delights the devils more than the concealment of thoughts by the spiritual Fathers. Then he spoke to them about abstinence. When he said this, I came to my senses and, thinking that God had revealed my mistakes to the elder, I humbled myself and began to cry. Then I took out the rosary from my bosom, which I had been stealing according to my evil habit, and throwing myself on the ground I asked for forgi...

I know your illness, don't worry, you will recover and be fine

The first time I went to the grave of Mother Matrona was in the fall of 1995. Then I prayed, took sand and went home to Nizhnevartovsk. In our church, the nun is loved by everyone and many, during the holidays, go to Moscow to get to her grave. I had been holding the sand for a year and a half, when my sister Maria told me about her illness. She had been diagnosed with a malignant tumor in her thyroid gland. The therapy had to follow several stages: surgery, radiation treatment, hormonal preparations. Maria was reading the book about the life of the nun, and when she found out that I had sand from her grave, she asked me to give it to her. And so, as I gave her the sand, the nun appeared in her dream. She caressed her neck with her hand and said: " I know your illness, don't worry, you will recover and be fine. " Now Maria no longer needs surgery. Here is how the nun helps us. Even being at a great distance, she helps all the helpless . A parishioner of the Church of the ...

The war of thoughts

"Until death, during all this time that the soul is in the body, it is impossible for a person not to have thoughts and war. The basic cause of thoughts is the war of the devil. Most of the thoughts are devilish. The devil's goal is to throw a person into sin, either by thought or by deed. Saint Macarius the Egyptian calls consenting to cunning thoughts spiritual fornication. That is why he says: "Keep your soul pure, for it is the bride of Christ." Thoughts are like a "stream of water" before which a person often panics. That is why the devils first fight us with thoughts and then with things. If we give in to thoughts, then little by little they push us towards sin in deed." Hieromonk Benedict the Aghiorite

Many are troubled by the thought of praying for the dead

Many are troubled by the thought of praying for the dead; they wonder what the point of this prayer is and what we hope to achieve through it... If you believe that prayers for the living help them, why would you not consider it possible to pray for the dead as well? Death is not the end, but a certain stage in the destiny of man, and this destiny does not harden like a stone at the moment of death. The love that our prayers express cannot be in vain; if love has power on earth, but has no power after death, then this would tragically contradict the word of Scripture that “For love is as strong as death”. Metropolitan Anthony of Souroj

Let us imitate the saints

Let us imitate the saints, let us imitate their faith, let us believe as they believed! And in what did they believe? In the invisible God, Who shows Himself in visible signs. Let us also imitate their warmth! What miracles did each saint perform! What lions did he conquer! What kings did he despise! Each saint surpassed all human thought because he had divine zeal. Just as we light a candle and a little heat is made, so let us also make a little heat in our souls. Finally, let us imitate their humility! But what does humility mean? While we are sinners, afflicted, let us nevertheless have the courage to confess: "Yes, here is God!" Or let us have the humility to confess His divinity, as the saints confessed! The place where God is becomes His dwelling place, and we also become God's dwelling places. Archimandrite Emilianos Simonopetritus

The mind of the lazy is the devil's workshop

For those who do not work hard and spend their lives in idleness, idleness gives birth to evil thoughts, and evil thoughts lead to evil deeds. The mind of the lazy person is a workshop of devils, in which the plans of the future downfall of the lazy person are forged and in which the lonely man weaves the snares of vices with which, sooner or later, he will be entangled. It is not by chance that laziness is listed among the seven deadly sins. From the ancient Egyptian ascetics, we have a wise apophthegm: “The monk who works is tempted by a single demon, and he who wastes time in vain is surrounded by a multitude of demons without number.” Archimandrite Seraphim Alexiev

The humble keep their spiritual wealth in God's treasury

– Elder, I see that I do not like to struggle in secret. Is that why I feel an emptiness inside me? – This requires great humility. Listen, if you want to love asceticism in secret, read the life of the Venerable Isidore[1], so that you will know what gold the Saint had, what virtues she had, and throw away your false money, those copper ones, and from now on collect gold gold and hide them in your heart and lock them up well, so that no one will steal them. Fools for Christ are not empty inside, but overflow from the overflow of the love with which God has filled them. Great Saints are these. They seem to speak foolishly, but in reality they give wise advice, which has great depth. Their humility is very great and they do not consider themselves at all. That is why God also makes them worthy to know the divine mysteries and to acquire many charisms. – Elder, how is it that some Pharisaites, although they saw Saint Arsenius performing so many miracles, did not understand him, but judge...

The honor of God is infinitely greater than the honor of men

Where the Kingdom of God has touched man and where man has called this Kingdom through his humility, through his love and the Kingdom of Heaven has touched the earth, those things never die. This is what God promises us. In the end, what God’s commandment does remains more known and more powerful even in this world than those who seek only their honor and pride and their money. The honor of God is infinitely greater than the honor of men. The honor and trust and faith of men in us and their love is so fleeting! Today men praise you, tomorrow they gossip about you, they judge you with incredible ease! On Palm Sunday they received Him and honored Him with branches and laid their clothes before Him and five days later they cried: Crucify Him, crucify Him! These are men, we are all like that. Now, how can people, says the Savior in one place – I paraphrase – how can people seek the honor of people, which is fleeting and false, and not the honor of God? Well, the honor of God is impermanent...

The Treasure of Orthodoxy

My friends, do we ever think about how valuable the treasure that has been given to us by the Lord is? As Orthodox Christians, we have this precious treasure, and if we were to try to estimate it, we would be amazed by its overwhelming value. That is, if we can even come close to a true estimate! How can we estimate something that is truly priceless? However, we will attempt a quick assessment of this treasure so that we may become aware of its value. First, we have the Holy Scriptures, which are a wonderful treasure in themselves. If we were to realize what Scripture is, especially the New Testament, written in our own language (Greek). This is a great privilege for those of us who are Hellenic. We also have the Holy Liturgy, through which we have the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Christ, the very Body of the Master, which makes us one Body and one Blood with Him. We have the seven Ecumenical Councils and the Local Councils with the canons of the Church, which...

The Passion of the Love of Money

Beloved, both good and bad things will last longer in us, becoming stronger. One could see this happening in all other circumstances in nature. A plant, for example, when it is newly planted, can be easily pulled out, but with the passage of time, it takes root strongly, and it is as easy as at the beginning, but greater effort is needed. And a building recently built can easily be overturned by those who are not satisfied with it, while if it is well-established, it will later bring many difficulties to those who would like to tear it down. Even a wild beast, if it has nested somewhere for a long time, will be difficult to drive out from there. Therefore, I advise those who have not yet been conquered by the passion of wealth not to let themselves be possessed, for it is easier to guard against falling than to rise after falling; and to those who have already been conquered by this passion and torn apart, I announce that if they will surrender themselves to a doctor with the word, I p...

She became a mother at 53: "Saint Nectarios was and is with us. His miracles happen all the time"

That Saint Nektarios interceded with God, my prayer to bring a child into the world and to raise him according to His Word is undoubtedly true. After a long period in which I prayed to bring children into the world – because I wanted twins, because I have a brother, and I am convinced that a child is good to have a little brother or sister – and I had almost despaired, since I had already turned 53, behold, the miracle happened like any miracle, in a completely special way! It was at the beginning of last year (ed. 2023), I think the end of January, when I decided to watch the movie “Man of God”, at least online. I had missed the time when the film was playing in the cinema in Târgoviște, where I live, and I felt sorry for having missed the opportunity to see a film whose reviews were very good, besides the fact that it was about the life of Saint Hierarch Nectarios of Aegina, to whom I had prayed for my father, diagnosed with cancer a few years ago, and whom he helped to heal. That wa...

How do we heal spiritual wounds?