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

– Father, in the early years of Christianity, Christians made public confession. Does this help? – Some were in the early years of Christianity, and some are now. This does not help today. – Why, Father? Then they had more zeal? – They had even more zeal and did not have the ones that people have today. Now, couples break up for no reason; they are no longer like they used to be. People have moved away from the Sacrament of Confession, and that is why they are drowning in thoughts and passions. How many do not come and ask me to help them with some problem of theirs, but they do not confess or go to church? “Do you go to church?” I ask them. “No,” I answer. “Have you ever confessed?” “No. But I came to make myself well.” “But how? You have to repent of your mistakes, confess, go to church, take communion when you have a blessing from your confessor, and I will pray for you to get well. Do you forget that there is another life and we must prepare for it?” “Listen, Father, what you tell ...

Not tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. From today, from this moment, let us turn to God

Do you see how a man sheds tears or even cries, and his eyes are restless at the hour of death? Because he sees how the opposing powers come, the devils come to snatch his soul. And the soul trembles as an autumn leaf trembles at the slightest breeze. For the angels say: “ After your deeds, Hallelujah! We would have helped you, but you should have helped us with your deeds. ” Therefore, before that fearful hour arrives, before this first judgment of the soul comes, and then the great Judgment at the Second Coming, let us prepare ourselves, let us be careful, let us hurry now! Not tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. From today, from this moment, let us put repentance into our souls and turn to God. And when God sees this good intention on our part, He will help us. And He will increase this small intention of ours and make it great, so that we may be worthy of the salvation of our souls. Father Ephrem the Athonite

Live cleanly, not for image, but for the salvation of the soul

Man, in his weakness, often seeks the appreciation of others. He wants to be seen, praised, and recognized. He worries about opinions, about the image, about the words of people. But all of this is fleeting. Today you are in their minds, tomorrow you are forgotten. The world moves on, and what seemed so important is lost in time. Instead, what truly remains is your relationship with God. He never forgets. He sees every thought, every deed, every tear, and every prayer. He does not look at appearances, but at the heart. He does not appreciate the noise of the world, but the sincerity of the soul. Therefore, wisdom is not to live for the eyes of men, but for the eyes of God. Let us not measure our lives by applause, but by the peace of the heart. Because true peace comes when you know that you are in His will. It does not mean to distance ourselves from people or to stop loving, but to stop depending on their judgment. To do good not for praise, but out of love. To forgive not because we...

If you can't run fast, enjoy the one who runs very fast

Listen, if you cannot run fast, rejoice in the one who runs fast, and do not grieve. If you want to grow spiritually, rejoice when the nuns grow and pray to God that they may always grow, and that you may reach their measure. When I was a novice brother[1], there lived in the monastery another novice brother, about the same age as me, who had reached a very high spiritual measure; his face shone. He was a model and example in everything; he was very fighting and diligent. He had so much piety that even the older Fathers would stand up out of respect when he passed in front of them. I used this brother more than all the books I had read until then, for he was a living example. Once, my heart ached. It happened that this brother passed by my cell, and I told him to pray for me. He had no time to leave, but my pain immediately passed. Another time, a demoniac came to the monastery and asked the Fathers to heal him. Then the abbot said to this brother: “Come, go and say a prayer so that th...

Nothing is accidental in this life

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