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

Christ is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition, having abolished the enmity in his flesh (Ephesians 2:14-15). It seemed fitting to us to begin with this apostolic word the letter that we send to your piety, because our soul, like the contents of this letter, yearns for the attainment of peace. Certainly that peace which is not of this world, as the Lord said (John 14:27), of the peace which is not judged by the things that fall under our senses; of that peace which He Himself brought from Heaven, which, at parting, He gave to His disciples, which, finally, He wants us to keep with the Almighty Father, as He Himself said in His prayer to the Father: “I pray not for these only, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, that they may all be one; as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me” (John 17:20-21). He makes Himself an example to His believers,...

Let us not deceive ourselves that if we have done some alms, we can cover up fornication, theft, slander or laziness! The Lord Christ, in a Gospel, says: “These things it is lawful for you to do and those you should not do”. Hell is full of souls who hoped to reach Heaven . This hope without works of repentance is false, and this is from the enemy. God does not listen to someone who only says: “Lord, I have sinned, forgive me”, because repentance means restraint and humility . Therefore, God knows our heart, and if it is defeated and humbled He has mercy on it. Blessed Augustine said of David that he sinned once and wept all the days, and you sin all the days and never weep. If you have lost your soul, you have lost everything. If you win it, you win everything. Just cut the connection of your sins with the great sword of sincere repentance. Archim. Arsenie Papacioc

Life is happiness . These words may seem strange. How can you call this life happiness, if at every step we encounter failures, disappointments, bitterness? How much pain do people suffer. Life, some say, is work, and often thankless work - where can there be happiness? And yet, I repeat, life is happiness... Life becomes happiness for us when we learn to fulfill the commandments of Christ and love Christ. Then it will be a joy to live, it will be a joy to endure troubles, and before us will shine the unspeakable light of the Sun of Righteousness - the Lord. All the Gospel commandments begin with these words: “ Blessed, blessed are the meek, blessed are the merciful, blessed are the peacemakers …”. From this follows the truth that the fulfillment of the commandments brings people the highest happiness. Elder Barsanuphius of Optina

The Fathers said about a brother who lived near a great elder, that, entering the elder's cell, he stole. And the elder saw and did not rebuke him, but worked harder, saying that perhaps the brother was in need. And the elder had much hardship, hardly earning his bread. When the elder was about to die, the brothers surrounded him and, seeing the one who stole from him, he said to him: - Come near to me. And he kissed his hands, saying: - I thank these hands, for through them I go to the Kingdom of Heaven! And that one, humbling himself and repenting, also became a skilled monk, from the deeds he saw in that great elder. Extract from the Egyptian Patericon .

Elder, is it bad to strive to rise to certain high social positions? The love of glory is a great plague for man – this mania for acquiring dignities, positions, makes man resort to means condemned by his conscience and by the law of God. He may end up in a situation where he slanders his rival, in order to hinder his ascent and to raise himself. In addition to this reprehensible attitude, the person in question ends up unhappy himself. The anxiety of waiting appears: “When will I arrive, when, when?! The term has passed, and another has become a professor, and I have not; when will I arrive, what will I do now?!”. And if it happens that the dream becomes a reality as a result of his efforts and perseverance, he will be so attached to his new position that he will be ready to sacrifice any principle or belief, everything, lest someone take the place that he has achieved with so much effort. But if he fails to reach the coveted place, then he is unhappy, he considers himself a loser, an...

Search the Holy Scriptures, where everything is salvific. Read more of the New Testament than the Old Testament, because through them Christ speaks to us, who replaced the old Law with a new one, the Law of grace . But do not give up either the prophets or the psalms, which are of extraordinary beauty. What sounds more beautiful than: “ The heavens declare the glory of God, and the work of his hands proclaims its power ” or “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your great mercy and according to the multitude of your compassions, blot out my transgressions. Thoroughly wash me from my transgressions and cleanse me from my sins. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me”? Have you ever heard anything more beautiful than this psalm of repentance? The entire psychology of humanity is here, in Psalm 50. It encompasses the depths of our hearts. This psalm takes us to the depths of our hearts, where we see that we were born in sins and in iniquities; our mother conceived us...

How your morning prayer goes, so does your day. Prayer is the mirror of life . If you want to know what kind of life you have, pray and this and that, and… that will come to mind! What you see and what you experience when you pray, that is what you are. That is the life that you have when you pray. If you are scattered, then that is your life. But if you want to meet your life, then pray. If you want to see your life, pray. So it is a mirror of life, but it is also a mirror not only for us to see ourselves, but also to straighten ourselves. And you see that in the morning, especially women, sit in front of the mirror for a while and no one condemns them for this, because the world sees them, they have to comb their hair, to arrange themselves, that is it. Men sit less. But why do we walk with a disheveled soul? I should also tidy up my soul a little, because I am not only a body, I am also a soul. And then, in what mirror should I look to see my soul and tidy it up, so that I don't...

What a good model of teaching the Samaritan woman presents to us today! She had gone to get ordinary water, but at the spring of ordinary water she found the spring of salvation. It is clear that her soul was not completely absorbed by daily worries. Therefore, the Lord managed, in a few words, to shift her attention from earthly things to heavenly things and, under the pretext of drawing water, teaches her to seek that water after which the one who drinks it will never thirst. “ Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst, for the water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water springing up to eternal life ” (John 4:13-14). Hearing this, the woman said to Him, pleading: “Lord, give me this water!” The Holy Church, in her hymns on this day, draws our special attention to this moment and presents to us the Lord, Who calls us: “ Let anyone who thirsts come to Me and drink ” – expecting us, li...

The Savior of the world arrives at Jacob's well, the seer of the Pillar to heaven, of the Ladder of God. Now it was no longer a ladder, but God Himself had descended to earth. And He was thirsty and hungry and sweaty from the journey in the heart of the furnace of the day. He was infinitely thirsty for the love that He had planted in each of us in the water in the wombs of our mothers. He had given us water, and now no one gives it to Him anymore, because people, most of them, are not food and water and rest, but sharp stones on the way and thorns in the Path of God. God draws His soul higher than the heavens and yet, out of infinite humility, humble in the dust of the torrid noon. He searches, scrutinizes, and investigates with the radar of love. He feels the pain of each one, the thirst, the desire, the unfulfillment. He was near Jacob's well, in Samaria. Here, the people remained frozen in their veneration of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, without the Tabernacle of Moses, withou...

At the creation of the world, the earth was covered with waters, darkness, and depths, but “the Spirit of God—that is, the work of the Holy Spirit—was hovering over the face of the waters” (Gen. 1:2). The earth was invisible, and only the Spirit of God penetrated the darkness and depths. Then God made man “of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7). The expression “the Spirit of God” clearly shows that at the creation of the world, the Holy Spirit reigned and expressed, as a Master, the Godhead. But when God made man, then “he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.” This breath of life is a filling with the Spirit of God, which gives life to man made from nothing. It is the uncreated work of God, accomplished through the mediation of the Holy Spirit. But because God “made man of the dust of the ground,” man was dust, and dust does not become spirit. Therefore, God, by His breath, by His own outburst fro...

This Holy Apostle was a native of Cana of Galilee, known to our Lord Jesus Christ and His Most Pure Mother, because Cana is not far from Nazareth. When Simon had the lawful wedding, Jesus and his disciples were also called there, where, not having enough wine, the Lord turned water into wine. The bridegroom, seeing such a miracle, immediately believed that the Lord was the true God and, leaving his wedding and house, followed Him with zeal, for which he was called "Zealot", that is, zealous. Therefore, he was inflamed with such great divine love for Christ that he overlooked both his bride and all worldly things for the love of God, and made his soul the bride of the immortal Bridegroom, being numbered among the company of Christ's disciples, and was one of the twelve Apostles. And after he received with the other Holy Apostles the Most Holy Spirit, Who descended in the form of tongues of fire, he passed through Mauritania and Africa, preaching Christ and suffering for Hi...

Throughout the centuries, God has left among us holy people who illuminate the darkness, soothe the pain and strengthen hope in the most difficult times. Two of these saints are honored on May 9: the Holy Prophet Isaiah and the Holy Martyr Christopher. The lives and teachings of the two are similar. Even though they lived hundreds of years apart, they became true icons of courage and dedication. One was the voice of God in ancient times, the other, a bearer of Christ with soul and body. Both show us how, despite pain or rejection, man can remain steadfast in faith and love for his neighbor. Isaiah – the prophet of comfort and the coming of the Savior The Holy Prophet Isaiah lived over 700 years before Christ and is one of the most important prophets of the Old Testament. From his youth, he was called by God to proclaim the divine will to the people of Israel, to urge repentance and to comfort those oppressed by suffering. But Isaiah was not only a voice of justice, but also a herald o...

Plato, in the Dialogue Timaeus, stated that history is cyclical and that time is a dynamic measure of eternity . The history of Ancient Israel, as well as that of today, was a difficult one, with the inconstancy of ups and downs. But for each of our times, history descended from heaven, God sends us prophetic personalities, capable of changing its meaning, towards its salvation . Isaiah, the prophet-“evangelist” of the Old Testament from the 8th century BC, is such a man, not only instructed in the wisdom of the worldly, but above all “illuminated” by the fire of the red-hot coal of the revealed Word (6, 6-7). The prophet of “God’s salvation,” Isaiah, is the model that contemporary times would need: a model of politician-diplomat at the court of Ahaz, urging humanity towards times of messianic peace (2:2-4), a model of a man involved in community life, accusing those who “call evil good and good evil” (5:20), a model of a theologian of divine light, launching the call of eternity: “ Co...

You write to me that you are tired of earthly life. But have you forgotten what awaits sinful people in the afterlife? For it is a million times harder and more painful there than on earth, and those who have lived here by chance are not accepted into God's Paradise. Therefore, we must first obtain through repentance and tears the forgiveness of sins and pray to God to have mercy on us at His Terrible Judgment. It is better for Him to punish us here than to send us to eternal torment beyond, which we deserve because of our daily sins. Humble yourself, correct yourself, and consider yourself the worst of all people in the world. Venerable Joseph of Optina

The day of May 9, 2019, with the dawn, would bring with it lightning-fast news for the entire Holy Mount Athos, Hellas, and the whole world – Elder Emilianos Simonopetritul passed to the Lord. This news also reached the ears of the group of priests who had left the Iași and Neamț areas, who were waiting to board the ship that would take them from the Daphne port of Holy Mount Athos to the port of the city of Uranopolis. Among these priests guided by Father Petru Sidoreac was I. After making the sign of the holy cross and saying a short prayer each for the eternal memory of Father Emilianos, we plan and establish a return route to the country that will also include the Ormylia Monastery, where the old abbot lived for almost 20 years, rector of the monastery, the last years being years of serious illness that kept him bedridden and unable to speak to people, but with the possibility of speaking secretly with the Bridegroom Christ. Setting out on our journey, we all want to receive a bles...

When you begin to pray, you remember your sins and weep for them . That is how you should pray. Sometimes you feel peace and joy, and you think that these are from the enemy. If they were from the enemy, according to the sayings of the Holy Fathers, the joy would be confused, it would not bring peace and tranquility to the soul. And do not be surprised that the Lord gives you peace and tranquility in prayer, for this does not always happen according to your worthiness, but according to the unknown judgments of God . And therefore, when you feel such joy and tranquility, consider yourself completely unworthy of this gift of God and completely reproach yourself before the Lord, saying that because of your carelessness, you cannot keep this gift in yourself and that is why you are quickly losing it . Elder Joseph of Optina

Temptations are permitted to reveal your hidden passions, so that they may be fought, and thus the soul may be healed. And these are proofs of divine mercy . Therefore, confidently leave yourself in the hands of God and ask for His help, so that He may strengthen you in your struggle. Hope in God never leads you to despair . Temptations bring humility . God knows the patience of each of us and allows temptations according to our strength. But let us also take care to be vigilant and mindful, so that we ourselves do not lead ourselves into temptation. Trust in the good, powerful, and living God, and He will lead you to rest. After trials, spiritual joy follows. The Lord follows those who endure trials and tribulations out of love for Him. Do not be discouraged in spirit and do not be afraid . I do not want you to grieve and be troubled by everything that happens against your will, no matter how righteous it may be. Such grief testifies to the existence of selfishness. Be mindful of the...

He does it from time to time. He takes his sieve and begins to sift. He tests us and, at the same time, teaches us. “In trouble we remembered you,” (Isaiah 26:16), says the Prophet Isaiah. In the midst of troubles and temptations we remembered you, Lord! During the Occupation, but also after that, we drew closer to God. I remember my homeland, Messinia, when, somewhere around 1947, earthquakes occurred again, but not as devastating as the last ones that tested us. The churches were filled even then! After a “shake”, we all start running, then, after a while, we forget about God again. When the 1981 earthquake struck, a friend from Athens, a doctor, told me that at that very moment a certain acquaintance of his was arguing with his wife and was using all sorts of profanity. His wife was saying to him: “Don’t blaspheme, you unfruitful one, don’t blaspheme, because God will bring fire down from heaven!” He continued. At that moment, however, the earthquake came, which made him immediately...

What can we do when the grip of passions is stronger than the love of Christ? How do we pass from death to life? Archim. Zacharias: Kneeling and confessing to God precisely what is happening within us: “ Lord, You see, I am weak and cannot resist these passions without Your help. But You, Lord, come and dwell in my heart, and by Your power make me strong not only to resist these passions, but also to accept Your will as the law of my existence, which will raise my life above this world and its passions. ” Always, when we feel weak, we must confess our helplessness before God and call upon His help, humbly surrendering ourselves to His power. We must remember that with His help we can become victorious even over our helplessness. The victory is His, but He is pleased to share it with us. Archimandrite Zaharia Zaharou