~ Active Faith

Let us not only be hearers of the Divine words of our Savior. Let us diligently, in accordance with our strength, fulfill His commandments. The Lord will not disdain our labors and the Kingdom of Heaven will enter our heart, and no one will be able to take our joy from us.

~ The Jesus Prayer

But the question arises: where is the key to the opening up of spiritual joys? To this there is one answer: in the Jesus Prayer. There is great power in this prayer. It has varying degrees. The very first is the simple utterance of the words, "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." At the highest degrees it attains such power that it can move mountains. Of course, not everyone can attain to this, but to utter this great prayer is not difficult for anyone, and the benefit is enormous. This is the most powerful weapon for the struggle against the passions. One person, for instance, is proud. Another is overcome by lustful thoughts... A third is envious and has no strength to fight against it? where does one get this strength? Solely in the Jesus Prayer. The enemy distracts us from it in every way: "Well, what is this nonsense of repeating the same thing when neither the mind nor the heart takes part in the prayer? Better to replace it with something else...." Don't listen to him, hes lying; continue laboring in the prayer, and it will not leave you fruitless.

All the saints held to this prayer, and it became so dear to them that they wouldn't have agreed to exchange it for anything. When their mind was distracted by something else, they suffered and strove to begin the prayer again. Their striving was similar to the desire of a thirsty man to drink. Sometimes a man does not manage to satisfy his desire due to the lack of water; then, finding a spring, he drinks insatiably. Thus did the saints thirst to begin the prayer, and they began it with ardent love.

~ The Jesus Prayer

One must seek peace and light and strength in God through the Jesus Prayer. When it becomes very hard for you and gloom surrounds you, stand before the icon, light the lampada if it hasn't been lit, kneel if you are able, or else just say "Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." Say it once, again, a third time- say it so that it's not just your lips that are pronouncing it, but in such a way that it reaches your heart. And then, the sweetest Name of the Lord will without fail reach your heart, and little by little the melancholy and grief will subside and your soul will become bright. A quiet joy will reign in it.

~ Faith

[F]aith is not the fruit of intellectual search, or of Pascal's 'betting'. It is not a reasonable solution to the frustrations and anxieties of life. It does not arise out of a 'lack' of something, but ultimately it comes out of fullness, love, and joy. ... It is the only possible response to the divine invitation to live and to receive abundant life.

~ God's Gift

All that exists is God's gift to man, to make man's life communion with God. It is divine love made food, made life for Man. God blesses everything He creates, and, in biblical language, this means that He makes all creation the sign and means of His presence and wisdom, love and revelation: 'O taste and see that the Lord is good.'

~ The Nativity

Because the Good One saw that the race of man was poor and humbled, He made feasts as a treasure-house, and opened them to the slothful, that the feast might stir up the slothful one to rise and be rich.

Lo! the First-born has opened unto us His feast as a treasure-house. This one day in the whole year alone opens that treasure-house: come, let us make gain, let us grow rich from it, ere they shut it up.

Blessed be the watchful, that have taken by force from it the spoil of Life. It is a great disgrace, when a man sees his neighbor take and carry out treasure, and himself sits in the treasure-house slumbering, so as to come forth empty.

In this feast, let each one of us crown the gates of his heart. The Holy Spirit longs for the gates thereof, that He may enter in and dwell there, and sanctify it, and He goes round about to all the gates to see where He may enter.

In this feast, the gates are glad before the gates, and the Holy One rejoices in the holy temple, and the voice resounds in the mouth of children, and Christ rejoices in His own feast as a mighty man.

~ Illness

On hearing that your Glory had been severely afflicted with grief and sickness, I condoled with you exceedingly. But learning presently that the malady had entirely left you, I soon turned my sorrow into joy, and returned great thanks to Almighty God for that He smote that He might heal, afflicted that He might lead to true joys. For hence it is written, Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth (Heb. xii. 6). Hence the Truth in person says, My Father is the husbandman, and every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he will take away; but every branch that beareth fruit, he will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit (John xv. 1, 2). For the unfruitful branch is taken away, because a sinner is utterly rooted up. But the fruitful branch is said to be purged, because it is cut down by discipline that it may be brought to more abundant grace. For so the grain of the ears of corn, beaten with the threshing instrument, is stript of its awn and chaff. So the olives, pressed in the oil-press, flow forth into the fatness of oil. So the bunches of grapes pounded with the heels, liquify into wine. Rejoice, therefore, good man, for that in this thy scourge and this thy advancement thou seest that thou art loved by the Eternal Judge.

~ Fasting

For on the days of the fast, counsel and admonition on that subject are indeed not at all necessary; the very presence of these days exciting even those who are the most remiss to the effort of fasting.

~ Fasting

Brethren and fathers, in my lowliness I rejoice over you, because you are walking in harmony, conducting yourselves peaceably and continuing the season of the fast with endurance. And this is for your salvation and for our hope; for peace and harmony are a considerable good in a community, already evils are kept far away: disorder and instability, contradiction and slander, disobedience and pride and any other wickedness that may exist!

~ Pascha

Brethren and fathers, Lent is already galloping past and the soul rejoices at the imminence of Pascha, because by it it finds rest and is relieved of many toils. Why did this thought sound for me in advance? Because it is as if our whole life directs its reason contemplating the eternal Pascha. For this present Pascha, even though it is great and revered, is nevertheless, as our fathers explain, only a type of that Pascha to come. For this Pascha is for one day and it passes, while that Pascha has no successor. From it pain, grief and sighing have fled away; there everlasting joy, gladness and rejoicing; there the sound of those who feast, a choir of those who keep festival and contemplation of eternal light; where there is the blessed breakfast of Christ and the new drink of which Christ spoke, I shall not drink of the fruit of this vine, until I drink it with you new in the kingdom of my Father. Of this he spoke to his disciples when he was about to ascend to heaven, I am going to prepare a place for you and, if I go, I will prepare a place for you. I am coming again and I will take you to myself, so that where I am you maybe also. And where I am going you know, and the way you know. And a little further on, On that day you will know that I am in the Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. And elsewhere, Father, I wish that where I am they may be with me also, so that they may see my glory, which you gave me, because you loved from before the foundation of the world. But because this concerns not only the Apostles, but also ourselves, he also said, I do not ask this only for them, but also for those who through their word believe in me, so that all may be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you, that they may also be one in us. What could be more comforting than these words? What could be more appealing? What soul can they not soften? What heart not prick with compunction, even should someone say that the human heart is a nature of stone? With thoughts like these the saints bore all that they bore, considering afflictions as joys, constraints as freedoms, struggles as delights, harsh training as relaxation, deaths as lives. I beseech you, my brother, should not we also, since we have the same aim and seek the same Pascha, bravely and courageously bear our present condition, not falling, not succumbing to despondency, but rather roused with greater fervour watching for the wicked serpent who works to deceive us by the passions, transforming himself into an angel of light, and altering things from what they are; show dark as light, bitter as sweet. This was how he ensnared our forefather, bewitching his sight and depicting as beautiful what was not, and as a result through food casting him out of Paradise. But let us, who have learned by experience what a deceiver he is, not leave the paradise of God's commandments, nor, when he indicates to us that the fruit is beautiful, let the eye of soul or body be directed there, otherwise we are being caught in the snare. But let us flee by every means from looking. What the is the fruit which seems beautiful? The love of the flesh, the evil lust of every one of the destructive passions. If we avoid experiencing them, my brothers, we shall be saved and easter to age on age, with all the Saints in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and might with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

~ Fasting

The soldier as he sets out to war is depressed, but as he returns from war he is filled with joy. So we too now that we have come near the end of our abstinence, no longer remember the mortification of our former struggles, but we rejoice at our present ones and glorify the Master. Would that you may excel in noble struggles for the time ahead. For I testify to you that you have come through the time of the fast in the right spirit, without conflict, without disturbance, obediently, in good order, each one fulfilling his service properly. And thanks be to the powerful God who has empowered you to achieve this completion. Let us then take this example, brethren, and at the completion of life here, whenever each of us rests from his works, When Christ our life appears [Col. 3:4.], When he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, as it is written, when he has abolished every rule and every authority and power [1 Cor. 15:24]; because then the saints will have no sensation of their sufferings and struggles for the sake of virtue, but will enjoy a pleasure without sorrow and ineffable.