The monks developed methods for practicing the attitude of love, inner clarity and purity, and openness to God. In the monastic writings we find two recurrent images for our struggle to reach a life that we live ourselves, a life that corresponds to God’s image of us: we are the athletes of Christ and the soldiers of Christ the King. The monks are athletes of Christ. Their struggle is fought above all against the passions.
Let us say something about the good earth. St. Paraskevi was a twelve year old maiden from a noble house. Left an orphan, she divided up all her possessions among the poor, and with these she purchased Paradise. In place of cosmetics, she wore tears, remembering her sins. In place of earings, she kept her ears open to hear the Sacred Scriptures. In place of a necklace, she fasted often, which made her neck shine
The Source of All Love Without the love of our parents, sisters, brothers, spouses, lovers, and friends, we cannot live. Without love we die. Still, for many people this love comes in a very broken and limited way It can be tainted by power plays, jealousy, resentment, vindictiveness, and even abuse. No human love is the perfect love our hearts desire, and sometimes human love is so imperfect that we can hardly recognize it as
Each of us ought to realize this fact: each one of us is also the Church. The Church belongs to the second Adam, the Christ. From his side dripping blood and water on the hill of the skull, God took the Church, while the eyes of the Crucified were closing for their three days’ sleep. When on the third day the New Adam awoke, he embraced the Church and made her fruitful with his Spirit.
Fr. Maximos was fond of referring to a story of John Chrysostom, fourth-century patriarch of Constantinople who later was canonized as a major saint of the Church, both of the East and of the West. He was persecuted by the wife of the then emperor for being critical of her abuse of power and exploitation of the poor and weak. When John was warned by friends to stop his sermons against her on the ground
“[The angels] asked her, ‘Woman, why are you crying?’ ‘They have taken my Lord away and I don’t know where they put Him.’ At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, butshe did not realize that it was Jesus. ‘Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?’ Thinking He was the gardener, she said, ‘Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have put Him, and
The eldest of ten children, the daughter, granddaughter and sister of saints, Saint Macrina is credited by her brothers—Saints Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa—as having been the one whose example and counsel led them to put aside earthly pursuits in favor of service to God. With her brother, Saint Peter of Sebaste, the saint founded twin communities—a women’s convent and a men’s monastery—on opposite banks of the River Iris. It was in this
I think the one thing the Church should do is teach people how to pray. Contemplative prayer in particular can give people back their birthright as children of God (inherently connected to and created by God). That is the only way to know your birthright experientially. Prayer is not something you do; it’s finally something you are whenever you collapse back into the very Ground of your being. Unfortunately, we flee into our minds instead—to
Marina was born in Southern Anatolia, specifically from Pisidia in Antioch, at the end of the third century during the reign of Claudius II (268-270). She was the only daughter of noble pagan parents. When she was five years old her mother died (some sources say she died shortly after childbirth), and since her father, Aidesios, was too busy carrying out his duties as a pagan priest to care for her properly, he turned her
THE holy Fathers say with one voice: The first thing to keep in mind is never in any respect to rely on yourself. The warfare that now lies before you is extraordinarily hard, and your own human powers are altogether insufficient to carry it on. If you rely on them you will immediately be felled to the ground and have no desire to continue the battle. Only God can give you the victory you wish.
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