The Winds of Temptation Can Do Us No Harm

In the hour in which we are tempted we must be patient and pray. Temptation is a clever craftsman. He is able to make small things loom large. Temptation disquiets, saddens and creates external battles. He knows many arts. He brings man to doubt. For this reason we have many shipwrecks. When we are beset [...]

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His Sovereignty Our Freedom

Chirst ‘overcame the world’ [cf. John 16:33]. And now there is no one and nothing that could set limits to His Sovereignty. In much suffering we free ourselves from the power of our past. Enriched by the experience of victory through repentance, we become kin to the only-begotten Son in His Lordship. Hell no longer [...]

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That They All May Be One

After Holy Communion one day [Jesus] made me understand the significance of these words in the Canticle of Canticles: “Draw me: we will run after thee to the odour of Thy ointments.” So, Jesus, there is no need to say: In drawing me, draw also the souls I love. The simple words “Draw me” are [...]

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The Lord Will Hear

If you get depressed, then cry out ‘Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!’ Just like a child. The Lord will hear, and will console you. Schemamonk John the Silent (in The Orthodox Word, no. 251, November-December 2006, p. 278 )

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Sts Barsanuphius and John on Blogs, Message Boards and the Internet

One who is firm in faith, if he will speak and contend with heretics or unbelievers, will never be disturbed, because he has within himself Jesus, the Source of peace and stillness. And such a one, after contending peacefully, can with love bring many heretics and unbelievers to the knowledge of our Savior Jesus Christ. [...]

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St. John Cassian: On Battling the Passions

[This citation is from my other blog, which I thought those who only visit this site would enjoy with me.] And of these passions as the occasions are recognized by everybody as soon as they are laid open by the teaching of the elders, so before they are revealed, although we are all overcome by [...]

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. . . Of Whom I am Chief

“One first gives himself totally to God, and then God cleanses him and gives him back to the people. When such a person believes that he is the worst of all, then one of his “Lord have mercies” said on behalf of the world is worth more than someone else’s one thousand “Lord have mercies.” [...]

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Tito Colliander, “Way of the Ascetics” III

Once again, be silent! Let no one notice what you are about. You are working for the Invisible One; let your work be invisible. If you scatter crumbs around you they are willingly picked up by birds sent by the devil, the saints explain. Beware of self-satisfaction: in one mouthful it can devour the fruit [...]

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Nicholas Cabasilas: On the Prayer “Lord Have Mercy” in the Divine Liturgy

[W]hy is it that, whereas the priest asks them to pray for so many different things, the faithful in fact ask for one thing only–mercy? Why is this the sole cry they send forth to God? In the first place, as we have already said, it is because this prayer implies both gratitude and confession. [...]

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St. Maximos Confessor: from Ambiguum 7 (II)

From my other blog, Wisdom!: Readings from the Fathers of the Church: The mystery hidden from the ages (Col 1:26) and from the nations is now revealed through the true and perfect incarnation of the Son and God. For he united our nature to himself in a single hypostasis, without division and without confusion, and [...]

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