When through continuous prayer the words of the Psalms are brought down into the heart, then the heart like good soil begins to produce by itself various flowers: roses, the vision of incorporeal realities; lilies, the luminosity of corporeal realities; and violets, the many judgments of God, hard to understand.
Ilias the Presbyter
the philokalia
If you so wish, believe in Him; if not, don’t believe. In either case, He remains Eternal King, seated upon His throne. If you so wish, offer Him your heart, for we encounter God in faith, in the spacious freedom of the heart. The Lord does not approach us in order to sway us with arguments and theories. He approaches us in order to enter our hearts. He is so infinitely great as to be beyond comprehension, and yet at the same time He is close, so near to hand, like an intimate acquaintance, just as He is with the Psalmist.
Though a man may be found in a weak state, that does not at all mean that he has been abandoned by God. On the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ was in trouble, as the world sees things. But when the sinful world considered Him to be completely destroyed, in fact He was victorious over death and hades. The Lord did not promise us positions as victors as a reward for righteousness, but told us, “In the world you will have tribulation – but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world”.
Commemorated July 3rd
The basis for real and deep love is free will. It is not possible for someone to love another person if forced to do so by some need or compulsion.
The Holy Monastery of Saint Gregorios : Mount Athos
For the soul to repent it must first be awake. It is in this awakening that the miracle of repentance occurs. This is where human will plays a role. The awakening however is not something that rests solely with the man or the woman. The individual alone is not able to bring it about. God intervenes. Then Divine Grace comes. Without Grace a person can not repent. The love of God does everything. He may use something — an illness, or something else — it depends — in order to bring a person to repentance. Accordingly, repentance is achieved through divine grace. We simply make a move towards God and from then on Grace supervenes.
If we love Christ, all things will change in our lives. We do not love Him in order to receive some reward such as health. Rather we love Him out of gratitude, without thinking of anything, only of the love of God.
The humble person believes that all things depend on Christ and that Christ gives His grace and in that way he makes progress. The person who possesses holy humility lives even now in the earthly uncreated Church. He always has the joy of Christ even in the most displeasing circumstances. We see this in the lives of the saints. What was Saint Paul? He was a man like us. But what happened? He became and instrument of God, a chosen vessel. His words bear witness to this. ‘It is not I who live but Christ lives in me… for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” He was consumed by burning love for Christ. His humility raised him up to that state. To burn for God…. that is everything.
A ‘word’ spoken from the heart of the hermit, as from the Holy Spirit, in the language of the desert, is considered revealed and authentic and the one who requests it, receives it as the fruit of Grace, without elaborating on it in his mind. This ‘word’ from the spiritual father is absolutely necessary for the one who asks. The ‘word’ comes from a soul which is the friend of God, wounded by the love of God, and is spoken in accordance with the measure of ‘thirst’ of the one who asks. As the Holy Mother of God, conceived the Word of God and gave birth to the Theanthropos Christ, becoming therefore the ‘joy of all creation’ in the same way, do the Fathers, because of their purity, conceive the word and transmit it to those who thirst for it, becoming for them their joy…
A Night in the Desert of the Holy Mountain : Metropolitan Of Nafpakos Hierotheos
Fasting for our family these days needs to be an effort in absolute simplicity. If I find I have a lot of time, I will make something that requires for time, but mostly I find myself making tapas style meals for dinner. Leftovers mixed with side dishes and meals prepared the same day. It’s how my German family eat. Dinner is a simple affair – because that is also the time of day when I am getting a little tired.
This Grilled Broccolini and Cauliflower has pine nuts that give it a little nuttiness and goes nicely with the caramelization on the veggies. It is a great side dish because you can grill it in the oven while you prepare the rest of the evening meal.
Ingredients
Preparation
Enjoy!
God has placed a power in man’s soul. But it is up to him how he channels it —- for good or for evil. If we imagine the good as a garden full of flowers, trees and plants and the evil as weeds and thorns and the power as water, then what can happen is as follows. When the water is directed towards the flower garden, then all the plants grow, blossom and bear fruit and at the same time the weeds and thorns, because they are not being watered, wither and die. And the opposite, of course, can also happen….
It is not necessary therefore to concern yourselves with the weeds. Don’t occupy yourself with rooting out evil. Christ does not wish us to occupy ourselves with he passions, but with the opposite. Channel the water, that isu, all the strength of your soul to the flowers, and you will enjoy their beauty, their fragrance and their freshness.
When the film of pride and the sleep of self-contentedness is wiped from the eye of my heart, I know I am but dust called by the Divine breath into life. Made in the Image of God, there is in me, the possibility of being born “from above” from beyond this world and entering into real life. Eternal life is a gift and a potential; never a certainty or a guarantee. God is ever offering Himself to us in hopes that we are willing to undergo the process of responding to the potentials that are opened up through Communion with Him. We cannot be saved without our consent. In Christ God has proposed marriage with humanity purely from love and waits for our response. We are unique creatures invited to taste the eternal Eucharistic joy of never being complete in and of ourselves alone, but only in response to breathing in the divine Grace and breathing out life and gratefulness beyond words. We are made for love and communion with God.
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