for the peace from above

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He is our bread – because from the very beginning all our hunger was a hunger for Him and all our bread was but a symbol of Him , a symbol that had to become reality.
Father Akexabder Schmemman :: For the Life of the World

Ὑπὲρ τῆς ἄνωθεν εἰρήνης καὶ τῆς σωτηρίας τῶν ψυχῶν ἡμῶν τοῦ Κυρίου δεηθῶμεν.

For the peace from above and for the salvation of our souls, let us pray to the Lord.

Great Litany :: Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom

For the peace from above… we pray this in every Divine Liturgy… and this peace is not an earthly peace but rather is a peace even in the midst of chaos… Peace leading souls to still waters :: on the path of righteousness for His names sake (Psalm 23) . Soul redeeming restorative peace… a peace which surpasses all understanding :: peace of goodness and mercy unto salvation.

Heavenly peace :: and tranquility of soul.

εἰρήνης :: Peace

This is harmony.

The Litanies of the Liturgy of Life :: these are a compass to Salvation – that we will dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of our lives.

Skopelos Greece

God does not want cleverness

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When a person has God in His soul and separates the good from the bad, removing what is bad from the soul, then he thinks that there are flowers everywhere. He says,” there must be violets and hyacinths here. Are there Lillie’s nearby? Oh what frangrant basil.”

… God does not want cleverness. He wants only for you to worship Him and keep Him noetically close by you. God gives spiritual intelligence and discretion to the person who is noetically close to Him.

Gerontissa Makrina

♥️ Words of the Heart ♥️

knock again and again

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Red Door of Paris, France

There was a man who was deprived of divine grace for thirty years, but he did not despair; he put his hope in Christ and would say, “My Christ, better late than never,” because Christ does not lie. He is not like us. As perfect God, He is all love, all affection, all joy and peace. Seeing us knocking persistently on the door, with much love and forbearance. Christ will open to us. When we go to a house and ring the doorbell, if they do not open to us, then we ring again and again, waiting because they may be somewhere inside. In the end they come and open to us. If we had left, we would have missed out.

Let us persistently knck on the door, and the Lord will open to us, because He loves us. He loves us so much!

Gerontissa Makrina

♥️ Words of the Heart ♥️

Saint Nicholas Church – Skopelos Greece
Hosios Loukas Monastery Greece

pure prayer :: most fitting

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Pure prayer is not the personal property of monks or a small group of individuals. It is for everyone, it is the one activity that is the most fitting to the human person. Every human being is called to the wedding feast of the Lord, and thus every human being lives in order to practice pure prayer. It is the most simple practice or activity that a person can undertake. Of course, it is another matter entirely if a person has become accustomed to allowing his mind to wander about and be tyrannized by thoughts, so that when he turns to prayer, he does so with a head filled with distractions and thus can not engage in pure prayer.

Elder Aimilianos of Simonopetra Monastery

The Mystical Marriage : Spiritual Life According to Saint Maximos the Confessor

why did you chose Christ

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When you find Christ you are satisfied, you desire nothing else, you find peace. You become a different person. You live everywhere, wherever Christ is. You live in the stars, in infinity, in heaven with the angels, with the Saints, on earth with people, with plants and animals with everyone and everything. When there is love for Christ, loneliness disappears. You are peaceable, joyous, full. Neither melancholy nor illness nor pressure, nor anxiety, nor depression, nor hell.

Christ is in all your thoughts, all your actions. You have grace and you can endure everything for Christ, and indeed with joy. Just as Ge suffered so you to can suffer unjustly. Did you choose Christ to avoid suffering? This is our religion for our soul to awake and love Christ and become holy- to give herself over to divine Eros. And so He too will love her.

Saint Porphyrios

Wounded by Love : The Life and Wisdom of Saint Porphyrios

we are called to be people of eternity

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The life of the faithful should be filled with joy and gladness, which are among the fruits of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit Himself gives these fruits to our souls and to our communities. At the same time our life must be something that transcends the world, informed by theological thought and feeling, manifesting the experience of eternity in the place and time in which we live. We are obliged truly to be people of eternity. If we are not thinking theologically, and if our relationships are not relationships of essential contact with God, then our life will be prosaic and vain…

Elder Aemilianos of Simonopetra

The Mystical Marriage : The Spiritual Life According to Saint Maximos the Confessor


lord and master of my life

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“We must always pray. But Lent is the time of an increase of prayer and also of its deepening. The simplest way is, first, to add the Lenten prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian to our private morning and evening prayers. Then, it is good and profitable to set certain hours of the day for a short prayer: this can be done “internally”—at the office, in the car, everywhere. The important thing here is to remember constantly that we are in Lent, to be spiritually “referred” to its final goal: renewal, penitence, closer contact with God.”

Father Alexander Schmemman

Lord and Master of my life, take from me the spirit of sloth, despair, lust of power, and idle talk

But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to Thy servant. 

Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own transgressions, and not to judge my brother, for blessed art Thou, unto ages of ages. Amen.

our whole faith

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LORD JESUS CHRIST SON OF GOD HAVE MERCY ON ME

These words contain our whole faith. In saying “LORD” we believe that we are servants of God and the He is our Lord. This honors Christ, that we make Him our Lord, but it also honors us, who are servants of such a Lord Who is God. When we say “JESUS, which is the human name of God, al the earthly life of Christ, from His birth to His Ascension comes to mind. In saying “CHRIST”, which means anointed by God, King of Heaven and earth, we confess and believe that Christ is our God, who created everything, and is in heaven and will come again to judge the world. In saying “HAVE MERCY ON ME” we enteat God to send us His help and His mercy for we acknowledge that without divine help we are no able to do anything. This in brief, is the explanation of these holy words. Whoever says them experiences many things.

With my whole heart, I pray that our sweet Jesus will give you this prayer, within your soul, that you may taste the spiritual ambrosia of prayer and are replenished overall.

Elder Ephraim : Counsels from the Holy Mountain

people of eternity

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The life of the faithful should be filled with joy and gladness, which are among the fruits of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit Himself gives these fruits both to our souls and to our community. At the same time, our life must be something that transcends the world, informed by theological thought and feeling, manifesting the experience of eternity the place and time in which we live. We are obliged truly to be people of eternity….

We are obliged to learn, to think, and to live, to rejoice and to weep, to experience God, and to be raised to the heavens, exactly as did the Saints of the Church. This follows from the unity of the Church, which is something that God grants to us when we gather together.

Elder Aemilianos of Simonopetra