Overcoming the Passions

The Elder placed great emphasis on the need of becoming aware of your "passions" and proceeding to struggle to overcome them, to free yourself from them to attain passionlessness, which means purity. This high spiritual state can only be attained, he stresses, by persistent struggle and Divine grace.

"Passion" (pathos) in Orthodox Patristic writings, is a term used in two senses: (a) to denote bad thoughts charged with emotion, and (b) vices (kakiai), that is, such thoughts become habits, settled dispositions of the soul, bad traits of character. All the "passions" are viewed by Father Joseph as diseases of the soul in need of therapy. Removing them from the soul is a process he calls - as do the Holy Fathers of the past - purification. This restores the soul to a state of health and peace. "The more you are purified from the passions, the more peace you have, the wiser you are, the more you understand God" (Letter 65).



Dr. Constantine Cavarnos
"Prolegomena" to Monastic Wisdom: The Letters of Elder Joseph the Hesychast

Holy Baptism

Baptism gives us what nothing else on earth can give us: It unites and combines with our natural Divine grace. Thus, a person comes away from the baptismal font like an article from some workshop. As an example, take a bell in which silver has been added to copper. A similar copper bell without silver may outwardly resemble the bell with silver, but their composition is different, their sound is different, and they are regarded differently with respect to quality and value. That is the difference between a person who has been baptized, and one who has not. The difference is that the grace of the Holy Spirit combines with the baptism, since the person receiving baptism is being baptized with water and, along with it, the Holy Spirit. By appearance, he is the same person as the unbaptized person, but in actual fact, in their composition, they are quite different.

Thus, during Holy Baptism, some new element, a supernatural one, is added to our composition, and it will remain inside us hidden and secretly acting. We receive baptism as children, and although we do not know what is happening within us, the grace nonetheless combines with us and then begins to act with us apart from our consciousness, according to the singular goodness of God, and for the sake of the faith of godparents and parents.



St. Theophan the Recluse
"The Spiritual Life"

Love thy Enemy

Show the fullness of your mercy by the good with which you repay those who have done you injustice.



St. Isaac the Syrian
"Ascetical Homilies' (Homily 6)

Orthodox Struggles

When an Orthodox Christian ponders something, he does so prayerfully, with fear and trembling, since he knows that the choir of angels and the entire church participate mystically with him in his struggle. The Orthodox Christian does not belong only to himself, but to all the saints and, through them, to the holy Lord Jesus. When he examines his own spirit, the Orthodox Christian reflects: my spirit is nothing unless it is filled and perfected by the Holy Spirit.



Archimandrite Justin Popovich
"Orthodox Faith and Life in Christ"

St Maximos of Constantinople

If everything that exists was made by God and for God, and God is superior to the things made by Him, he who abandons what is superior and devotes Himself to what is inferior shows that he values things made by God more than God Himself.

St. Maximos the Confessor
The Philokalia Vol. 2; Faber and Faber pg. 53

The Wise Thief

And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us.

But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss.

And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.

And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.

The Greatest Battle

As warriors are awarded medals and crosses for repeatedly proving their readiness to sacrifice their lives, so we - soldiers of the spirit - can only reap our reward after fighting valiantly and long. The greatest fight of all is the fight against pride, with all its symptoms of anger, vainglory, rage, hatred. When we have overcome this, we receive our best reward: the beautiful peace of the soul.



Staretz Macarius of Optina

Humility

...Christ comes to teach men the humility they had forgotten and the obedience they had transgressed. He gives us a perfect example in His humility and obedience towards His heavenly Father. And His Forerunner teaches us by his example of humility and obedience - in his sinless humility and obedience to Christ.

Men who have no humility or obedience, have no wisdom or love. And he who does not have these does not have God. And he who does not have God does not have himself, but is as if he did not exist, being in darkness and the shadow of death.

If any among us were to say: Christ is too high an example for me; I cannot look to Him - then here is John the Forerunner who is, as an ordinary man, closer to mortal men. Let him look to John's humility and obedience. But, alas, if a man does not want to do good, he will always find an excuse to flee from it.



Bishop Nikolai Velimirovic
"Homilies"

As Flowers of the Field

As for man, his days are as the grass; as a flower of the field, so shall he blossom forth.

For when the wind is passed over it, then it shall be gone, and no longer will it know the place thereof.

But the mercy of the Lord is from eternity, even unto eternity, upon them that fear Him.

And His righteousness is upon sons of sons, upon them that keep His testament and remember His commandments to do them.

The Lord in heaven hath prepared His throne, and His kingdom ruleth over all.

Bless the Lord, all ye His angels, mighty in strength, that perform His word, to hear the voice of His words.

Bless the Lord, all ye His hosts, His ministers that do His will.

Bless the Lord, all ye His works, in every place of His dominion.

Bless the Lord, O my soul.

The Purpose of Man

Man's purpose, from the moment he is born, is to find God. However, he cannot find Him unless God finds him first. "In Him we live and move." (Acts 17:28) Unfortunately, the passions have shut the eyes of our soul and we cannot see. But when our very loving God turns an affectionate eye towards us, then we awake as if from sleep and begin to seek salvation.



Elder Joseph the Hesychast
"Monastic Wisdom" (Letters...)

On Baptism

When you come to the sacred initiation, the eyes of the flesh see water; the eyes of faith behold the Spirit. Those eyes see the body being baptized; these see the old man being buried. The eyes of the flesh see the flesh being washed; the eyes of the spirit see the soul being cleansed. The eyes of the body see the body emerging from the water; the eyes of faith see the new man come forth brightly shining from that sacred purification. Our bodily eyes see the priest as, from above, he lays his right hand on the head and touches [him who is being baptized]; our spiritual eyes see the great High Priest as He stretches forth His invisible hand to touch his head. For, at that moment, the one who baptizes is not a man but the only-begotten Son of God...




St. John Chrysostom
"Daily Readings... " (What Happens at Baptism)

St. John the Forerunner

How to Follow Jesus Christ

And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.

For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?

For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels.

Luke 9:23-26

Scriptural Knowledge

You must make it your endeavor, if you wish to attain to true knowledge of the Scriptures, that first of all you acquire steadfast humility of heart to lead you to that knowledge which does not puff up, but enlightens, being made perfect in love. For it is impossible that an impure mind should acquire the gift of spiritual knowledge... Next, in every way must you strive to drive out every distraction, and all earthly thoughts, and give yourself assiduously or rather constantly to sacred study until constant meditation imbues your mind and, so to say, forms you after its own likeness.



St. John Cassian
"Selected Writings"
(Of the Use of the Scriptures)

Saint Basil

Know Thyself

The first and foremost step is to know thyself. That is, to know who you really are in truth, and not what you imagine you are. With this knowledge you become the wisest man. With this awareness, you reach humility and receive grace from the Lord. However, if you don't obtain self-knowledge, but consider only your toil, know that you will always remain far from the path.




Elder Joseph the Hesychast
"Monastic Wisdom; Letters..."

The Circumcision of Jesus Christ

The Power of Prayer

You may judge how great the power of prayer is even in a sinful person, when it is offered whole-heartedly, by the following example from Holy Tradition. When at the request of a desperate mother who had been deprived by death of her only son, a harlot whom she chanced to meet, still unclean from her last sin, and who was touched by the mother's deep sorrow, cried to the Lord: 'Not for the sake of a wretched sinner like me, but for the sake of the tears of a mother sorrowing for her son and firmly trusting in Thy loving kindness and Thy almighty power, Christ God, raise up her son, O Lord!' And the Lord raised him up.



St. Seraphim of Sarov
"A Conversation with N.A. Motovilov"

The Nativity of Christ

9When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.

10When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.

11And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense and myrrh.

12And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.

Matthew 9-12

The Philippians

The Holy Apostle Paul in his epistle to the Philippians wrote that they shone as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation (Phil. 2:15). A lofty spiritual disposition and irreproachably clean, strictly, chaste life; these were the characteristic traits of the Philippian Christians, for which the Apostle Paul praised them. We live in later times; nineteen centuries separate us from those days in which the Apostle Paul wrote his epistles. But now, just as the Christians of the first centuries, we are encircled by an environment full of shamelessness and perversion. May the high and holy example of the ancient Christians teach us to be as steadfast and firm in the observance of the laws of Christian morals, and not accede to the temptations which surround us.



St. Philaret of New York