So many people flee from the words “Fear of God”, seeing that such words are not suitable for the covenant of grace which we live. On what bases do they build their claim? 1. They say: why should I fear God while He accepted Augustine who had been ungodly for a long time? God also …
Christian Behaviour: according to the Saint Pope Kyrollos the Sixth, is a great little book that captures the spirituality of this great saint, not while he was a Pope but in his first few years in the monastic life. The book reveals the spiritual insight of this saint and the virtuous life that he practiced …
It is impossible to determine theoretically how long one should exercise oneself in a virtue before becoming established in it. Everyone must determine this for himself, considering his state, circumstances and achievements in spiritual life, and especially according to the judgment of his staretz or the spiritual father who directs him. Still, if a man's …
Virtues are the fruits that everyone is required to bring forth in his/her spiritual journey towards Christian perfection. “Every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Matt 3:10) That is what the Lord tells us about the importance of these fruits. However, before we proceed any further, …
HOLY SCRIPTURE says of the midwives who kept alive the Israelites’ male children, that through the god-fearing midwives they made themselves houses. What Does it mean they made visible houses? How can they say they acquired houses through the fear of God when we do the opposite, and learn in time, through fear of God …
Saint Arsenius is one of the saints who became very famous for his weeping. It is said that his eyelashes fell due to the intensity of his weeping, and that two cavities formed on his cheeks because of his weeping. During summer he would wet the palm leaves with his tears, and he placed a …
You will be proclaimed charitable, not simply because you have refused to accept something from another person, but rather you will be recognized as a renunciant because you have given without looking back. When you distribute material goods, strive to cast pure seeds, lest instead of wheat you have tares come forth (Matt, 13: 24-30). …
They used to say that Abba Sylvanus had in Scete a disciple whose name was Mark, and that he possessed to a great degree the faculty of obedience, he was a scribe, and the old man loved him greatly for his obedience. Sylvanus had eleven other disciples, and they were vexed because they saw that …
This vocation of folly for Christ's sake is not limited only to Russia, but is also a characteristic of Greek and Syriac Christianity from the fourth century onwards. Holy fools are to be found likewise in the Christian West. One of the earliest examples in Eastern Christendom—perhaps the earliest of all—is not a man but …
“If virtue is revealed it is snatched by the demon of vain glory” In the Orthodox Church we have a number of Category of saints, for example we have martyrs, military martyrs, bishops, monks, nuns, lay reformers. Yet a very obscure category of saints is that of the Holy Fools. The character of the holy …
