Monthly Archives: April 2014

Anger

“If I wanted to relate everything I went through on a daily basis with this passion of anger, I would have to write a book. Since God wanted to free me from it, He would bring about everything appropriate: people would bother me unjustly, they would insult me, they would annoy me. And they would not just simply tempt me, but they would do things that would make you commit murder. But by enduring and choking Satan within me with extreme patience, I was delivered from the evil.”
Elder Joseph the Hesychast
~ My Elder Joseph the Hesychast
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He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty ; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.
Proverbs 16:32

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Divine Providence

“You were brought to the hanging gallows and all three times you were returned for no apparent reason. What can one man due to another if the all seeing one does not allow it? Nothing. Likewise, malicious executioners could not hang you even though they tried three times while nothing in this world opposed their authority. But he who has the rule over the world and people opposed their authority. So, do not forget what the Almighty has done for you.”
St. Nikolai Velimirovich
~Missionary Letters Vol. 3
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“But it won’t! If God wants it to fall, it will fall and God will protect us.”
Elder Ephraim of Katounakia (replying to a priest worried about a large boulder hanging over his cell at St. Anne’s Skete)
~My Elder Joseph the Hesychast

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Chastity

“I  cannot describe to you how much our Panagia loves chastity and purity. Since she is the only pure Virgin, she wants and loves everyone to be pure like that.”

Elder Joseph the Hesychast
~ My Elder Joseph the Hesychast
[Elder Ephraim of Arizona adds:"This is why he fought against the carnal passion more than any other passion."]
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I always emphasize that young people try to live as spiritually as they can before marriage, since preserving their chastity secures their physical and spiritual health. The spiritual life is a basic prerequisite to whatever life one chooses. The world has become like a complete field that is ready for harvest, but swine enter and trample it. So now everything is in disarray…but here and there on some image, there is an occasional wheat stock standing upright.
Elder Paisios
~ Family Life
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