“In our days, people prefer to purchase their icons and other items from monasteries. They do so because they know that monks and nuns say the Jesus prayer while working and everything they do is blessed. When people visit a monastery and eat food cooked without oil, they find it very tasty… the monk is […]
“Everything starts from good thoughts. This is what elevates a person and changes him for the better. One must reach a point of being able to see all things in purity. It is as Christ said “Judge not according to the appearance but judge righteous judgment.” And having acquired this man can reach the point […]
“For sorcery to work one must give the devil rights over oneself. In other words one must provide some serious occasion and be personally unprepared through repentance and Confession. One who goes regularly to Confession is immune to sorcery even if it’s piled on him by the shovelful. For when someone has confessed and his […]
“In the spiritual life things are in reverse: when you’re left holding the short end of the stick you feel good; and when you give it to someone else you feel badly. When you accept an injustice and are prepared to justify your neighbor you accept Christ himself into your heart Who was often wrong […]
“Human righteousness says are you at fault? You must be punished. Divine righteousness says do you acknowledge your fault and repent? You are forgiven. You see even by human laws a person who is not under suspicion but has committed a crime if he repents sincerely and on his own initiative confesses his crime to […]
“I’ve heard of a godless man who rolls up various little icons and puts inside of them in hairs, little pieces of wood, needles, beads and other things. When the Church censored this man he simply said, “I am a psychic.”… Then I asked [a man] if he had anything given to him by that sorcerer. “Yes […]
“When you have a bad dream never examine what you saw, how you saw it or whether you’re guilty or how much you may be at fault. The evil one having failed to tempt you during the day tempts you at night. Sometimes God permits the devil to tempt us in our sleep so that […]
“In the not too distant past there was sincere repentance. When someone repented he repented and did not backslide…now I see some people who as soon as they change their way of life begin to be teachers and instructors to others while their old self is still active inside. One must repent, then stop living […]
“The elder underwent the most difficult trials in obedience and blindly obeying Elder John who as was previously mentioned assigned him difficult jobs and strictly censured him without the Abbot’s knowledge. Father Paisios as a good, obedient monk endured all of this silently and with self-reproach. He never criticized Elder John not even in his […]
“At the time of the iconoclasts ten Christians who stoutly defended the icon of Christ at the Bronze Door of the palace in Constantinople were martyred for it. Now Christ’s person is being blasphemed and we must not be indifferent. If knowledgeable and discerning people like us lived at that time they would have said […]