A Monk In The World

"Compel yourselves; say the (Jesus) Prayer; stop idle talk; close your mouths to criticism; place doors and locks against unnecessary words. Time passes and does not come back, and woe to us if time goes by without spiritual profit."

-Elder Ephraim of Arizona

"Beloved faithful, the passion of lust is strong, but stronger is the mercy of God! It is true that the whole world seems to be the house of evil, and God is patient. The sin is now harder to forgive; we commit it without ever concealing it, flagrantly and shamelessly. But the Lord is patient. He goes toward us, looks for us and knocks on the door of our heart with the hand of His mercy. If we do not respond, He comes with illnesses, trials, or poverty This may be the only way to awaken our repentance. We are slow to repent, but the Lord is still patient!"

Archimandrite loanichie Balan

Question: When divine grace abides in us, are we aware of it?

Response: Sometimes we are aware of it. Sometimes, however, God hides from us any awareness of His grace in us, so that we won't fall into the temptation of pride.



Elder Sergei of Vanves

Elder Sergei of Vanves: Life & Teachings p.104

The more wood you pile on a fire the more heat you get, and thus it is with God - the more you think on Him the more are you fired with love and fervour towards Him. He who loves the Lord is always mindful of Him, and remembrance of God begets prayer. If you are forgetful of the Lord you will not pray, and without prayer the soul will not dwell in the love of God, for the grace of the Holy Spirit comes through prayer. Prayer preserves a man from sin, for the prayerful mind is intent on God and in humbleness of spirit stands before the face of the Lord, Who knoweth the soul of him who prays

Saint Silouan the Athonite. Wisdom from Mount Athos

It is impossible to keep spiritual peace if we do not take care of the mind, that is if we do not drive out thoughts that are displeasing to God and, on the contrary, keep thoughts which are pleasing to God. It is necessary to look into the heart with mind and see what is done there. Is it peaceful or not? If not, then find out in what you have sinned.

(St.Silouan the Athonite, Writings, XIV.8)

...praying for others and forgetting to pray for oneself is another level of love.❤

"If we have a strong relationship with God, this will distinguish our relationship with others. We will be able to be a source of peace, tranquility, and comfort to them."

-St. Anthony the Great

On Pain of Heart.

First of all, Elder Paisios tells us that, for love to blossom in the heart, we must pray with pain of heart. Once he was asked, "We pray, Elder, and our thoughts go here and there. Why?"

"Because it is prayer without pain!" replied the Elder. "To pray with the heart, we must hurt. Just as when we hit our hand or some other part of our body, our mind (nous) ("Nous: the highest faculty or power of the human soul, called by the Holy Fathers "the eye of the soul," St. John Damascene, and "the spiritual nature of man," St. Isaac the Syrian) is gathered to the point we are hurting, so also for the mind to gather in the heart, the heart must hurt."

The Elder was then asked, "How can we preserve ourselves in this state when we don’t have some problem, some pain?"

He replied, "We should make the other’s pain our own!! We must love the other, must hurt for him, so that we can pray for him. We must come out little by little from our own self and begin to love, to hurt for other people as well, for our family first then for the large family of Adam, of God" (Athanasios Rakovalis, Talks with Father Paisios (Thessalonica, Greece: Orthodox Kypseli, 2000), pp. 123-24).

At another time the Elder said, "The more one hurts, the more divine consolation one receives, because otherwise it is not possible to stand the pain... God especially consoles those who hurt for others" (Ibid.,p. 124).

To his spiritual children the Elder wrote: "To some people your love will be expressed with joy and to others it will be expressed with your pain. You will consider everyone your brother or your sister, for we are all children of Eve (of the large family of Adam, of God). Then, in your prayer you will say: ‘My God, help those first who are in greater need, whether they are alive or reposed brothers in the Lord.’ At that point, you will share your heart with the whole world and you will have nothing but immense love, which is Christ" (Elder Paisios of Mount Athos, Epistles, p. 50).

"If you take away my possessions, you will not enrich yourself, nor will you make me a pauper. you have no need of my old worn-out clothing, nor of my few books, of which the entirety of my wealth is comprised. exile means nothing to me, since i am bound to no particular place. this place in which i now dwell is not mine, and any place you send me shall be mine. better to say: every place is god's. where would i be neither a stranger and sojourner (ps. 38/39:13]? who can torture me? i am so weak, that the very first blow would render me insensible. death would be a kindness to me, for it will bring me all the sooner to god, for whom i live andi labor, and to whom i hasten."

Saint basil the great