Saying from Elder Epiphanios of Athens

Speak more to God about your children than to your children about God….The soul of the teenager is in a state of an explosion of freedom. This is why it is hard for them to accept counsel. Rather than counseling them continuously and reproaching them again and again, leave the situation to Christ, to the Panagia [Mother of God], and to the Saints, asking that they bring them to reason. (Elder Epiphanios of Athens 1930-1989)

A quote from St. Silouan...

The heart-stirrings of a good man are good; those of a wicked person are wicked; but everyone must learn how to combat intrusive thoughts, and turn the bad into good. This is the mark of the soul that is well versed.

How does this come about, you will ask?

Here is the way of it: just as a man knows when he is cold or when he feels hot, so does the man who has experienced the Holy Spirit know when grace is in his soul, or when evil spirits approach.

The Lord gives the soul understanding to recognize His coming, and love Him and do His will. In the same way the soul recognizes thoughts which proceed from the enemy, not by their outward form but by their effect on her [the soul].

This is knowledge born of experience; and the man with no experience is easily duped by the enemy.

'Once we had chalices of clay, and hearts of gold, and now we have chalices of gold and hearts of clay.' - St. John Chrysostom

"The more I dove into Scripture, the more I realized I had been deluded.
I had grown up drinking a dangerous cocktail
— a mix of the Gospel, the Protestant work ethic, and the American dream…
The Savior I was following seemed, in hindsight,
equal parts Jesus, Ben Franklin, and Henry Ford.
My eternal value was rooted in what I could accomplish."

— Phil Vischer in "The Divine Commodity" by Skye Jethani

(taken from http://poor-commonplace.blogspot.com/)

Quote

Stole this quote from a friend. Though it was really quite powerful.

"How can I make you realize the misery of the poor? How can I make you understand that your wealth comes from their weeping?"
St. Basil the Great

Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.
(Hebrews 13:1-3 KJV)

Fasting, and the Dormition of the Theotokos

We are entering yet another fasting period, this time for the Dormition of the Theotokos (or what some Catholics call the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. If you are interested in reading about the fast period, and why we fast, HERE is a good article from good old OrthodoxWiki.


And since I really love quotes, here is one about fasting, which I figured was appropriate, since we are in a fasting period;

There are both a physical and a spiritual fast. The body abstains from food and drink. Spiritually, the faster abstains from evil intentions, words, and deeds. One who truly fasts abstains from anger, rage, malice, and vengeance and from idle and foul talk, empty rhetoric, slander, condemnation, flattery, lying and all manner of spiteful talk. In a word, a real faster is one who withdraws from all evil.
-St. Basil the Great

Quote I found lying around..

Do you wish to be great? Then begin by being. Do you desire to construct a vast and lofty fabric? Think first about the foundations of humanity. The higher your structure is to be, the deeper must be it's foundation.
St. Augustine

Music

When, indeed, the Holy Spirit saw that the human race was guided only with difficulty toward virtue, and that, because of our inclination toward pleasure, we were neglectful of an upright life, what did He do? The delight of the melody He mingled with the doctrines so that by the pleasantness and softness of the sound heard, we might receive without perceiving it the benefits of the words, just as wise physicians who, with giving the fastidious rather bitter drugs to drink, frequently smear the cup with honey. Therefore, He devised for is these harmonious melodies of the psalms, that they who are children in age, or even those who are youthful in disposition, might to all appearances chant, but in reality, become trained in soul.
-St. Basil the Great

Mother Maria

Since I'm on such a Mother Maria kick, I thought I'd post more quotes from her. She really is fantastic. A true theologian.

If you didn't read about her life, she was martyred for helping the Jewish people.

“There is no such thing as a Christian problem.
Don’t you realize that the battle is being waged
against Christianity? If we were true Christians
we would all wear the Star. The age of confessors
has arrived.” - Mother Maria


It amazes me, this quote. Imagine what would have happened if people had actually done this.

And even when she knew that the Gestapo were having her under surveillance, this quote is from her diary when asked why she wouldn't give up;

"There is one moment when you start burning with love and you have the inner desire to throw yourself at the feet of some other human being. This one moment is enough. Immediately you know that instead of losing you life, it is being given back to you twofold."

New Location

So, I have re-done this blog a bit, changing the name, though I will keep the content (and try to import the old blog here) so that the content stays the same. Much of the content will be the same, though you might get more of my thoughts and feelings about various things, church fathers, etc. Hopefully it will still be interesting!

And since you must know that I just absolutely love quotes, here is one from Mother Maria Skobtsova (who if you don't know who she is, google her. Or better yet, read this. She is excellent. One of my favorite saints.

"We like it when the “churching” of life is discussed, but few people understand what it means. Indeed, must we attend all the church services in order to “church” our life? Or hang an icon in every room and burn an icon-lamp in front of it? No, the “churching of life” is the realization of the whole world as one great church, adorned with icons—persons who should be venerated, honored, and loved, because these icons are true images of God that have the holiness of the Living God within them.

We cannot see the Church as a sort of aesthetic perfection and limit ourselves to aesthetic swooning. Our God-given freedom calls us to activity and struggle. And it would be a great lie to tell searching souls: “Go to church, because there you will find peace.” The opposite is true. She tells those who are at peace and asleep: “Go to church, because there you will feel real anguish for your sins, for your perdition, for the world’s sins and perdition. There you will feel an unappeasable hunger for Christ’s truth. There, instead of becoming lukewarm, you will be set on fire; instead of pacified, you will become alarmed; instead of learning the wisdom of this world you will become fools for Christ.”