"The sun shines on all alike, and vainglory beams on all activities. For instance, I am vainglorious when I fast; and when I relax the fast in order to be unnoticed, I am again vainglorious over my prudence. When I am well dressed I am quite overcome by vainglory, and when I put on poor... Continue Reading →
Despair Not
"Do not then despair of the most perfect change [repentance]. For if the devil had such great power as to cast you down from that pinnacle and height of virtue into the extremity of evil doing, much more will God be able to draw you up again to your former confidence; and not only indeed... Continue Reading →
Let Us Follow The Spirit
"In certain cases, the spirit follows the inclinations of nature like a slave. The body takes the upper hand, rouses the passions and drives us to demand selfish pleasure. Then the spirit gives in to the body and even supplies it with the necessary means to satisfy its lusts. This is not the experience of... Continue Reading →
The Samaritan Woman & The Living Water
"But He calls the live-giving gift of the Spirit, 'living water', whereby alone human nature, though well parched to its very roots, and is now rendered dry and barren of all virtue by the villainies of the devil, runs back to its pristine beauty of nature, and, drinking in the life-giving grace, is adorned with... Continue Reading →
Let Us Use Our Means For The Other
Have you seen the insignificance [the worthlessness] of human affairs? Have you seen the frailty of power? Have you seen the wealth which I [have] always called a runaway and not a runaway only, but also a murderer. For it not only deserts those who possess it, but also slaughters them; for when any one pays attention to it then the most it does for him is to betray him. Why do you pay attention to wealth which today is yours, and tomorrow is another's? Why do you court [or attract] wealth which can never be held fast [close]? Do you desire to court it? Do you desire to hold it near? Do not bury it but give it into the hands of the poor.
The Fasting of The Soul
"Behold, my brethren, how much a fast can do, and in what manner the law commands us to fast. It is required that not only with the body should we fast, but with the soul. Now the soul is humbled when it does not follow wicked opinions, but feeds on becoming virtues. For virtues and... Continue Reading →
Inward and Outward Virtue
There are some who are clothed in modesty on the outside but are arrayed in licentiousness within. There are some who are fasters outwardly but inwardly are gluttons and greedy.
Life as a Journey
All of us have a race to run towards our appointed end. So we are all 'on the way'.
All Things Are Rooted in The Good Who is God
"Without some share in what is Good, nothing has ever existed, nothing does exist and nothing could exist. Take lust, for example. It is devoid of Good because of its senseless covetousness.... but that does not prevent it taking its share in what is Good by means of the feeble echo that remains in it... Continue Reading →
Let us adhere to God
"And thus he has added to what has been said, ‘For what do I have in heaven, and what do I desire on earth besides you'(Ps 73.25). In respect to this latter saying, the majority of people up to the present act as follows. Although such great things are freely theirs in heaven, nevertheless they... Continue Reading →
St. Gregory of Nyssa and The Splendour of The Human Being
When you turn to Him you become that which He is Himself
Are We Idolaters?
I only advise you that you do not desire what belongs to others, that you impart some of your own goods to others
An Ancient Faith For a Modern World 