For, instead of a fig or an almond or some such thing, vanity and love of honour and love of gain and love of pleasure, and whatever else the evil assembly of the devil places before greedy men instead of sweetmeats, easily bring to light the ape-like souls who, through pretence and imitation, play the role of the Christian and then remove the mask of moderation or meekness or some other virtue in a moment of personal crisis.
Our Slavish Idolatry
“But now your possessions are more a part of you than the members of your own body, and separation from them is as painful as the amputation of one of your limbs. Had you clothed the naked, had you given your bread to the hungry, had your door been open to every stranger, had you... Continue Reading →
Likeness to God – Love
If you hate evil, if you are forgiving, if you do not remember yesterday’s evil, if you love your brother, if you sympathize—you have been made like God. If you forgive your enemy from the heart, you have been made like God. If you become the sort of person toward your brother, who sins against you, as God is toward you, a sinner, you have been made like God because of your good-heartedness toward your neighbor.
On Vainglory
"Vainglory involves fantasizing about social encounters, a pretence of industriousness, the contrary of the truth, author of heresies, desire for privilege, the ultimate title, slavery to praises, a spirit with many forms, a beast with many teeth; the mean of vainglory is entwined with pride and jealousy, which are found within one another and which... Continue Reading →
Bury Pride in The Depths of Divine Love
"I know a man who loves God with great intensity, and yet grieves because he does not love Him as much as he would wish. His soul is ceaselessly filled with burning desire that God should be glorified in him and that he himself should be as nothing. This man does not think of what... Continue Reading →
The Love of God and Neighbour
"Suppose there be a circle... imagine that this circle is the world: the centre of the circle, God, and the radii the different paths or ways of life of men. When the saints, desiring to approach God, walk towards the centre of the circle, insofar as they penetrate to the interior, they draw near to... Continue Reading →
The Love of God
So then, whatever is rightly done of free choice is also in us naturally, at least, in the case of those who have not perverted their rational faculty by iniquity. The love of God is, therefore, demanded of us as a strict obligation, and for a soul to fail in this is the most unendurable of all evils.Separation and estrangement from God are more unbearable than the punishment reserved for hell and more oppressive to the sufferer than the being deprived of light is to the eye.
Learning Compassion
"If we want to set our lives right and find peace, it is not the tolerant attitude of others that will do it for us. It will come about, rather, by our learning how to show compassion to them. If we try to avoid this hard struggle of compassion, by preferring a withdrawn and solitary... Continue Reading →
On The Love of Enemies
"An enemy is by definition one who obstructs, ensnares, and injures others. He is therefore a sinner. We ought to love his soul by correcting him and doing everything possible to bring him to conversion. We ought to love his body too by coming to his aid with the necessities of life. That love for... Continue Reading →
Genesis: The Book of Love
We have previously discussed the book of Genesis and how it is we can come to read this book (Genesis: The Book of Life). Here let us consider together what Genesis teaches about human relationships and about love, again, as rooted in the revelation of The Lord Jesus Christ. In the last century the champions... Continue Reading →
Love Melts all Negativity
"He that loves (agapon) his neighbor as he ought, does not decline to be a servant to him more humbly than any slave. Just as fire, when brought into contact with wax, easily softens it, so does the warmth of love (agapes) dissolve all arrogance and presumption more powerfully than fire." St. John Chrysostom, Homily... Continue Reading →
Defining God
"God is Love. Whoever sought to define Him would be like a blind person trying to count the grains of sand on the seashore." St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Chapter 30.
An Ancient Faith For a Modern World 