A Monk In The World

"It is impossible for one to live without tears who considers things exactly as they are." ~St Gregory of Nyssa

“According to materialism, men are like little flies in hot weather. They crowd one another in a vast swarm, push one another, fly around in confusion, mate, feed and warm themselves, and then disappear in a disordered process, only to give space to tomorrow’s swarm of exactly the same kind.” ~Father I. Vino­gradov

Christianity is painful, very painful. It is not correct when we take it as a religion of well-being and comfort. Once a novice came up to Elder Paisios and said, "I want prayer to give me peace, serenity and silence." To which the Elder answered him, "What do you seek? Nirvana or Christ?" Christ will bring the pain of the entire world with Him. Are you ready to accept Christ Who will come and disturb your peace? Because He is inseparable from the pain of humankind. Saints understood that and therefore gave their consent to this martyrdom, receiving grace and God's help at the same time. #archpriestSergiyBaranov

"I would very much like to be the donkey that carried Christ and then let me die!" - St. Paisios the Athonite

If there is no sacrifice, then there is no anything. You may lock yourself in your house and invent asceticism for yourself, but this will be the asceticism that you have made up on your own.You have tried it on, and it feels comfortable and spiritually cosy in it. Sacrifice is not born this way. It reveals itself in compulsion to do what you do not want to do, in concessions. #archpriestSergiyBaranov

If Christ were to walk in this world today, do you know what would happen to Him? He would be placed in a mental institution and given psycho-therapy, just as would His Saints. The world would crucify Him today just as it did 2000 years ago, for the world has not learned a thing, except more devious forms of hypocrisy. And what would happen if, in one of my classes at the university, I would one day tell my students that all the learning of this world is of no importance beside the duty of worshipping God, accepting the God-man who died for our sins, and preparing for the life of the world to come? They would probably laugh at me, and the university officials, if they found out, would fire me—for it is against the law to preach the Truth in our universities. We say that we live in a Christian society, but we do not: we live in a society. - Fr. Seraphim Rose

If the love is not experienced by the heart, no matter how many novels and poems you read, it will remain as a theory. Likewise, in theology, no matter how much you talk about meeting God, it won't be of any use, until you meet God in your heart, until you experience His love in your heart. Archpriest Theodore Gignadze ©

Divine truth consists not in talk but in silence,in remaining within the heart by long suffering. The Book of the Poor in Spirit