Elder Ephraim of Arizona: "If we had a pure heart, we would not be offended even if people insulted and derided us."

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Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen!

A Prayer of Confession, by Blessed Father Nicholas Pekatoros

An Orthodox Priest and Penitent during Holy Confession (source)

  
A Prayer of Confession,
by the Blessed Father Nicholas Pekatoros, for use by his spiritual children:
“I confess to the Lord my God and before you, Holy Father, all my innumerable sins, which I have committed to the present day and hour, in deed, word and thought. Daily and hourly I commit the sin of ingratitude toward the Lord for his great and innumerable blessings and gracious providence toward me, a sinner. These are my sins: empty, foolish words; criticizing and verbally abusing others; defiance; pride; lack of mercy; envy; vengeful anger; slander against others; inattention; neglect where my salvation is concerned; carelessness; a carefree attitude; rudeness; irritability; despondency; returning evil for evil; hardness of heart; disobedience; complaining; self-righteousness; contradictoriness; willfulness; conduct that is blameworthy or disgraceful; speaking evil; lying; excessive laughter; yielding to temptation; love of self; ambition; gluttony; drunkenness; vanity; laziness; thinking impure thoughts; heaping up worldly goods; lusting after others; missing Divine Liturgy and other church services because of laziness and carelessness; wandering of mind during prayer in church and at home; sins of deed; sins of word; sins of thought; and sins of sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch and my other senses, both physical and spiritual. I repent of all my sins and I ask forgiveness. (State here other sins that may be on one’s soul.) I also repent and ask forgiveness for sins I did not confess because of their multitude or because of my forgetfulness. Forgive and release me, Holy Father, and give me your blessing to partake of Christ’s Holy and Life-Giving Mysteries, to the renunciation of sin and the receiving of Life Eternal. Amen.
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Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen!

St. Gabriel of Georgia: "A person has nothing to fear before God..."

St. Gabriel the New Confessor of Georgia (source)

  
"Evil men don't exist. I have not yet met that type of person."***
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"Though I lived in a cemetery, the Lord freed me from my fears and confirmed to me that a person has nothing to fear before God--except for sin!"
-St. Gabriel the New Confessor of Georgia
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***Note: The Saint, in this beautiful phrase, expresses both the purity and innocence with which the Saints behold others, and the notion that man is created in the image of God, not inherently evil (despite our fallen nature), but it is our weaknesses and the guile of the demons that bring sin and evil deeds into man. Amazingly he says this after having been persecuted by Communists and condemned to a mental institution for his confession of Christ.
  

Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen!

Elder Aimilianos: "If I am not joyous, then I am nothing!"

The Parable of the Prodigal Son (source)

  
"The lack of joy is a pathological state of man, a willing closure within one's self. And whatever he wishes to do he will not be successful.

First, one must clean his field, to find out what is going on and why he is not joyous. Then, he must pursue joy within himself, and then the peace of God will take the place of joy. Thus, man should keep his relationship with God and with his Elder [or Spiritual Father], and should seek a true life.

Am I good, faithful, perfect, holy?
Am I a teacher?
If I am not joyous, then I am nothing.

It is important when they tell me: "Physician, heal thyself, and then, offer him to God." God cannot enter into a heart that is not joyful, He cannot find a place of contact, because He is peace, He is the fulfillment of joy.

Only like things can unite, and because of this, God can only unite with a joyous soul. For the monk who is not joyous, the Elder cannot do anything at all, his hands are totally tied.

Whoever thinks that he is approaching to reach "the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ", but is not joyous, can understand that he is totally deluded. Joy is the criterion, the thermometer.
Joy is something external, but it is also something internal.

Ultimately, it is a necessary presupposition, because the lack of joy makes man study things differently and to become changed. For example, if one puts even one drop of nitric oxide into pure water, immediately he changes its essence. Thus, exactly, one drop of bitterness, depression, sadness transforms the whole atmosphere of a person, and extinguishes God.

But joy must also exist in a brotherhood [or a family], because it is an element both of one's personal life and of the brotherhood.

I cannot be joyous if all those around me do not have the tendency and the atmosphere of joy, neither, however, can I have any benefit if I do not take on this joy from the brotherhood.

Only when I take it on can I say that I have a relationship with the Elder, and then I can take in God, because God is the life that exists within man, and the life which is transmitted through man."
-Elder Aimilianos of Simonopetra, from the book Neptic Life and the Ascetical Canons
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Elder Aimilianos of Simonopetra (+2019) (source)

  

Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen!

Elder Symeon Kragiopoulos: How to Prepare for Christmas

The Nativity of Christ (source)

  

God the Father gives us His Son for a gift. What shall we offer to God? We think we do something important. We do nothing important. Everything is of God. However, God hasn’t given you sin. You, the man, commit sins. That’s the only thing we have, then: our sins. And still, that’s what God asks of us. God asks of us to give Him our sins, in order for Him to forgive them. You should repent these days and say: “My God, take all the burdens off my soul, take them away from me: my thoughts, my emotions, my experiences, my actions, everything. Take, my God, away all things sinful, in order to forgive them”. This is the way to prepare for Christmas.

-Elder Symeon Kragiopoulos (+2015)

 

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Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen!

St. Paisios the Athonite on the Condition of the Modern World

This is a short but poignant audio recording of St. Paisios the Athonite with English subtitles in which he discusses the condition of modern man with regards to faith, works, thoughts, etc., and how to receive the true joy and peace of God. May he intercede to the Lord for us all and for all who are sick, suffering and distressed throughout the whole world! (source)

  

St. Paisios the Athonite (source)

  

Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen!

St. Luke of Simferopol: "We must resist their evil works..."

St. Luke of Simferopol (source)

  
"The enemy of men, the devil and his angels, the demons, know very well how to whisper into our ear and to pass on to us evil under the guise of the good and to hypnotize our conscience. If that which passes into our mind corresponds to our hidden desires and our passions, then very easily they will be understood by our heart. We must resist their evil works. We can do this more easily if we manage to think of how much these things that we hear correspond with the Will of God and if we shut our ears to the devil."
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"Holy people hate sin and do not accept the sin that tortures them. They are righteous and do not commit sin because they hate sin, not because they fear a God Who is a punisher."
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-St. Luke Archbishop of Simferopol the Blessed Surgeon
  

St. Luke of Simferopol (source)

     

Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen!