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.
(source)
  

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

St. Porphyrios: "One does not become a Christian with laziness..."

Jesus Christ the Son of God the Savior of the world (source)

  
A spiritual child of St. Porphyrios spoke of the Saint: "He spoke to me, not of some piecemeal good effort, but on the decisive, definitive passing from an old life of sin into a new life of holiness, in which we live in Christ and Christ lives within us, and for this transition, we must give all our strength.

Once, he asked me: "Tell me, to study to become a lawyer, how many years does it take?" I answered him.

He asked again: "To study to be an engineer, a chemist, a physician, how many years does it take?" I answered correspondingly, curious as to the nature of his questions.

And the Elder continued: "Do we study to learn the will of God and to apply it?"

I understood what he was referring to, and I was reluctant to respond. What could I say? That most of us faithful are lazy, lukewarm, "amateur Christians"? He knew this.

And he told me: "One does not become a Christian with laziness. It requires work, much work."

He himself was an example, without showing off. He had dedicated himself with zeal all the years of his long life to studying and to living Christ.

He was a worker, bodily and spiritually, and he wished to transmit this love of work to others. He believed that laziness leads to despondency and to many afflictions of soul and body. He recommended occupational therapy. Especially for those who were disorganized and desperate.

For the Elder, it was never too late to make a new start. He perceived of course that the denial of worldly hopes and the crushing of selfishness as the best precondition for this beginning.

Everything is transformed with effort, both with the soul and the body.

Do not leave the prayer. Simply and without being forced, fervently entreat for others. You will benefit them with prayer, not with words.

Regarding my problems, St. Porphyrios told me: "If we spoke a little on the phone, you would see that everything had immediately gone well. Tire the body, do not fear effort. Everything is transformed with effort, both the soul and the body. If they ask you about it, say humbly: 'That's how I think, but whatever you think.'"
-From a spiritual child of St. Porphyrios, in an Anthology of Instructions of Elder Porphyrios
(source)

  

St. Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia (source)

  

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

Elder Symeon Kragiopoulos: "God calls all of us and can make each of us a saint..."

Synaxis of All Saints (source)

  

1st Sunday of Matthew 

June 15th, 2014   Bl. Augustine

Matthew 10: 32-33, 37-38; 19: 27-30

‘’The saints make manifest the Holy Spirit’’ 

                A characteristic of the spiritual life is that a person continually makes a new start. He never tires. Fatigue, boredom, despondency, laziness are all human and earthly; they don’t have anything to do with the man of God though. A new day, a new life. A new hour, a new life. Especially today as we close the festal cycle attached to Pascha and start again in some way from the beginning, we should have the attitude that now we are being born, now we are meeting Christ, now we are starting.

                Man tires easily and becomes bored above all when he is not expecting some pleasure from what he does. He becomes active, he comes to life only when he pursues something that pleases him. If he is required to make some sacrifice without expecting to be pleased, then he feels a lack of will, a boredom. His whole self feels heavy. He becomes confused, like he’s not sure what he ought to do. Within him is upheaval.

                 These things are straightforward, though, because we not only have before us the Gospel, but also a two thousand year history, the experience of the Church, and of all the saints. In the Lives of the Saints we find the Gospel put into practice. Studying the Gospel alongside the Lives of the Saints, which saints we imitate, we are not deceived. Why do we become deceived? Because deep within us we want to be deceived. So we are the ones who choose the lie. We think what we think and instead of accepting the truth, we accept a lie. Instead of being influenced by that which is true, we’re influenced by that which is false, illegitimate. The Saints, however, did not do this. What did they do then? Just as Christ, the Son, made manifest his Father, and the Holy Spirit made manifest Christ, so the saints within Orthodox Church make manifest the Holy Spirit, as we observe the fruit of the Spirit in their lives: This is precisely what made them saints, what deified them.

                We are all children of God. God calls all of us and can make each of us a saint, can deify us. Do we want it?

Transcribed talks by Archimandrite Symeon Kragiopoulos

From: Holy Hesychasterion “The Nativity of Theotokos” Publications.

Translated by Fr. Matthew Penney (source)

  

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