Wisdom of the Divine Philosophers (Part II)

My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE. Ο ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΕΝ ΤΩ ΜΕΣΩ ΗΜΩΝ! ΚΑΙ ΗΝ ΚΑΙ ΕΣΤΙ ΚΑΙ ΕΣΤΑΙ.

WISDOM OF THE DIVINE PHILOSOPHERS (Part II)
[Volume II]

Love of Neighbor

"If you love your neighbor, then all of heaven will love you. If you are united in spirit with your fellow creatures, then you will be united with God and all the company of heaven; if you are merciful to your neighbor, then God and all the Angels and Saints will be merciful to you. If you pray for others, the all of heaven will intercede for you. The Lord our God is Holy; be holy yourself also."--Saint John of Kronstadt

"Our salvation and our ruin is in our neighbor. Our salvation depends on how we relate to our neighbor. Do not forget to see the image of God in your neighbor."--Saint Nikon of Optina

Love (Agape)

"The person who loves God cannot help loving every man as himself, even though he is grieved by the passion of those who are not yet purified. But when they amend their lives, his delight is indescribable and knows no bounds."--Saint Maximos the Confessor

"Fasts and vigils, the study of Scripture renouncing possessions and everything worldly are not in themselves perfection, as we have said; they are its tools. For perfection is not to be found in them; it is acquired through them. It is useless, therefore, to boast of our fasting, vigils, poverty, and reading of Scripture when we have not achieved the love of God and our fellow men. Whoever has achieved love has God within himself and his intellect is always with God."--Saint John Cassian

"My child, do not listen at all to these thoughts of hatred towards the brethren but drive them away immediately, and start saying the prayer, or tell Satan, 'The more you bring me thoughts of hatred, devil, the more I will love my brethren. For I have an order from my Christ not only to love them but even to sacrifice myself for them, just as Christ sacrificed Himself for me, the wretch. And, at once, embrace the things about them that annoy you, and say, 'Just look how much I love them, O envious Satan! I will die for them! By doing this, God sees your good intentions and the method you are using to conquer the devil and He will come at once to your aid to deliver you."--Elder Ephraim of Arizona

"Real Christian love is proved by our relationship with our enemies. Not only should slight and incidental annoyances not extinguish our love for others--neither should attacks and persecutions, misfortunes and deprivations, intentionally and maliciously inflicted. We must not only bless people (that inflict these upon us) but also do good to them and pray for them. See whether you have such a disposition toward your enemies, and judge by this whether you have Christian love, without which there is no salvation."--Saint Theophan the Recluse

Silence

"More than all things love silence: it brings you a fruit that the tongue cannot describe. In the beginning, we have to force ourselves to be silent. But then there is born something that draws us to silence. May God give you an experience of this 'something' that a born of silence. If you only practice this, untold light will dawn on you in consequence...after a while, a certain sweetness is born in the heart of this exercise and the body is drawn almost by force to remain in silence."-Saint Isaac the Syrian

The Heart

"Some people give their self to material things. They spend the entire day trying to do a job well and do not think of God at all. We should not end up there...You should not give all of your being--all of your energy and heart--to material things. This way, one becomes a pagan--an idol worshipper. Do your best at work, but do not give your heart to the work that you do; give only your hands, your mind. Do not give your heart to hopeless, useless things. If you do, then how will your heart leap for Christ? When the heart is with Christ, then even the work we do is sanctified, our soul is at rest and there is real joy in our heart. Make the most of your heart, do not waste it."--Saint Paisios the Athonite

"When a man receives something Divine, in his heart he rejoices but when he receives something diabolic, he is disturbed. The Christian heart, when it has received something Divine, does not demand anything else in order to convince it that this is precisely from the Lord; but by that very effect it is convinced that this is heavenly, for it senses within itself spiritual fruits: love, joy, peace and the rest" (cf. Galatians 5:22).--Saint Seraphim of Sarov

"Strong faith in a man's heart both requires and produces prayer, and a prayer of many hearts produces love. The goal of our life is nothing other than cleansing our heart to such an extent that it is able to sing with joy. Thus, prayer of the heart leads to joy of the heart. Nothing is difficult for a joyful person because he has love."--Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica

"Our heart is like the darkened earth, the Gospel is like the sun, enlightening and giving life to our hearts. May the true sun of Your righteousness shine in our hearts, O Lord!"--Saint John of Kronstadt

Envy

"You will able to check envy if you rejoice with the man whom you envy whenever he rejoices, and grieve whenever he grieves."--Saint Maximos the Confessor

Worry

"Be careful not to waste your precious energies on redundant worries and vanities, which will turn to dust one day. When you do this, you not only tire your body, but you also scatter your mind aimlessly, offering God only your fatigue and yawns at the time of prayer--much like the sacrifice offered by Cain. It follows that your inner state will be like that of Cain's: you will be full of anxiety and sighs, provoked by the devil standing by your side."--Saint Paisios the Athonite

"If the head of a family is burdened with cares and worries about the future of his family, he will have no peace. All the members of the family will feel his unrest. They will know that something is wrong, but they will not know exactly what. We can see how much our thoughts influence others. Misunderstandings in the family also happen because of our thoughts."--Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica

Despair

"We mustn't despair when we struggle and continuously see nothing but the slightest progress. We all do nearly nothing, some a little more, some a little less. When Christ sees our little effort He gives us an analogous token, and so our nearly nothing becomes valuable and we see a little progress. For this reason, we must not despair, but hope in God."--Saint Paisios the Athonite

"Nothing equals the mercy of God or surpasses it. To despair is, therefore, to inflict death on oneself."--Saint John Climacus

Slander

"If you hear or see someone sin, keep from slandering him and judging him. You tell someone else about him, he tells it to another, the other to the third, the third to the fourth, and so everyone will come to know and be tempted. And they will judge the one who sinned, which is a very serious thing. And you will be the cause of all this, by publishing your brother's sin. Slanderers are like lepers that harm others by their foul odor, or like those stricken by the plague who carry their disease form place to place and destroy others. Keep yourself, then, from slandering your neighbor, lest you sin gravely and give someone else cause for sin."--Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk

"Slander is a great evil. Just as the little rudder steers the whole ship wherever it wants, likewise the tongue leads a person either to good or to evil. The Holy Fathers greatly censured judging other people's sins, faults, or evil habits."--Elder Ephraim of Arizona

Faith

"There was a wealthy man who became destitute. This was difficult, but it could be overcome. There was a healthy man became ill, and this too could be remedied; for with the poor and sick, there is always Christ. However, if you lose your faith, it is a great tragedy. It is truly terrible for the man who has lost his faith, for he has no one to support him."--Saint Barsanuphius of Optina

"A church pure and untouched by the harshness of our times is not easily found and from now on rarely to be seen--a Church that has preserved the Apostolic Doctrine unadulterated and inviolate!...Beloved brethren we are small and humble, but we have not accommodated our faith according to changing events. We do not have one faith in Seleucia, another in Constantinople, another in Zelis, another in Lampsake, and a different one for Rome. The faith that is professed today is not different from the one that came before; it is the one and same faith...Be firm in the faith; look around the world and realize how small the part is that is diseased. All the rest of the Church, which from one extremity to the other has received the Gospel, abides in sound and undeviating doctrine. We pray that we may not be cut from her communion and that we may have a part with you on the day of the Lord Jesus Christ, the day of Judgment when He comes to render to each one of us according to his deeds."--Saint Basil the Great

(Source: Orthodox Calendar Company)

(To be continued)

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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!"--Saint John Chrysostom

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DIVINE SERVICES ON NEW YEAR'S DAY:

Orthros (Matins) at 9:00 a.m.
Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great at 10:00 a.m.

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MAY ALL OF US HAVE A BLESSED, PEACEFUL, JOYFUL, AND A HEALTHY NEW YEAR 2018!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!!

With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George