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The Second Wednesday of Great Lent: Self-absorption, the Cancer of the Soul

Published by Pemptousia Partnership on August 7, 2021 Archimandrite Iakovos Kanakis Self-absorption is a cancer in the soul and has been so from the time of the first human beings until today. It can be defined simply as love for yourself. ‘Is that bad?’, it might be asked. The problem is that you love your ‘old’ self. How do I know if I’m self-absorbed? According to Saint Païsios, gluttony, egotism, stubbornness and jealousy all have self-absorption as their starting-point.

The Twenty-Eighth Day of Christmas Advent. The Life of Saint Spyridon

“Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth” – a teaching by Jesus Christ in His Sermon on the Mount. These divine words describe Saint Spyridon absolutely. This is evident from the fact that his life on earth was a flowering of Christianity in all its fullness and constancy expressed through his teaching, which influenced society not just in his lifetime but during the many centuries between then and now, and will certainly

The Sixth Friday of Great Lent: Gluttony is the Snare of the Devil & Ridiculous Conceit

Gluttony is the Snare of the Devil The devil said to Jesus: ‘If you are the son of God, command that these stones become bread.’ [Luke 4:3] Here we learn that there are three principal weapons that the devil likes to carry in order to wound our souls. They are gluttony, arrogance and ambition. He begins with the weapon with which he has already been victorious. We likewise should begin to be victorious in Christ

Analyzing Our Thoughts and Feelings (II)

Evagrius’s account of self-observation might almost be found in a psychology textbook explaining the various mechanisms of the soul and the connections of the individual feelings and emotions: “It is very important for us that we also learn to distinguish the various demons and to determine the attendant circumstances of their appearance. Our thoughts can teach us this…. Furthermore, we should note which demons attack less often and which are the more burdensome, which abandon