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Fear: Cause and Cure

Published by Pemptousia Partnership on July 25, 2021 Protopresbyter Georgios Dorbarakis The Christian faith doesn’t doubt the existence of fear in people’s lives. It accepts it as a reality and interprets it. Fear is the product of our Fall into sin- that which opened the gates for every kind of fear to enter our life, and therefore the tragedy of our time on earth. But with Christ’s coming, we found our true path again and once more felt the

The Eleventh Day of Christmas: The Good of Our Soul

Published by Pemptousia Partnership on November 25, 2017 By Saint Isaac the Syrian It takes a great struggle, because the passions are very powerful. But by God’s grace those who are courageous and fight with all their strength will be victorious. Bodily effort and study of the holy Scriptures preserve the purity of the mind. And then it needs a lot of prayer, so that divine grace will shelter those who are struggling. If we’re to acquire the

A Quick Fix? Happiness.

By Abbot Tryphon, October 27, 2019  Anything that is quickly obtained is also easily lost Since we have grown accustomed to having everything happen quickly, and without delay, we also expect our spiritual lives to be on the same quick time line. We don’t have the patience to build upon the knowledge of the holy fathers, so we don’t practice regular spiritual reading. Our church attendance is limited to the essential Sunday Liturgy, and even

Death and Humility

A pilgrim to the Holy Mountain of Athos asked an old hermit, “Father, how can I attain my salvation?” The venerated holy man replied, “Every day at dusk go to the cemetery and for an hour hurl insults to the dead. Do that for a month and pay attention to everything that happens around you. Then come and report to me.” After a month the pilgrim returned. “Father, I have done what you told me

Prayer for Universal Salvation (Part I)

It is out of respect for our freedom that God allows evil to exist; it has already been conquered, but secretly, because the Holy Spirit wishes to regenerate us from within, by a free and faithful response, without compulsion. What matters in the history of the Church is her holiness, her awareness, in a world that is utterly free, that Christ has conquered death once and for all, and that his victory is always present

Saint Isaac the Syrian: Work by Day

Work by day After the morning Office, when he sat down to read the Bible he became like a man enraptured: with every verse he read he would fall many times on his face, and at many of the phrases he would raise his hands to heaven and glorify God many times over. He was about forty years old, his food was sparse, and in temperament he was dry and warm. Because he used to

Lectio Divina with Saint Isaac the Syrian

St Isaac the Syrian, or St Isaac of Nineveh, as he is also known, is one of the greatest spiritual writers of the Christian East. If one visits the monasteries of Mount Athos or Romania today and asks the monks whom they would recommend for spiritual reading, the name of Isaac will nearly always be among the first to be mentioned. His influence on Orthodox spirituality continues to be great. It is by no means

Death and Humility

A pilgrim to the Holy Mountain of Athos asked an old hermit, “Father, how can I attain my salvation?” The venerated holy man replied, “Every day at dusk go to the cemetery and for an hour hurl insults to the dead. Do that for a month and pay attention to everything that happens around you. Then come and report to me.” After a month the pilgrim returned. “Father, I have done what you told me