Today other forms of ascetic practice, non-Orthodox and Christian, are also advertised and promoted. Evangelical and orthodox ascetic practice has nothing to do with the ascetic methods of the […]
Category: Saints and Elders – Counsels
Elder Efraim of Arizona. Reproach yourself continually
Reproach yourself continually, for self-reproach is an offspring and fruit of a humble heart, and in a humble heart the Divine manifests itself, as it knows best. “Blessed […]
Immediately move away
If you have a friend and they happen to be tempted into a sin of the flesh, help them if you can by giving them your hand and pulling […]
Uprooted and withered
The fear of God is the beginning of all things. Out of fear comes devotion. Out of devotion comes renunciation and out of renunciation comes humility. From humility […]
Elder Efraim of Arizona. When you are in pain
When you are in pain, gather the powers of your soul and try to understand what heaven is trying to tell you in this trial of yours. […]
The trick to find the way of Life
An Elder said that there was a farmer who was very rich and wanted to teach his children agriculture. So, he said: ;My children, you know very well that […]
Elder Efraim of Arizona. We forget Him!
Man suffers because of his sins. However, the goodness of God counts the pain as spiritual work, and He gives wages and a reward. How can we not love […]
Heal first yourself and then ask for the others
Today many children are suffering because of the unfaithfulness and hard-heartedness of their parents. I remember in Athens there was a husband and wife who once invited […]
To set us free
All the emptiness, poverty, suffering, anguish, death, which the Lord received for us, culminate in the Cross. On the Cross He experienced the deepest pain, and the greatest humiliation […]
They darken the mind
It is selfishness and ego that prevents man from loving God and loving his brother. The Christian struggles to root out selfishness, to root out the passions […]