Paternal Counsels I: Elder Philotheos Zervakos
Paternal Counsels, select letters and excerpts from the book: Paternal Counsels Volume I, by Elder Philotheos Zervakos.
Paternal Counsels II: Elder Philotheos Zervakos
Paternal Counsels, select letters and excerpts from the book: Paternal Counsels Volume II, by Elder Philotheos Zervakos.
Prayers of Orthodox Saints
Prayer of the Holy Optina Elders, St. Philaret, and Saint Basil the Great.
Concerning Heart Transplantations by Saint Philaret.
An Orthodox View of Heart Transplantations by Saint Philaret the Confessor.
On illness by Elder Porphyrios
I thank God for granting me many illnesses. [1] I often say to Him: ‘My Christ, Your love knows no limits!’ How I am alive is a miracle. Among all my other illnesses I also have cancer of the pituitary gland. A tumour appeared there which has grown and presses against the optic nerve. That’s why I don’t see any more. I am in dreadful pain. But I pray, taking up the Cross of Christ with patience. Have you seen what my tongue is like? It has grown; it’s not as it used to be. That’s also a result of the cancer I’ve got in my head. And as time goes on, things will get worse. It will grow even more and I’ll have difficulty in speaking. I’m in great pain, but my illness is something very beautiful. I feel it as the love of Christ. I am given compunction and I give thanks to God. It is on account of my sins. I am sinful and God is trying to purify me.
Talks: St. Barsanuphius of Optina II
April 13, 1911
The Feast of Pascha.
"Our life is in Heaven"—this is the usual theme of my talks. By this thought I tear myself and my listeners away from attachments to earthly, created things. "Our life is in Heaven." Dissatisfaction with things earthly can be sensed in our great worldly writers—for example, in Turgenev and Pushkin; and in foreigners—Schiller, Shakespeare and Heine.
The Feast of Pascha.
"Our life is in Heaven"—this is the usual theme of my talks. By this thought I tear myself and my listeners away from attachments to earthly, created things. "Our life is in Heaven." Dissatisfaction with things earthly can be sensed in our great worldly writers—for example, in Turgenev and Pushkin; and in foreigners—Schiller, Shakespeare and Heine.
Talks: St. Barsanuphius of Optina I
January 2, 1911
Glory be to the Lord!
We've made it to the Feasts. The present days are called "Svyatki," that is, holy days, since the Church dedicates them to the commemoration of the Nativity of the Savior of the world.
But what is now taking place in the world is terrible to consider!—overeating, drunkenness and debauchery.
Glory be to the Lord!
We've made it to the Feasts. The present days are called "Svyatki," that is, holy days, since the Church dedicates them to the commemoration of the Nativity of the Savior of the world.
But what is now taking place in the world is terrible to consider!—overeating, drunkenness and debauchery.
On Struggling by St. John of Kronstadt
Do not fear the conflict, and do not flee from it: where there is no struggle, there is no virtue; where there are no temptations for faithfulness and love, it is uncertain whether there is really any faithfulness and love for the Lord. Our faith, trust, and love are proved and revealed in adversities, that is, in difficult and grievous outward and inward circumstances, during sickness, sorrow, and privations.
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