Monthly Archives: February 2018

St Seraphim of Sarov writes on despair: ‘As the Lord works for our salvation, so the devil, that killer of men, works to lead man into despair.’ Judas the betrayer was little of soul and untested in battle, and therefore the devil, seeing him in despair, attacked him and forced him to suicide. But Peter, the firm rock, when he fell into great sin in the testing time of battle, did not despair nor lose the presence of the Spirit, but wept bitterly from a full heart, and the devil seeing this, fled from him as from a flaming fire. And, my brethren, St Antiochus teaches that, when despair descends upon us, we must not surrender to it but, strengthened and protected by our holy Faith, say resolutely to the wicked spirit: ‘What hast thou to do with us, thou who hast fallen away from God, thou fugitive from heaven and slave of wickedness? Thou darest in no wise do us harm, for Christ the Son of God has dominion over us and over all. But thou, O thou murderer, get thee away from us! Strengthened by His precious Cross, we trample upon thy serpent head!’

Source:
Bishop St Nikolai Velimirovic,  Prologue from Ochrid

∼ Words from the Church Fathers ∼

Even if we perform upon thousands of good works, my brethren: fasts, prayers, almsgiving; even if we shed our blood for our Christ and we don’t have these two loves (love of God and love of brethren), but on the contrary have hatred and malice toward our brethren, all the good we have done is of the devil and we go to hell. But, you say, we go to hell despite all the good we do because of that little hatred?

Yes, my brethren, because that hatred is the devil’s poison, and just as when we put a little yeast in a hundred pounds of flour it has such power that it causes all the dough to rise, so it is with hatred. It transforms all the good we have done into the devil’s poison.

~ St. Kosmas Aitolos, The Life of St. Kosmas Aitolos Together with an English Translation of His Teaching and Letters, Translated by Nomikos Michael Vaporis

“The outward man perishes through fasting and self-control, but the more he does so, the more the inward man is renewed…”

~ St. Gregory Palamas, “Homilies”