Please pray for Orthodoxy in Ecuador!

Christ is Risen!

With great happiness, I learn from my good friend Leonardo that this Saturday we will have two newly baptized Orthodox Christians in Ecuador! Little by little our Orthodox family there is growing! :)

Anyone that wants to make donations in order to support Orthodoxy in Ecuador, please contact Leonardo to give you more information. From what I learn, the community there may be small, but people are giving all their life to share the Orthodox Christian faith and keep it , in order to transfer it to the next generation unchanged.

Please keep our Orthodox brothers and sisters from Ecuador in your prayers!

You should listen with attentive heart

Dearest brethren as often as you hear the mysteries of the heavenly kingdom preached to you, you should listen with attentive heart and with watchful feelings, lest the devil, who has a thousand ways of harming you, prevent you by superfluous cares from hearing the word of salvation.

- St. Cuthbert of Lindisfarne

Love your enemies

But I say to you, the Lord says, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, pray for those who persecute you. Why did He command these things? So that He might free you from hatred, sadness, anger and grudges, and might grant you the greatest possession of all, perfect love, which is impossible to possess except by the one who loves all equally in imitation of God.

- St. Maximos the Confessor

Just as I am

An Englishwoman found herself poised to reject both prayer and God because, burdened as she was by so much torment in asking the question “How can I discover prayer?”, she had received formulaic answers from others. Hearing that Fr. Sophrony had come to France, she sought him out and asked him the same question.

Fr. Sophrony replied to her, “With God there’s no need to play the politician. Turn to the Lord, who is in your heart, just as you are.” And she found such potent prayer, that as Fr Sophrony said of her, she would pray for hours together with her head touching the floor. That is no small thing for a Westerner. That lady was baptised Orthodox many years ago now.

- Told by Fr. Rafail Noica. Translation from Greek. Source.

The soul becomes a light

If it concerns itself with things divine, the soul becomes a light to others, it inspires them to glorify God.

- St. Nikitas Stithatos

Prayer is absolutely essential

It is absolutely scandalous to say “I don’t feel like praying.” Such a thing is an offense to God, a true blasphemy. That we pray must be absolute, unchanging rule inour lives. We must pray no matter what the cost because it really is a matter of life and death. We don’t decide to breath because of our good will, we don’t think about whether it’s  really necessary to breath, we never ask why. We know that is we stop breathing we will die. We must treat prayer with the same attitude, that it is absolutely essential to even staying alive and that there is no question that we need to do it at all times. We should say to ourselves “That’s how it is, period!”. We must stick to a rule of prayer and keep it at all costs.

- Elder Sergei of Vanves

If you knew you own illness…

If you knew you own illness, you wouldn’t know the illness of others. I am not saying you shouldn’t be concerned with their pain and suffering, but you mustn’t preoccupy yourself with other’s faults. If a person is not concerned with his self, the tempter devil will lead him to be concerned with other’s faults. If we work on ourselves, then we know ourselves and come to know others as well. Otherwise, we judge others by the wrong assumptions we make about ourselves.

- Elder Paisios

If we want to overcome the passions…

At every hour we must weigh our daily affairs attentively, and as much as we are able, without fail lighten their burden through repentance, if we want to overcome the passions with the help of Jesus. It is also necessary to examine whether we carry out all our outward actions through God’s will, before God and for God Alone, so that the feelings (passionate) do not deceive us like foolish people.

- Saint Hesychius

Do not try to conceal yourself

Do not try to conceal yourself, covering your nakedness with a fig leaf and hiding in the bushes from the Lord, who comes to you in the conscience and exposes you. Blame yourself completely, and ask forgiveness without placing blame on anyone else.

- Saint Theophan the Recluse

Humble your own will

In the measure to which a man cuts off and humbles his own will, he proceeds toward success. But insofar as he stubbornly guards his own will, so much does he brings harm to himself.

- St. Ephraim the Syrian, Counsels to a Novice Monk

It is vital to continue in prayer

It is vital to continue in prayer for as long as we can, so that his invincible strength may penetrate and enable us to resist every destructive influence. And with the increase of this strength in us comes the joy of hope in final victory.

- Archimandrite Sophrony