The role of Orthodoxy in the World consists in confessing the truth, in the preaching of the apostles and in the dogmas

Monk Theoclate from Dionysiou

Orthodoxy was founded in twenty centuries on the Holy Scripture, the Ecumenical Councils, the Holy Tradition and the blood of the martyrs and confessors.

The attempts of unification with the Catholics as long as they remain in their heresy and innovations represent for us a danger of dogmatic deflection, of nullification of the blood shed by our martyrs and of deflection from the teaching of our Holy Church.

The desired unification is for us the Orthodox something unbearable and if this is accomplished will erode the Orthodox spirit and become a spring of many evils.

The idea of unification and its practical consequences are disgraceful for us the Orthodox. In addition to this the Scripture forbids the fellowship with those of another faith. If the heresy is the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit which leads to the absence of his divine work, how will be possible the collaboration with those who are against the Holy Spirit? Our people will be in danger because of the relationships with the Protestant and Catholic carriers of demons. Many will convert themselves to Catholicism and Protestantism because by collaboration in time all the differences of the Holy Fathers will disappear.

Love is good but hate is better when it comes to faith; of course not to hate the people only their heretical ideas.

Christianity encourages love but recommends hate as well. Without a hate against the sin, virtue is not possible.

The measure of virtue is the hate against the sin, says saint Basil the Great. And if we have to hate the moral sin, we should hate even more the sin against the Holy Spirit.

Saint Nicodemus the Athonite clarified the attitude of the Orthodox towards the heretics writing : `We must hate and reject the heretical ideas and the wicked manners of the Catholics and of other heretics.`

We are not wiser or holier than those blessed men who hated heresy considering it the cause of perdition.

The mon are according to saint John Chrysostom the `kidneys of the Church`. The patriarch of Constantinople, saint Gregory the 6th says only beautiful words about the monastic order and considers it the shield of Orthodoxy. The heretics of nowadays – he writes in his circular from 1836 – for contaminating the true religion poured the microbes from their poisonous souls through a lot of twaddle against the vigilant Orthodox flock and they did everything to oppose and harm by their cunning plans the monastic order. But the wretched saw that within this order are found the speakers of truth and the guides of the Orthodox youth teaching them the holy dogmas and the right moral. This order has never contaminated the visible Church of Christ but has always enlightened it, glorified it, defended it and settled it by spiritual experience, dogmatic writings and good morals.`

 (excerpts from the article Orthodoxy and Vatican of the periodical `Athonite Library`, Sot. Shoina Voios, no. 60, 1962)

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God, nature and the others

Monk Moses the Athonite

A good thing brought by the economic crisis is that it forced some people to go back in the country. It made many young people to go back to the neglected nature and to agriculture. The disruption of the bond between man and the natural environment has serious consequences. There is anxiety and agony but not something more. Of course we don’t refer at an imaginary return to nature. The ecological crisis of our unstable times is tremendous.

The cause of this phenomenon is the sin. The man wants to move uncontrolled, abusively, with authority and superiority. Without respect, measure and limit, he is heading towards disaster. Free, irresponsible, selfish, he thinks that he gains. But  material gain, matter, temporariness and unsafety control him in an unhealthy way. Nature sighs, is disregarded, suffers, becomes a victim of constraint.  The abnormality is considered normality. Nature opposes the human chaos and greed. First created naked, out of heaven they were not respected anymore by creation. The church settle from the beginning the restraint for man. It guided him not to debauchery but to self restraint, to give up on what is in excess and to keep what is strictly necessary with due humbleness.

The irrational excessive consumerism leads to self destruction. Indifference towards the basic rules lead to the destruction of the environment, the excessive exploitation of the rich natural resources that are not inexhaustible, at the pollution of seas, rivers and lakes, of the atmosphere. Without God the man is drawn in all directions. The right attitude towards the use of the natural resources shows the morality of a Christian. The irrational connection between the man and creation define him as vicious. The saints were not some oversensitive, romantic ecologists, dreaming nature or animal lovers, they loved God first, the suffering man and then the nature as a divine creation and reason for doxology. Virtuous contemporary elders had a nice love for nature but not a stressing and sick one.

It is a proven fact that good relations with God create good relations with people and nature. The Orthodox Church with its teaching and tradition advises us to have a permanent gratefulness and doxology for everything and to have a modest and humble spirit so much needed in the world of nowadays.

God made Adam guardian, janitor of the eden. He gave it to him to find delight and rest in it and to use it. But Adam rebelled, became insolent and disobedient. He didn’t want to have anyone over his head, wanted to do everything as he pleased. And the consequences are well known and bitter. Since then his role changed a lot. He became an abusive self destroying exploiter. The environment given to us by God needs protection, respect, interest and valorization.

Returning to God, the man will become aware of his estrangement of God, will be helped and strengthened to free himself from the terrible abyss of despair. The man of nowadays who considered himself happy now became aware of his deep soul vacuum. It is necessary to see God, his neighbor, himself and nature with more respect. May the painful economic crisis lead him to the change of his mentality, to a sincere repentance so that his life may acquire meaning. It cannot be justified more carelessness in what regards spiritual training. We should treasure the world as a jewel. We should not act out of pride or interest for offending and exploiting wrongly the nature. By loving, respecting and protecting we don’t put the man in the second place. Sometimes animals are preferred instead of children. Many people die and faint because of hunger while others buy expensive food for the animals and take them to doctors, stomatologists and hair stylists.

The poor, the sick, the homeless, the unemployed, the desparate represent a painful tragedy of nowadays. But out of their huge pain may rise understanding, compassion, humility and reflection, an estrangement of the irrational life. Magninamity, the glorification of God and the love for nature were forgotten. They are all called to come back willingly and knowingly to the life giving grounds that have been so often derided, despised and deserted. The villages, the fresh woods, the fields in blossom, the starry sky, the orchards full of fruit trees and the vegetable gardens await those who are tired of the huge noise from the cities with something that’s not much but it’s precious and its theirs.

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In the problems of faith no sentimentalisms fit

Monk Theoclate the Dionyonisiate

Let us unite. But how? Unite the truth with the lie, the light with the darkness? The believers of the Church with those who denies the church?

Let us unite, yes, but after the heretics will leave their heresies. In the matters of faith there is no room for human feelings. The Church of Christ `by the words of His Mouth kept the rough paths.` There is no middle way. We either believe or not. The ten centuries old Catholicism fell into heresies so it must leave them and afterwards come to the dogmatic and ecclesiastic union, meaning that our Church has been wandering astray for ten centuries. Not only for ten centuries but it has  always been astray since the times of the Ecumenical Councils and of the Holy Fathers and everything falls apart. Thus we must rectify the Holy Canons, complete the Creed, change the liturgical books,  whitewash the walls where are present the Holy Fathers and burn their icons since they had led us astray for so many centuries…We are not governed by endless hate against those who have another faith. We are not some blind fanatics. We only feel the need, as sons of the Orthodox Church, to give the testimony of the Lamb. The Orthodox Church has kept unchanged the faith, the dogmas and the morals and it is our duty to know this. We light the candle of faith and those who are in the darkness may draw close.

Do they want explanations? Do they want `a word about our faith?` We are ready to give it to them. But not to tangle the matters. Not to fall into heresies. Not to become a reason for the heretics to say that we doubt our most bright Orthodoxy. Those we received through the Holy Spirit, we protect with the greatest care. We don’t know any other things, other human innovations. We know the anathemas settled by our Holy Church at the Ecumenical Councils for those who renounce at the dogmatic truth and we don’t dare to think of any change or compromise.

Orthodoxy has been discussed during centuries but nothing is sacrificed for the sake of opportunities. We are threatened with disappearance but this is in God’s care not in ours. We only have to keep our faith and repent when we sin. And take care of ourselves and of the others until that point where Orthodox faith is not touched. But when ecumenism makes us be like the heretics, then there is trouble for us and for them as well. We forget that we are Orthodox and they fool themselves that they are not heretics…And not only that…they even invite us to join their flock. If they ask for talks with us it is because they have discovered cracks in our wall. They don’t want talks about Orthodoxy. They know everything. Nor do they try to make us listen their opinions. They know that we know them.

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Horoscopes

† Hyerotheus, Mitropolitan of Navpakt

            Many newspapers and magazines publish horoscopes and many educated men read them.Some do this out of curiosity, others to create a funny atmosphere and the most to find out the future of their life, because they believe these come true. It worth mentioning the fact that few years ago in the USA from 1750 newspapers, 1200 had special columns of astrology.
The horoscopes are descriptions or guidelines given by the astrologists as a result of observing the stars and of the zodiacal signs. The old astrologists noticed that the stars in their apparent motion around the earth describe on the sky a cyclical trajectory. This is called zodiacal trajectory. This trajectory is divided in 12 sections. These sections are called zodiacal signs. Each zodiacal sign has a special name. We must mention that those who discovered the zodiacal signs were the ancient Chaldeans and then the Egyptians and the Greeks took these from them. Saint John Damascene accepting the science of those times writes: `the seven planets pass through the twelve zodiacal signs. The sun is present every month in a zodiacal sign and in twelve months passes through the twelve signs.

The truth is that both the ancient and the new astrology  admit that the zodiacal signs guide the life of men. They determine the evolution of our life, of the life of states, of history itself. But Christianity does not accept this. Saint John Damascene mentions the fact that in opposition with the ancient Greeks who believed that the sun, the stars and the zodiacal signs influence our lives, we admit that these determine the climatic conditions, the rain and the drought, the cold and the heat, the dryness and humidity, the winds and all such things, but by no means our deeds, because we were created with a free will by our Creator and we are the masters of that.

We have our freedom that is respected by God since He prefers to let us be doomed out of our free will instead of being saved by force. Because salvation without freedom is slavery. Without freedom there is no virtue, no malice, no praises or rewards.

More than this, according to the same Father if this had been done, God would have been unjust since He gives good things to one and troubles to another. And if this had been true, then God would not  have taken care of His creatures.

The Church does not believe in horoscopes, who are considered by many as unreal and absurd and those who make them as dealers of hope because they try to exploit the naivety and hope of people. Science rejects the conclusions of astrology too. Because astronomy, the science that studies the astral world is one thing and something else is astrology that pretends to try to watch the language of the stars. A famous astronomer writes: `In our times there is no astronomer in the whole world to believe in astrology.

The acceptance of the horoscopes by the Christians prove the lack of faith in God or the faith in false things. The man refuses a personal communion with God and accepts such weird and useless things. It is much more preferable if someone believes in God and studies the Holy Scripture that predicts many things about future since God by His wisdom and teaching foretold the future of our life and how to face the different problems that affect us instead of studying the horoscopes. With the Holy Scripture and the patristical teachings we have a real compass inspired by God in our life.

Many false fears and hopes overflooded us. Let us not add more such false fears and hopes by reading and trusting in horoscopes. Why tormenting and oppressing our life? We are free people in our journey to God. Why not going towards Him and why letting these profiteers to chain our freedom and get rich cause of our naivety? If we don’t want to look at this matter from a religious point of view why not taking into account the scientifical one that says according to a psychoanalyst: `astrology is a parody of science that  defy science with the same erotical smiles pop art defy academism?`

From the book THE QUALITY OF LIFE

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Faith is one thing and trust is another

The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We all believe in the existence of the Triune God. We all believe that Christ descended on earth, He was born from the Most Holy Virgin Mary and incarnated Himself, made Himself man for our salvation to take us out of the hell and open the heaven for us. The selfless love of Christ for the man is so big that He came to sacrifice Himself for us, so that our sins may be forgiven and for killing death. And to thank Him we slashed Him, we humiliated Him and in the end we gave Him the deadly blow, the Crucifixion, death. And after three days He resurrected!

Since we know the truth, why don`t we follow it ? Christ told us: `  But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves.For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. [1].

When it is necessary to be built the Body of the Church, our God makes us prophets, teachers, apostles and gives us those gifts which we need but not for our satisfaction, only for the benefit of our brothers.

We must not forget the word of Christ:

`I am the Light of the World and who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, will have the Light of life.`[2]

We who are baptized Orthodox believe in the existence of Christ and in everything He teaches us. Our mistake is only one: we don`t entrust ourselves to Him. And what`s the reason? We took His place, we became earthly gods and the result is that we suffer, we are unhappy, we are overwhelmed by madness and we come to suicide ourselves.

But although spiritual exhaustion kills us, we don`t take the decision to entrust ourselves in the care of that One Who can solve any of our problems and give us the greatness of love and happiness. And all these because we overestimated our power with our so-called erudition and we leveled everything, with the devastating consequence of the perdition of our soul.

Have we ever wondered how God wants us to be ? As nobody would like his wife to have relations with another man, God doesn`t want us to have any relation with the devil. God gave us life, He gave us the sky, the sun, the moon, the stars, the day and the night, the fertile land, the sea, everything. And what did the devil give us?

Let us meditate what and where our interest is and to give to each one of them the due place. Love, faith, trust, all these go together, three in one. That is why they have so much power. If we separate these powers, destruction comes over our soul and our life. In fact this is what we`ve found.

We`ve been watching for so many years the decadence of our homeland and unfortunately we don`t do anything to stop it. Those guilty of this destruction left us free the abortions, imposed to us the instant divorce, promoted the civil wedding, destroyed our culture, our family, giving us the plastic money, the bank cards and in this way we became arrogant with borrowed money. And all these with only one purpose: to forget about God.

[1] see Luke 21, 14-15.

[2] John 8, 12.

Excerpt from the book Listen to me! by nun Porphyria, published by Evanghelismos.

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Sexual debauchery: the scientific aspect of the matter in the view of the theory about telegony

It is natural for two young people who marry and want children to dream of having some healthy ones. But not all of them know how the purity and chastity of the two influence the health of their offsprings and the heredity of the future generations

Recently some scientific materials have made public secrets about an unknown phenomenon called `telegony`.

The knowledge and information about telegony were more based in the past on the empirical method and practical observation than on theoretical research but lately there appeared new theoretical scientifical approaches of this phenomenon: the undulatory genetics (the Ph.d in medical sciences V. Barbaş) and biochemistry (S. Pruziner). Our ancestors knew intuitively this thing and they highly valued the virginity of the people who married. It was proven that it is not at all negligible if a woman had intimate relations before marriage and birth. Nor is it negligible whether the man had sexual partners before marriage and the conceiving of the baby. The phenomenon of telegony elucidates these realities.

The term telegony comes from the Latin tele (remote, at distance) and gonos (kinsfolk, birth) or gono (sperm, sexual glands, hormones). Thus telegony meansliterally remote sexual hormones or basing on the research of the quantum genetics, `the influence of the sexual hormones upon the future generations.` It was attested that the genetic hereditary information is transmitted not only through the genes (the material carriers) but also through the informational fields of the genes and this even more than in the first case. If the man had intimate relations then the quantum data about his sexual partners are present all the time in his body, in his informational system and they may influence future generations by transmitting various genetic information towards them. Because of this phenomenon (of telegony) a debased girl, a debaucher was considered unworthy of marriage because she could not offer genetically pure offsprings to a man. From this derives the custom which is considered tough in the view of the modern sexual moral of smearing with tar the gate of the girl who sinned, who fell into debauchery. This was a sign that the girl was depraved, not being good for marriage, for wedding for the perpetuation of the people with whom she wanted to unite.

 (Why all the restrictions are centered around the woman ? I think the explanation is rather simple: the man gives his sperm and the woman receives it, makes it grow and probably she is more disposed to preserve the genetic information)

Ch.Darwin`s coeval, the French biologist, professor F. Le Dantec described various situations related to the phenomenon of telegony in his work `The man, the evolution, the heredity and the neodarwinists` It is eloquent the example of the interbreeding of the horse with the zebra. 150 years ago the horse breeders who wanted to obtain new breeds for improving the resistance of the horses decided to interbreed the mares with the zebra stallions. The experiences failed because there was no result of the interbreeding, the conceiving did not take place. After a few years the mares who took part at this experiment gave birth to some brindled foals even if they mated with a horse of breed. The academic world was shock. But the dog breeders were not surprised because they knew this fact: if a female dog of breed mates even once with a backyard dog, even if she has no offsprings then anyway in the future she doesn`t give birth to puppies of breed. The breeder of pigeons knows that too, when a hen pigeon mated a common male pigeon she won`t have offsprings of breed: either the feathers of the tail are different, or the color of the beak changes etc. In fact all the animal breeders know very well what means telegony based on their own practice otherways there would be no horses of breed, milk cows, true sables…

In the second part of the 19th century the scientists asked themselves if the effects of telegony affect the man. This question generated some complex physiological anthropological, sociological, statistical researches. In a short time they came to the conclusion that the effect of telegony affects the man indeed even more than it affects the animals. In the chapter `Telegony or the influence of the first male`

F. Le Dantec draws the conclusion: `Not only the first male has influence upon the offsprings but also the other partners of the woman and the baby who will be born from this woman who has other children from different partners may have the features of all these other fathers.` Thus the popular saying `Keep your virtue from your youth` got a scientifical substantiation. It is worth to mention here the words of saint Gregory the Great who warned us: `The debaucher sins against his kinsfolk.`

The studies we talked about proved, although they could not explain, the fact that during the sexual intercourse, because of the information received from the informational fields of the genes, changes took place at genetic and sexual levels in the bodies of the woman and the man, changes which in the future may affect the offsprings of one or both partners, even if they did not conceive any baby together. Thus those who practice free intercourse may have offsprings who don`t look like their mother or father but like their neighbor. Life offers us many examples of this kind. But we must mention that in this way not only the physical traits as the skin, the color of the eyes, the hair are inherited, but also the socio-psychological parameters as the predisposition to alcoholism, amoral behavior, psychical diseases etc. 

The phenomenon of telegony proved that the notion of virginity is a moral-genetical one. This aspect is extremely important. If a man and a woman want a healthy baby and if they want to feel love from this child and respect, not offence, they must both be virgin until their marriage and loyal in their marital relationship. Any sexual relation leads to the genetic change of each one of the partners even if they did not conceive any baby together. This inevitably attracts some behavioral changes from the future babies who feel estranged of their parents and many times there appear conflictual situations of hate between parents and children. This burden is transmitted from father to son.

Virginity, chastity, purity and marital fidelity represent the genetic base of the family happiness and welfare transmitted from generation to generation. These criteria assure not only the durability of the family but also of the nation and of the state. That is why all the religious confessions insist upon the value of chastity promoted not only at familial level but also at state level.

The biblical truth that `because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, it is confirmed once again through the experience of life. The invisible sins from the intimate life of the people are reflected in the visible chaos from the society of nowadays: there are not born practically any more healthy babies, the women and men are devastated by the multitude of gynecological and urological diseases. The life of the man of nowadays is more and more affected by feelings and notions like: frustration, estrangement, aggressiveness, criminal and suicidal tendencies etc.

After the scientists came to these conclusions the investigations in this field were forbidden considering them a taboo and the works approaching this issue were gradually restricted. Practically the scientists had no choice: the scientifical demonstration of the fact that the people of nowadays are the result of the amoral instinctual life they live means the renunciation at the basic pillar and principle of the actual civilization – the life lived for pleasure and delight and the huge profit obtained from the sex business. But the most important thing is the fact that the massive spread of the knowledge about telegony would not allow the promotion of the sexual revolutions and of the various shameless theories regarding the sexual moral and thus they would put in danger the activity and the profit of a broad army of researchers and promoters of the free sex in the modern age.

Actually the theory of the quantum sexual genetics and especially the scientific base of the phenomenon of telegony have many contesters and opponents. This is explained by the fact that beside the uncomfortable factors mentioned above to accept and admit this phenomenon, the human nature itself is inclined to find self justification if it does something wrong and to negate telegony. This truth is well described by the Orthodox psychiatrist N. D. Guriev:

`Because it is peculiar for the human nature to have a positive tendency, many people more or less sinful try to prove that the sin is not bad but if they knew its voidness  they could not be anymore its unconscious slaves.

Presently the phenomenon of telegony is confirmed by the human destinies. Some researchers of the matters consider that telegony implies not only the hereditary influence of the first partner upon the future offsprings from other men but also the degeneration of heredity. The sin of debauchery being a deadly sin marks the seal of the curse on the children of the unrepentant debauchers. The more the debaucher sins the dirtier he becomes spiritually and genetically and he is like a soiled vessel full of dirt, like a soil poisoned with pesticides and herbicides incapable to give good offsprings.

Today when the civilized mankind crosses a profound crisis of morality and the human species is threatened by an acute process of degeneration, the scientists remembering the studies of  F. Le Dantek, are again interested in studying the issue of the impact of the sexual contacts with different partners upon the future generations. Moreover, we must add that the researchers from the field of sexual genetics have a great pedagogical importance. The consequences of the sexual revolutions from the USA in the 60ties and the beginning of the 70ies then in Europe and the pandemic of contagious sexual diseases (BST) and AIDS, the gynecological and urological maladies, the problems of infertility and many others of this kind find their explanation in the theory of quantum genetics. In fact quantum genetics discovers the mechanisms of the complex process in which the spiritual alteration of the human nature (the deadly sins) affects the physical hypostasis of the man. It was proven that in the male and female bodies of the humans at oscillatory level remains the memory of each sexual intercourse. That is why in the moment a man and a woman have sexual intercourse with a new partner at genetical level they enter in contact with all their previous partners.

In conclusion we realize why in our times there are revived tendencies urging the youth to preserve their chastity and purity especially in the societies with a high degree of freedom of all kinds.

Tatiana Doibai, teacher,

High didactical degree

Translation and adaptation after  „Уроки трезвости” (Lessons about vigilance) by the priests  Alexei Moroz and Vladimir Ţîgancov, M.2006)

Article taken from aecotineri.blogspot.com

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Nobody has a greater love

I will tell you a short story about a sacrifice even of the life of a man for saving his neighbor:

In the times of yore there were carriages driven by horses going from a place to another. Because they passed through places where were robbers, beasts etc they had weapons with them. On a Russian steppe two men, master and servant were traveling in a carriage driven by horses from a place, having with them some victuals for the journey.

In a desert place a pack of wolves pounced upon them all of a sudden. At first they started to shoot keeping them at distance for a while. But afterwards because the wolves were approaching they started to throw from the food they had to them. The wolves ate but they still ran after them. Then they thought to leave the horses to be eaten by the hungry wolves because they saw they had no escape. The master who was a good Christian told his servant:

`Listen, you have children, you must save yourself. Let`s cut the reins from a horse, mount on it and run, because if we continue like this they will eat us both and the horses which are harnessed and can`t run. At least you who have children can be saved. I don`t have any children, only a wife. It doesn`t matter if they eat me.`

`But I am your servant and you are such a kind master…`

`No, now you must escape! I order you to cut the reins and run away!`

In the end he convinced his servant to accept his sacrifice with the hope that he was going to bring him help to his rescue from the nearest village. So the servant cut the reins, mounted on the horse and began to run. The wolves could not reach him because in the meantime they started to attack the master and the other horse. The servant escaped and arriving in the village he started to cry:

`The wolves are coming! Run to my master`s rescue!`

When the villagers ran to save the master and the horse they saw that the wolves had already eaten them. In the place where they were eaten the villagers raised a monument on which it is written: In the name of the one who sacrificed his soul for his friend. This sacrifice is beyond any earthly thing. Since any good someone would give, he can`t make a man or a soul.`

Excerpt from the book The Art of Salvationpublished by Evanghelismos.

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What is marriage for a Christian

The Christians `marry like all the rest of the people and they beget children but they don`t throw away their newborn babies.`[1]. Meaning that the Christians come at the communion of marriage but their marriage is blessed by God.

Saint Ignatius Theophorus writes to saint Policarpus: `The men and the women who marry must make their marriage with the consent of the bishop so that their union be with God`s blessing` according to the view of the Church, `not according to their desires. Meaning that it is not made because I like you and you like me, neglecting the fact that the other one belongs to another religion etc. Everything to be done for honoring God. [2]

Therefore the Christian marries but his marriage is with God`s blessing. This means wedding, to receive God`s blessing. The Christian doesn`t consent to the civil wedding alone,  because he considers it debauchery. And that`s what it is, because it is not blessed. Saint Paul, the Apostle says:

`So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.`[3]. Everything must have the seal of God`s blessing and of the glory of God.

And you my brother, when it comes to such an important thing from your life as marriage, you marry without blessing, without God?

Civil wedding

My beloved, beware! It is not something malicious what I am going to say. If your son – may this not happen – marries only with a civil wedding, do not go to his wedding, because it is not a right one. If a relative or a friend marries with a civil wedding, do not go! Tell him or her that it is not something right! Do not offend, do not do anything disgraceful, only tell them that they don`t do what`s right. Beware! Do not bring them any gifts, because by your presence, by your visit or by your gift you consent to something which is not agreed by God, something which is illegal. Do what saint Paul, the Apostle urged the Corinthians to do with a certain Christian who had sinned, not to speak with him, to make him be ashamed and come to his senses.[4]. Show your discontent and do this not only today or tomorrow or for ten days but until he will correct his behavior.

[1] The Letter to Diognet, Chapter V, 6, p. 340.

[2] Saint Ignatius Teophorus to Policarpus, Chapter V, 2, PSB, Vol. I.  IBMBOR Publishing 1979, p. 188.

[3] I Corinthians 10, 31.

[4] I Corinthians 5, 1-11.

Excerpt from the book THE CHRISTIANS IN THE WORLD (Hieromonk Athanasios Mitilineos)

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The valor of the prayer

Many people with whom I`ve talked until now asked me to pray to God for various problems of high concern for them. One was concerned about his health, another one about his happiness in his marital life, another one for more children, another one for the release of his children from the drug addiction. But nobody asked me to pray for the salvation of his soul.

Starting from this thought and living in these hard times with the problems caused by the economic crisis not only in the economic matters but also in our hearts, I feel the need to speak about prayer.

During prayer we must be only by ourselves and with God. This means personal prayer. If we want to see our prayer is listened quickly by God we must speak to Him humbly and we should not ask Him to fulfill our will. What we must ask is to strengthen our faith and trust in Him. When all these are strengthened God will take care of our problem.

I know that in our egocentric society, in the society of  scientific achievements some people placed themselves above God. How wrong it is to consider themselves so important! When I explain to them that we are so insignificant before our God and Lord they realize the great mistake they`ve made considering themselves equal to God.

If we knew how great is the power of the prayer it would never be missing from our lips. Since the prayer is the only way God gave the man to communicate with Him. In prayer the man can say how many things burden him and poison his soul. At the end of our prayer we must not forget the words: `God, may Your will be fulfilled!`

The prayer is the oxygen of our soul. How many times, my beloved brothers, the human hand, the achievements of science, of medicine remained helpless in solving our problems? And how many of us did not turn our eyes towards the icon of Christ, of Theotokos and of our Saints, praying them to help us? How many of us prayed fervently and saw their problems solving immediately? And how many of us were those who came to Christ because they had no one else to lean on but whose prayer was not listened and they saw no result? And because of this they became discouraged and quitted their endeavors to approach Christ?

They must have been in wrong somewhere for sure. It seems they didn`t know that we can approach Christ only with a broken heart, with repentance, with sincerity, with insistence, with patience and with ardent heart.

And this because He respects our freedom which many times ends up in anarchy.

Some people complain that we are living some very hard times and they have lost their courage, others use psycho drugs to heal their spiritual pain. Some choose to commit suicide not knowing that they lose their souls in that way while others are so confused they can`t clear their mind at all.

Today on the sea of life with its numerous problems the ship of our soul is endangered to crush on rocks and shores. That is why especially now we need a good spiritual guide and that`s only prayer, the prayer accompanied by the tears of our repentance and by the ardent request to our Creator to become our compass and Adviser. When and how He will act, He will decide for our benefit.

But we must not rush. God doesn`t rush. Only the devil rushes.

Today the man needs prayer. We must know that when we are concerned by certain things for which we have no solutions and we don`t trust in God, this is a scheming of the devil. It is a craft of satan to draw us on his side. Prayer means safety, it is a guarding shield. It is enough only to believe for real, without selfishness and pride. It is a great thing when someone entrust himself in the hands of Christ by prayer. The people make plans and they try to fulfill them without paying attention to see what is the will of Christ.

He will straighten our life and we, just with a little bit of magnanimity, will succeed to fulfill our duty. The Lord said: `Without me you can`t do anything.` John 15,5) Meaning if we don`t entrust ourselves to Him, we will suffer our whole life. Elder Paisios said that only by humbleness and prayer the incorrigible things are corrected.

Nowadays is the age of speed. Things change very fast and nobody knows what happens with him from night till morning. This is one more reason for us to strengthen our prayer and fight by it with the evil. Let us pray God to have mercy on His creatures. Thus the pains from our times which are unavoidable will be less painful and they will not multiply. A lot of prayer is needed from us all so that God may enlighten the people who lead us in order not to think only about destruction. Because by destroying us they will destroy themselves. When the house of our neighbor is on fire that fire will reach our house too for sure. Let us pray to God to enlighten them and turn them back from their cunning schemes.

Prayer makes miracles. With the prayer the Holy Martyrs endured the pains. With the prayer the wall sin has built between the mind and heart is demolished.

With the prayer are chased away the powers of evil, are defeated the fleshly passions, the soul is released and is united spiritually with God.

By prayer we glorify our God Who made Himself man and Who prayed on the Mountain of Olives and crucified for our sins.

We are today full of selfishness, of malice, of cunning, of dirty thoughts. The complaints, discontents, nerves are not missing from any of us. The relationships between people changed, the families are destroyed, trust was lost, the values disappeared, the evil reigns everywhere.

But those who must pray the most are the parents. The prayer of the parents reaches faster the throne of God. Leave the advice and pray every day to Christ, to the Theotokos and to the Saints to enlighten you and protect you and your children. Elder Porphyrios said: `Say just a few words to your children and many to the Theotokos !` The prayer is the best pedagogical means. The students and pupils got strengthened. That`s why the morning prayer should not be missing from our schools.

All the towns and villages are full of churches, of monasteries, of places for worshiping and glorifying Christ. But even for those who say they have no time, the mountain, the sea, their home or office may become places of prayer.

Let us all unite our prayer with that of the arrays of priests, hieromonks and

 Monks, to ask our Lord and God to have mercy on us and escape us of all evil!

God is alive!

Excerpt from the book Listen to me ! by nun Porfiria, published by Evanghelismos.

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How do we change the world? How do we set it free of demons?

It was after midnight when in a discussion with the father, I asked him if the world can change in better, if it can defeat the demons. Because the demons exist and many times they act through people.

`My dear, the world can change, not that fast, but it can change. The education we received makes us notice very well the mistakes of those around us and to ignore   our own.

Many organizations and people are implied in the identification and correction of the mistakes of the others, which is not bad, but it’s not enough. The efforts are enormous and various but in this way the world doesn’t change in better. It obviously changes in bad.

What’s to be done? If you want to change the world, begin with you, change yourself first. When you will be able to do this thing, you will succeed to change those around you, because they will take you as an example. When the people will aim to change themselves even their mere intention will be a sufficient reason

What’s to be done? If you want to change the world start with yourself. Change yourself. When you will succeed this, you will be able to change those around you, because they will take you as an example. When the people will aim to change themselves even their simple intention will be a sufficient reason so that in the world would take place visible changes, meaning to find mercy from God.

From all those read and heard I learnt that only a few people, only certain priests can chase away the demons. I asked the father why they are so few in comparison with the evil found in the whole world.

`Do you want to be one of those who take the demons out of other people?` the father asked my unexpectedly. I answered that I haven’t thought about that possibility but it would have been interesting to have such a gift. `But it’s so easy` he said, `first take out the demons from yourself, chase away those who are haunting you then you will be able to take out the demons from other people, you will receive this gift.` Nothing can be obtained without effort. Without toil you will remain only with a multitude of questions without answer.

Easy to say, hard to be done. The most difficult fight is that one you have with your own demons who rummage through your thoughts and engrain in you the seeds of doubt and despair.

Excerpt from the book Down to earth,author Ionuț Riteș.

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