Our times are very difficult. The Christians of nowadays must prove a lot of patience in order to be plentifully rewarded. Many saints would have wished to live in our times to get a higher reward.
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The evil eye is a zeal generated by malice and envy. But our zeal must be good, without any malice. We can realize this when we see someone (who makes us marvel at him) we envy and he suffers something bad. If we are glad for that this means that our zeal had malice.
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The blessing is fruitful when is uttered from the heart. That is why Isaac told to Esau to bring him some food to eat, so that his heart could rejoice and he could bless him.
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The thought of the generous one must incline rather towards the love of God, towards His sacrifice, while the thought of a harsh one must incline rather towards the judgment of God, towards the reward. Meaning that this depends on the inner disposition of each one of them.
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Humility and love, these are everything.
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The devil fell because of his pride. Terrible thing! The first angel became the enemy of God and of men. No one should feel hate but pity for the state he reached.
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Once a very fat deacon came to the cell of elder Tihon and I told him to fast all the time until the ninth hour. After some time I met him again in Daphne and did not recognize him because he had got weak. When someone doesn’t eat much but eats often then the body takes its calories (vitamins) from what he eats. But when he fasts he takes his vitamins from his own fridge (from what he had stored in his body) The rich food and the lack of movement cause the fattening of the small children and some of them even paralyze.
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An elder man, who hasn’t found his rest anywhere for many years, one like this will find his rest if he searches his own self and works against his old self. He won’t find rest here or there, but in the heart. That’s something else if someone is at the beginning and looks humbly for something.
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Everyone must sanctify his own call, must do what he can do. Let’s say that I’m going now to be a psalter at Protaton and take the place of Firfiris. Can this be possible? I can’t do that. I’ll try to see what else I can do to sanctify my call, like the porter from Pireus who revived his father in law. He with his holy life sanctified the whole port: many changed due to his life. But he didn’t say: Why won’t I become a monk myself? If he were good as a monk, he wouldn’t have got married.
From the book From the Ascetic and Hesychast Tradition of the Holy Mountain –Evanghelismos Publishing, 2016.
