Patient Love
In the thirteenth chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, known as the "Chapter of Love," Saint Paul the Apostle presents to us the attributes of love or the virtues that a loving person should adorn himself with. Amongst these virtues is patience or longsuffering, "Love suffers long" (I Cor.13:4). What it the meaning of longsuffering? Longsuffering means having a spirit that is patient and slow to anger. A person who loves another should – …
The Role of Fasting in the Spiritual Life
All strife against sin and its desires is to be preceded by fasting, especially if one is combating inward sin…Fasting is the strengthening of all virtues, the beginning of the struggle, the beauty of virginity and sanctity, the preservation of chastity, the beginning of the way of Christianity, the father of prayer…, for as soon as man begins to fast his mind will be desirous of intercourse with God. Fasting is a storehouse of all – …
Treasures of the Fathers: Stewards of the Mysteries of God
Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.” After he had cast down their spirit, mark how again he refreshes it, saying, “as ministers of Christ.” Do not then, letting go the Master, receive a name from the servants and ministers. “Stewards;” he says, indicating that we ought not to give these things unto all, but unto whom it is due, and to whom it is – …
Bringing Every Thought Into Captivity To The Obedience Of Christ (1 Cor. 10:5)
As we look at the Church in the Apostolic age, we find that She was characterized by the communal life; they had one accord with unity of heart, soul, and thought (Acts 2: 42-47; 4:32-37). Whenever a dispute arose, the apostles would discuss it, and then they resolved the problem by agreeing on one decision (Acts 6: 1-26; 15: 1-29). This was achieved through the Holy Spirit, Who preserved the one accord and the one – …
God in Your Prayers and in Your Spiritual Life
Lots of people, in their spiritual life, fight on their own, without letting God in with them to ask Him strength and assistance, forgetting the Lord’s saying: ” for without Me you can do nothing” (Jn. 15:5). Those people, they don’t ask God to be with them in whatever they do. On the contrary each one of them depends only on his own thinking or on someone else’s, not putting in mind God’s work in – …