Prayer Saint Nilus of Sinai (died c. 430). Saints of our Church, who were par excellence praying people, have handed to us their sacred experience in an expressive and categorical manner: Prayer, they tell us, is the elevation of the mind to God and conversation with Him. Prayer is man’s union with God. The world of the angels. The key of paradise. The illumination of

Teachings of Saint Nektarios: The Path of Happiness, Love,Christian politeness, Glorification, Discretion, Peace, Temptations, Prayer. Nothing is greater than a pure heart, because such a heart becomes a throne of God. And what is more glorious than the throne of God? Of course nothing! God says about those who have pure heart: “I shall dwell in them and walk, and shall be their God, and

The Triumph of the Church. By Saint John Chrysostom (c. 349 – 407. Christ planted the Church: From here we will reveal the power and prove Christ’s divinity. We will see that it is impossible for the spreading of Christianity in the whole universe in such a brief time period to be a human work. And furthermore for Christian morality to invite people with evil

When You are Treated Unjustly according to Blessed Abba Zosimas (c. 460-560, in Palestine); blessed Zosimas used to say: So let us also struggle brethren, to imitate the holy Fathers, until we bring spiritual fruits and thus to gain the eternal goods , in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be the glory and the dominion with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and

Saint Gregory is not only a great father and teacher of the Church, but also her most eminent theologian after the apostle and evangelist John. Born between 326 and 329 in Arianzus, near Nazianzus of Cappadocia, of well to do parents, he obtained a great classical and theological education. One of his last talks were “Concerning love of poverty”, an anthology of which follows below.

Saint Maximus the Confessor (c. 580 – 13 August 662) was the most eminent theologian of the 7th century: Well educated in philosophy, Maximus adopted the Platonic model of teaching that humanity was made in the image of God, and the purpose of salvation is to restore us to unity with God. Don’t say that only my faith in Christ can save me: This is

The Spiritual World by Photios Kontoglou. Contemporary man has altogether forgotten the world that is within himself and has occupied himself only with the world that is outside himself, the material world. He investigates by means of science, “the outside of the cup and of the platter” (Matt. 23:25). One world is material , the other, spiritual : One is for the transitory life; the

On The Holy Spirit by Photios Kontoglou. By the Holy Spirit , every soul is given life, is exalted through purification, and is made to shine through the Threefold oneness in a hidden manner. By the Holy Spirit the streams of grace flow, watering all of creation and granting it life. The Holy Spirit is called Paraclete , the Spirit of Truth, and Life‑Creating .

On the 'speculative' side Evagrios the Solitary relies heavily upon Origen (c. 185-c.254), borrowing from him in particular certain theories about the pre-existence of human souls and the apokatastasis or final restoration of all things in Christ. These theories were condemned at the fifth Ecumenical Council (553). On the 'practical' side he draws upon the living experience of the Desert Fathers of Egypt, mainly Copts.