Friends, the following is a short excerpt from a talk given by Elder Aimilianos, one of the great elders of our time, titled simply “Spiritual Life.” The full text can be found in his book The Church at Prayer. -Fr John [W]hat are the principles that should govern our spiritual life? First and foremost, For us to be spiritual people, for our lives to be true, we must live a sacramental and mystical way of life. What does a sacramental and mystical way of life mean? Was any o

Friends, the following is from a book titled “Marriage and Its Problems…” by Archimandrite Andrew (Konanos). -Fr John There was a young man who asked God to teach him to love the whole world impartially, without seeking his own profit. He wanted to feel selfless love. He wanted to love strange and complex people with all his soul and all his heart. Years went by, and that same person, aged 45, visited Tinos Island, stood in front of an icon of the Theotokos and wept, complai

Friends, the following is from a series of talks gathered under the title Prayer and Holiness by a modern Romanian Orthodox theologian, Fr Dumitru Staniloae. Fr Dumitru was imprisoned by the communists for five years from 1958-1963. His life’s work was that of a translator (The Philokalia among others writings) and a theologian who breathes the spirit of the Fathers of the Church. -Fr John The Fathers saw sanctity as an ever-increasing likeness of man to God, brought about b

Friends, the following is an excerpt from a homily of St Gregory Palamas on the Precious and Life-giving Cross in anticipation of the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross this week. -Fr John [T]he word of the Cross (cf. 1 Cor. 1:18)...was and is...a great and truly divine mystery, not only in the time of the prophets before it was accomplished, but also now after it has been fulfilled. Why is this so? On the face of it, anyone who lowers and humbles himself in all respects s

Friends, the following is an excerpt from a homily of St Gregory Palamas on the occasion of the beginning of the Church New Year [Sept. 1] and the first great feast of the year, Nativity of the Mother of God, on Sept. 8. -Fr John If...it were necessary to name the most appropriate season of all, and if, just as there is a time to sow and a time to reap, a time to plant and a time to harvest, and a time for everything else (cf. Eccl. 3:1–8), you are looking for a season espec