Sunday

Writings from Orthodox Elders This Week

“Ignore evil. Look towards Christ and He will save you. Instead of standing outside the door shooing the evil one away treat him with disdain. If evil approaches from one direction then calmly turn in the opposite direction. If evil comes to assault you turn all your inner strength to good, to Christ. Pray “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me.” He knows how and in what way to have mercy on you. And when you have filled yourself with good don’t turn any more to afford evil. In this way you become good on your own with the grace of God.”
Elder Porphyrios ~Wounded by Love

“Every sin a person commits is forgiven when he repents; however, the memory of it remains with him until his last breath. When he becomes a little slothful, when he is a little careless, the devil depicts it to him while awake or asleep in order to defile his thoughts and make him guilty of an old sin – or even just to make his mind wander.”
Elder Joseph ~Monastic Wisdom

Prayer:   May the Strength of God guide us. May the Power of God preserve us.
May the Wisdom of God instruct us. May the Hand of God protect us.
May the Way of God direct us. May the Shield of God defend us.
May the Angels of God guard us. – Against the snares of the evil one.
Prayer for the Faithful of St. Patrick Part 1

Monday
“… Open the eyes of your soul and see what exists beyond this life. Men of the world loved the world because they have not yet discovered its bitterness. They are still blind in soul and do not see what is hiding behind his fleeting joy. The noetic (soul filling) light is not yet come to them, the day of salvation has not yet dawned upon them. But you who have seen and heard so much, must realize that the pleasure from temporal things passes away like a shadow.”
Elder Joseph ~Monastic Wisdom

“What would happen if we treated our Prayer Rope like we treat our cell phone? What if we carried it around with us, went through it several times a day, turned back to go get it if we forgot it, treated it like we couldn’t live without it, gave it to kids as a gift, and taught them how to use it…we don’t have to worry about our Prayer Rope being disconnected – the bill has already been paid.” (All Saints of North America Orthodox Church web posting)

Prayer:
Glory to God in the Highest and on earth peace good will among men.

 

Tuesday
“Speaking of His second coming of Christ calls all people either hosts or servants. In both cases He warns all to expect Him in wakefulness and vigilance, the Lord of Glory and the Judge of the world. Every man is the host and the master of the spiritual treasure which is stored within his soul. As such that each host keeps his inner treasure with at least as much care as a good host would put into keeping his worldly treasure. “If the good man of the house had known it would watch the thief would come he would have watched and would not have suffered his house to be broken up” (Matthew 24). But since he does not know when that time is he has to keep watch at all times day and night. Likewise we have to keep our souls at all times from demons, evil and invisible thieves, so they do not plunder our treasure and leave are so empty and desolate on the day of Christ’s coming.” St Nikolai Velimirovich ~Missionary Letters #2

Prayer:
May Christ be with us! May Christ be before us! May Christ be in us, Christ be over all!
May Thy Grace, Lord, Always be ours, This day, O Lord, and forevermore. Amen.
Prayer for the Faithful of St. Patrick  Part 2

 

Wednesday
“The Church’s most pressing need today is for its members to rediscover who they are. I say this because there is every evidence that many Christians have forgotten who they are. They think they are primarily Republicans or Democrats—or anyway, Americans. Or they think they are consumers… but these verbal tags do not define us Christians or adequately describe our fundamental quality. That is, we need to remember that we are fundamentally the servants of God, a holy people, a royal priesthood, and as such we belong not to this age with its warring categories and labels, but to the age to come.”
(Fr. Lawrence Farley, 21st Century Canadian priest)

Prayer:
Glory to Jesus Christ – Glory forever!
Thursday
“… Whoever is wronged in this life and wants to seek justice have know that it is this: to bear the burdens of his brother, of his neighbor until his final breath, and to be patient in all the sorrows of this present life. Because every affliction that befalls us whether from men, from the demons, or from our own very nature always has enclosed within it the corresponding profit. And whoever passes through it with patience receives the payment: it’s pledge here and its fulfillment there. So patience is necessary like salt in food. For there is no other road for us to gain, get rich and reign. This is the road that our Christ traced out.”
Elder Joseph ~Monastic Wisdom

Prayer:
For as many have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ…Alleluia

Friday
“For most men today life is a small thing, a fleeting thing of small affirmation and small denial veiled in comforting illusions and the hopeful prospect of ultimate nothingness; such men will know nothing of hell until they live in it. But God loves even such men too much to allow them simply to forget Him and pass away into nothingness, out of His Presence which alone is life to man; He offers even to those in hell His Love which is torment to those who have not prepared themselves in this life to receive it. Many we know are tested and purified in those flames and made fit by them to dwell in the Kingdom of Heaven; but others with the demons for whom hell was made must dwell very eternally.”
Fr. Seraphim Rose ~Nihilism = theme of hope for those with less serious sins in hell or ‘purgatory’

Prayer:
Christ is in our midst – He is and always shall be

Saturday
“The righteous judgment of God is His forbearance, which also contains humility and love. God is very righteous and just but also most compassionate; and His compassion surpasses Is justice. I will give you an example to help you understand. If some person never had the opportunity to learn about God he would not be judged according to the condition in which he was found, but according to the condition he would have been in if he had come to know God. Otherwise, God would not be just. Divine righteousness has its own mathematical principles. One plus one sometimes equals two and sometimes 2 million.”
Elder Paisios ~Spiritual Struggle
[Note:  conversely a person who knows the truth of the Faith and ignores or rejects it  will be judged severely]

Prayer:
Preserve O Lord while waking and guard us while sleeping that awake we may watch with Christ and asleep we may rest in peace.