Elder St. Porphyrios on being Filled with the Spirit
“The Lord said to his disciples, When the Holy Spirit will come, it will 14 A6 teach you all things.’ The Holy Spirit teaches us everything. It sanctifies us. It assimilates us to God. When we have the Spirit of God, we become incapable of all sin, incapable of sinning. When we have the Holy Spirit, we cannot do evil. We cannot be filled with anger or hate or speak evil. We must become filled, replete with the Holy Spirit. This is where the essence of spiritual life lie . This is an art — the art of arts. Let us open our arms and throw ourselves into Christ’s embrace. When Christ comes, we will have gained everything. Christ will alter everything within us. He will bring peace, joy, humility, love, prayer and the uplifting of our soul. The grace of Christ will renew us. If we turn to Him with intense longing and desire, with devotion and love, Christ will give us everything.
Without Christ it is impossible to correct ourselves. We will not be able to detach ourselves from our passions. On our own we cannot become good. Without me, you can do nothing. However much we try, we will achieve nothing. There is one thing we must do, and that is turn to Him and love Him with all our soul. Love for Christ: this is the best and Mark 12:30 sole remedy for the passions.”
– ‘Wounded by Love’