It is very easy to perish, even by constantly reciting the Jesus Prayer.

 

When I was in the hospital, there was a monk with me who constantly read the Jesus Prayer out loud.

Everyone considered him a saint.

And one day he said to me: "I put one bishop in his place, let him know. And I also said a few kind words to another cleric. If they repent, they can count on my support!"

I say: "Wait! You have three years of education and tuberculosis, what kind of support do you get?!"

And he replied: “If only all people were like me, the world would be saved!”

See!

By constantly reciting the prayer, he imagined himself to have attained holiness. It is very easy to perish, even by constantly reciting the Jesus Prayer.

— Saint Paisius the Athonite

Once St. Paisios was asked:

 

Once St. Paisios was asked:

"When I was attending university, Father, I could observe my progress by looking at my grades. Here, however, in the spiritual life, I don't know where I stand."

He replied:

"You can know where you stand, even here, simply by examining your thoughts. If evil thoughts constantly crop up and you drive them away, and then they crop up again and once again, you drive them away, you must recognize that you have entered the arena of repentance and are struggling. Sometimes, you may have evil thoughts, which you drive away, and other times, good thoughts. If you grade evil thoughts with zero and good thoughts with ten, you can calculate your grade according to the number of points. For example, when you see that evil thoughts have decreased and good ones have multiplied, you know that the zeros have decreased and the tens have increased; therefore, your grade has improved. When evil thoughts cease to crop up and only good thoughts arise, then you should know that purification has taken place: your heart, your cave, has been cleansed and transformed into the Cave of Bethlehem."

Sunday is a holy day

 

"Sunday is a holy day.."

The divine service sanctifies! If the Christian does not go to church on Sunday,how will he be sanctified?

Sunday morning is the time for divine service.. but in our modern Greek society of advanced concepts, life is organized ignoring what the call of the bell and the gathering for divine service mean.

Oh, if they only knew what "rights" they give to the devil and how much more vulnerable they become to his traps, remaining naked from the "grace" of divine service.. - St. Paisios the Athonite

Saint Paisios in front of the stone shrine of the Koutloumousian Skete of Saint Panteleimon, holding the icon of Saint Panteleimon.

 

It is of no use to rub one's knees with countless penances...

It is of no use to rub one's knees with countless penances, if one does not at the same time rub one's face with humility (inner repentance).

The one who asks for humiliation from God, but does not accept the man that God sends him, to humiliate him, does not know what he is asking for, because virtues are not bought like shopping at the grocery store (as many kilos as we want), but God sends us men to be tested, to work, and to be crowned.

We owe more gratitude to those who embroidered us and removed the thorns of our souls, than to those who would dig up our territory for free and reveal to us our hidden unknown treasure.

St. Paisios the Athonite

St. Paisios the Athonite "How to show love"

- Geronda, how can I show love?

- Show love? I don't understand it. It's a lie and a hypocrisy. We have love in us, and that love gives us away? That's understandable. True love makes itself known to the other person without ostentation. Love means listening with compassion to another's pain. Love is a compassionate look and a word spoken to a person in a difficult moment. Love means to share his grief, to comfort him in his difficulties. Love means accepting a harsh word from him. All this is more useful than many words and ostentatious expressions.
When you have inner compassion for another person, God informs him of your disposition, your love, and he understands it without ostentation. In the same way, if anger is not expressed outwardly, but it is inside, the other person feels it. After all, the devil, when he appears in the form of an "angel of light", brings confusion, but a real Angel brings inexpressible light joy.

St. Paisios the Athonite on Patience

Once my eye was swollen and it hurt. So, I went three times to the Icon of the Virgin Mary and begged Her to make it well, so that I could read the Psalter at night. I also took some oil from Her lamp and anointed my eye, but it was not healed

After a few days, in fact, the condition of my eye began to get worse. 15 days passed and then I went again, with great humility, to the Icon of the Virgin Mary and said to Her:

"My Virgin, forgive me, I will disturb You again..."!

I again took some oil from Her candle and as soon as I put it on my eye, it was instantly healed!!

Could not the Virgin Mary, from the first day, give me a good eye? But She saw something and let me be tested.

So you too, humbly beg and wait patiently!

The prayer made with faith, pain, perseverance and patience, as long as what we ask is for our good, is heard!

Water of Life

Once, a painter visited Saint Paisios in his cell.

The Saint, with that original and instructive humor that distinguished him, asked him:

"Hey, my child could you draw me a picture, with the subject I'm going to tell you? I want to put it in my cell."

The artist willingly says to Saint Paisios:

"Elder, with your blessing!! This is what I do. What would you like the painting look like?"

"Can you draw some mountains?"

"It's easy, elder," replies the painter.

"Can you also draw some trees that I will tell you?"

"Of course elder."

So, after Saint Paisios told him some other things that he would like the painting to have, at the end he says:

"Can you also draw a faucet with running water?"

"But elder, it's not difficult for me at all," the painter replies with simplicity.

And then Saint Paisios asks him, with the didactic humor that distinguished him:

"From the tap that will be on the table, can someone drink water and quench their thirst?"

"Of course not elder," replied the painter.

And then the Saint said to him:

“How different, then, are the works of men from the works of God!

As much, therefore, as one can quench one's thirst from the water of a painted fountain, so much more can one quench one's thirst from the works of God! Human existence truly quenches its thirst only through the works of God, Who, after all, offers the "Water of Life"!!!

St. Paisios the Athonite

To go to sweet Paradise, one must eat many bitter things here, have the passport of trials in hand. - St. Paisios the Athonite

St. Paisios the Athonite

When one is mentally well, physical pain eases.

When he is not well mentally, the bad mental condition worsens his health.

Take a cancer patient who has been written off by the doctors. If he believes in God and finds himself in a happy spiritual atmosphere , he may live longer, while otherwise he may melt away from his distress and fade away in a few weeks.

Sometimes someone can be medically healthy, the tests show nothing, but if he has something that cripples him mentally , then he really isn't well. Because most diseases start from sadness. All people have some sensitive spot. Another person's grief will hit him in the stomach, another in the head.

The best medicine for an illness is spiritual joy, because it spreads divine Grace to the soul. Spiritual joy has the greatest healing power for all diseases. It is the divine salve that heals wounds, while distress irritates them. - St. Paisios the Athonite

Good Calculations by St. Paisios

 

From the book " Old Paisios " by the Hieromonk Christodoulou Agioreitou

Several years ago I went down to Athens for some work and was hosted at the home of a Christian brother. The house was close to a main road so there was a lot of noise. In the evening, this brother told me that because of all the fuss, he could not close an eye at night, as a result of which his nerves are broken and he is taking sedative pills. After we had eaten, they gave me a room to go and rest, and pointing to it, he said :

- Elder, here is the room, but I don't know if you will close an eye with this noise of cars, which can be heard from the street.

After the night passed and I came out of my room, this brother said to me :

- I didn't blink an eye, Elder from the commotion ; what did you do ?

Then I said to him :

- Never, not even on the Mount, have I slept so well and for so long.

- Elder, he said to me, how is this possible ?

Then I told him what happened to me from the moment I entered the room. (At that time the war was going on in Vietnam and every day we heard bad news from the war there and I prayed for God to help).

- When I entered the room I went and knelt in front of the bed. I rested my hands and head on the bed and began to pray for those who are fighting and dying in Vietnam. The noise of the cars could be heard below, but I, because my mind was in Vietnam, transformed with my imagination the sound of the cars and imagined the tanks, the noise they make when they pass, I imagined them spreading death down there, they tear down houses, etc. From under the road now and then a motorcyclist passed by with a multi-cubic engine, making an excessively loud noise, causing the windows to rattle. I immediately imagined the planes flying over Vietnam and bombing and seeing little children and old men being mercilessly killed.I was seized with a sweet complaint and I was crying about the whole situation there and feeling sorry for myself, that I was in a nice room with a nicely made bed, that I had eaten well and generally had no problems. And while I wept over them and had a very great peace of mind, I fell asleep on my knees, and slept there in the night, without any interruption of my sleep. So, since my thoughts were with those who were suffering in Vietnam, I didn't mind the noise of the cars.

This is how you should do it : Assume with your calculation that there is a war going on outside and while everyone is being killed, their properties are destroyed, their houses are demolished or they die of hunger, they have you in a luxurious house closed, you eat, you drink, they pay you, you are not in danger, you only hear the noise of those who are fighting and in this way it becomes a reason for you to praise God and not be forced to take sedative pills ; the solution is only one : " good thinking " .

St. Paisios and the Wine Bottle

"Once, in the Kalyvi of the Holy Cross, instead of some wine that I expected as a medicine for the problem I had in the intestines, they brought me from the Monastery, by mistake, a bottle of vinegar.
I didn't say anything, because I thought that, that's how God wanted it.
About forty days passed and with the rain water I was drinking my condition worsened. I suffered a lot, I was burning for water, but I was afraid to drink, because the day before I got a little weak, I had a problem all night.
At one point, I entered the Church to light the candles and saw a bottle of wine placed in front of the iconostasis, under the Icon of the Virgin Mary! The bottle was mine and I recognized it ; but where did it come from? No one had come in those days, and I had entered the Temple many times and there was nothing in front of the iconostasis!
The wine was stiff. Medicine for my condition, just as it benefits me!
In fact, on the same day, they also brought me a big bottle of wine, from the Monastery!.

A candle is an “antenna,” with the help of which we come into contact with God. - St. Paisios the Athonite

Silence is a great thing

 

Being in silence, a person is already praying - even without praying.

Silence is a mysterious prayer, and it greatly helps prayer, just as skin breathing benefits a person.

He who is silently engaged in spiritual work subsequently plunges into prayer.

Do you know what it's like to dive? The baby, quiet in the arms of his mother, does not say anything.

He is already in unity, communion with her.

Therefore, if the monastery is located far from archaeological sites, from worldly noise and many people, this is of great benefit.

External silence, remote from the world, coupled with a reasonable feat and unceasing prayer, very quickly brings the monk and inner silence - peace of mind.

This inner silence is a necessary prerequisite for subtle spiritual work.

And then already external anxiety ceases to disturb a person, because, in essence, only his body is on earth, while his mind is in Heaven.

To hear or not to hear the noise depends on the person himself.

St. Paisios the Athonite

It is impossible for the one who honors the Virgin Mary to lose his soul. - St. Paisios the Athonite

 

We have not yet realized that the devil has rushed to destroy God's creatures...

He is furious because he knows that there is not much left for him to do. Now he behaves like a criminal who, when he is surrounded, says, "Don't save me, they'll get me!" - and smashes everything left and right. Or how during war, when they run out of ammunition, soldiers pull out a bayonet or a saber, rush into battle and - whatever happens! "It's all the same," they say, "to die. Let us kill as many enemies as we can!"

The world is on fire! Do you understand this? No small temptation has come upon it. The devil has kindled such a fire that even if all the firemen gathered together they would not be able to put it out. Spiritual fire - nothing is left undamaged. We can only pray that God has mercy on us. For when a great fire breaks out and firefighters can do nothing more, people will have to turn to God and ask him for a heavy rain to put out the flames. So it is with that spiritual fire that the devil has fanned - all that is needed is prayer that God will help.

The whole world is headed for one thing. A general breakdown. You can't say, "There's a little broken window or something in the house, let me fix it." The whole house has fallen apart. The world has become a ruined village. The situation is already out of control. If only God would do something from above. Now God has work to do: where with a screwdriver, where with a carrot, where with a stick, to fix it all. The world has an ulcer, it is yellowed and ready to burst, but not yet ripe. Evil is ripening, as it was then in Jericho, which needed to be decontaminated, subjected to "disinfection.

- St. Paisios the Athonite

St. Paisios the Athonite

A brother came to me and said that after reading several books about the Jesus Prayer, he tried to forcefully apply what he had read. As a result, his heart ached. I said to him: "Do you have no reason to be humble? Do you have no sins? Deal with it. Having humbled yourself, you will feel the need for God's mercy to you, and the prayer will itself, and not through force, flow within." - St. Paisios the Athonite

- Geronda, if something unexpected happens during the Divine Liturgy, can it be interrupted?

- Geronda, if something unexpected happens during the Divine Liturgy, can it be interrupted?

- The priest cannot interrupt the begun Divine Liturgy in the middle - no matter what happens. Even if a war breaks out, he must finish the Liturgy. He must complete the Liturgy, even if enemies approach the temple. The most he can do in such a case is to try to finish it quickly. But one must have confidence in God and not be afraid.

A servant of the Highest God should be distinguished by much attention, purity, and uncompromising attitude. Priests are higher than Angels. During the celebration of the Sacrament of the Divine Eucharist, the holy Angels cover their faces, while the priest performs this Sacrament.

St. Paisios the Athonite

St. Paisios on the incorrupt Relics of the Ionian

St. Paisios on the incorrupt Relics of the Ionian

Sts. Spyridon of Corfu, Gerasimos of Cephalonia and Dionysios of Zakynthos, three great wonderworker of Christ whose incorrupt Holy Bodies bless and protect the peoples of the Ionian

- Elder, could St. Spyridon have asked from God that his Relic remain incorrupt?

-No, how could that have happened? The Saints don't ask for such things. God willed that his Relic remain incorrupt in order to help people. And behold how God arranges things! Because Kerkyra (Corfu), Cephalonia and Zakynthos are near Italy, and that it would be easy for people to be seduced by Catholicism, He placed a great barrier there: St. Spyridon, St. Gerasimos and St. Dionysios.

Geronda, how is the heart cleansed?

- Geronda, how is the heart cleansed?
- Humility, gentleness, sacrifice, disinterestedness, confession of thoughts, exploit, prayers, and most importantly, the Jesus Prayer - this is what purifies the heart. The Jesus Prayer frees the heart from all rubbish.
- Geronda, can the heart be cleansed by the Jesus Prayer alone?
- No. It is impossible to be cleansed by the Jesus Prayer alone. At the same time, there must be humility and proper deed.
If you pray but neglect humility and feat, then your prayer is a vain labor. And vice versa: if you observe the rest, but do not care about prayer, then you too are working in vain. And strive, and pray, asking for God's help, and so gradually the heart will be cleansed. Feat and prayer should go hand in hand.
From the sixth volume of the Words of St. Paisios the Athonite "On Prayer"