I saw a mother

 I saw a mother

I saw a mother looking at her child who walked for the first time.

Her face shone, her eyes filled with tears, her arms were filled with gratitude.

I admired her love, I admired her bond with her child…

I saw a mother looking at her child being crucified without being guilty of anything.

His body full of wounds being nailed to a cross. Some cursing him, others mocking him, others gambling on his clothes…

And the face of this mother remained unmoved, her eyes filled with tears, but her mouth did not open, no cry or complaint was heard… her heart was filled with forgiveness when she received her dead child in her arms.

I admired this mother, not because she didn't scream in pain, but because she turned her pain into love... and from mother of the God-Man she became mother of us all...

You were not commanded to blame the lazy

 You were not commanded to blame the lazy, nor to control wickedness, nor to reproach laziness, but to relieve poverty, to heal calamity, to stretch out your hand and lift up those who have fallen.

Saint John Chrysostom

On prayer

Learn to pray to God not only at prayer times, but every hour and every moment, since He is everywhere. From the constant remembrance of God, an inexpressible peace will flood your heart.

Saint Theophanes the Recluse

 

When we ask someone to pray for us and we become complacent and fall asleep, that is, we become lazy, then does he eat so that we can be satisfied? Is that possible? He has the fruit of love, since he prays for us, but we remain hungry. If he begs God to give us bread, that is, His gifts, and we do not stretch out our hand to receive them, his prayer is useless and fruitless for us. Do not deceive yourself.

But if someone well-intentioned asks for your prayer, do not refuse it (evasively?) with the excuse (or pretext?) of your unworthiness; “for the faith of him who asked [for prayer] has often saved the one praying with a broken heart” (Climax 28. 40). When we are asked to pray for the correction of a negligent person, we are ashamed and we are corrected ourselves.

Hieromonk Justin 

Dreams are deceptive

– Elder, I am troubled by some bad dreams...

– When you see a bad dream, never examine what you saw, how you saw it, if you are guilty, how much you are to blame. The evil one, because he could not tempt you during the day, comes at night. Sometimes God also allows us to tempt us in sleep, so that we may see that the old man has not yet died. Other times, the enemy approaches a person in his sleep and presents him with various dreams, so that he may be distressed when he wakes up. Therefore, do not pay any attention to it; make your cross, cross your pillow, put the cross and a couple of icons on the pillow and say the prayer until you fall asleep. The more you pay attention, the more the enemy will come to bother you!!!

Saint Paisios of Mount Athos

I have not met a person without a cross.

Some with a large cross and some with a small cross.

Some with a heavy cross and some with a lighter one…

Some carry it without complaint.

Some cry in secret.

Some sometimes get tired on the road and rest.

Others carry it on their shoulders.

Others on their backs.

And others hug it. Tightly.

Almost romantically…

And some others drag their cross…

However, everyone carries something.

Everyone has something.

The point is not to give up.

The point is not to throw down your cross.

May the end find you, the passage, and your hands still hold the cross.

The cross that has been given to you.

That is the point.

And if sometimes you reach the “amen”, raise your eyes high.

Great cross, great Resurrection