Either you go with the flow or you go with Christ. There is simply no middle ground.

The flow of the world easily carries you away

It teaches you to live for today, to measure your worth by successes, likes, money and image. It trains you to justify everything, to compromise your conscience, to do “a little of everything” so as not to lose anything.

But the price is heavy: the heart gets tired, the soul empties and the truth becomes blurred.

The word of God speaks clearly: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed” (Rom. 12:2)

Being with Christ means walking against the flow, with awareness and choice. It means letting His word control you, correct you and lift you up.

It means loving when it is inconvenient, forgiving when it hurts, standing in the light even when it is costly.

Christ does not promise comfort. He promises life.

“I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6)

Being with Him means choosing truth over deceit, obedience over selfishness, humility over projection.

It means living with an eternal perspective, even when everyone around you is looking only at the temporal.

The world says, “look at yourself.” Christ says, “lose yourself and find him.”

“What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?” (Matt. 16:26)

The choice is made every day. In small decisions. In the way you speak, in the way you think, in the way you stand toward others.

There it is clear which path you choose.

The current passes.

Christ remains.

And whoever walks with Him may go against everyone, but never lost.

“Choose the path of life — and go forward, even if you go against it.”

If you have the Grace of God, you have everything.

 

If you have the Grace of God, you have everything.

You can do everything.

You bear everything.

Even if you climb the steepest Golgotha.

Even if you have illnesses.

Even if you have poverty.

Even if you have suffering.

The Grace of God holds you and you endure and bear all the tortures.

And it makes you charming and beautiful.

And you also support others who see you.

Because we are all agents of education, as today's pedagogical science would say.

We produce education.

That is, we lead with our behavior and we influence others.

There it is!

We influence others!

Others observe.

And even Christians.

Everyone. Everyone.

+ Fr. Ananias Koustenis

Saint Porphyrios strongly recommended patience and prayer.

 

Saint Porphyrios strongly recommended patience and prayer.

He would tell me:

– Be patient, and whatever Christ sends us is for good.

Even the most bitter and the most difficult and the most unjust is for our good!

Be patient, pray…

A praying person is a thousand teachings.

A thousand teachings.

+ Fr. Ananias Koustenis

A Saint before the schism, Saint Kevin in Ireland

 

A Saint before the schism, Saint Kevin in Ireland, we also have him as a Saint, as he had his hands outstretched in prayer, a bird came and sat on his open palm, he did not chase it away, he stayed like that and prayed, the bird gave birth to an egg, hatched it and then they left and then he stopped having his hands raised in prayer. He writes about it in his life. And a Nobel laureate said it at the Nobel Prize in Literature award ceremony in 1995 about Saint Kevin. His name is: Seamus Heaney (=Seamus Heaney) 1939 - 2013 and he is an Irish poet who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995. On the day he was given the Nobel Prize and he told them that this is how all people should look like Saint Kevin!!

What stories survive of Saint Kevin, Missionary of Ireland?

Saint Kevin (St. Kevin of Glendalough, 6th–7th century) is one of the most beloved figures in Irish monastic tradition. He lived as an ascetic in the Glendalough area and many instructive and miraculous stories have survived around his person.

Main stories and traditions

1. The bird that made a nest in his hand

The most famous story says that while he was praying with his hands raised, a bird (usually a blackbird) made a nest in his palm and laid eggs.

Kevin remained motionless for days until the young hatched, showing absolute patience and love for creation.

2. Life with wild animals

He lived so harmoniously with nature that the animals were not afraid of him. Traditions say that: an otter brought him fish, a deer helped him, and in general the animals recognized him as a friend, almost like a new Adam.

3. The miraculous raising of a child

It is said that a lord left his child with Kevin to raise. When the child died, the saint prayed and resurrected it.

4. The miracle with the wheat

When his monks needed food, Kevin prayed and a small field produced an excessive harvest, enough for everyone.

5. Discipline and asceticism

He lived for years in a cave or in a narrow space (some say in a “stone cell”), practicing strict fasting and isolation. This made him a model hermit.

Celebrated on June 3rd

 

Apolitikion

Thou wast privileged to live in the age of Saints, O Father Kevin, being baptized by one Saint, taught by another and buried by a third. Pray to God that He will raise up Saints in our day to help, support and guide us into the way of salvation.

 "Do not abandon the Holy Psalter, children. The arch-evil serpent is crushed by it and runs to hide. Read and you will see that we have a weapon, the Psalter! It writes down everything God wants to hear from us. He gives it to us ready-made. In the mouth the morsel."

† Fr. Ananias Koustenis