Γιατί ἐπαναλαμβάνουμε τίς ἴδιες ἁμαρτίες-Why we repeat the same sins, Ἁγ. Παϊσιου- St. Paisios, , Ἱερομ. Σάββα Ἁγιορείτου, Ieromonk Savvas Agioreitis

Γιατί ἐπαναλαμβάνουμε τίς ἴδιες ἁμαρτίες-Why we repeat the same sins,  Ἁγ. Παϊσιου- St. Paisios,  18-5-2025, Ἱερομ. Σάββα Ἁγιορείτου, Ieromonk Savvas Agioreitis 

Ἱ.Μ. Ἁγίας Τριάδος Ἐδέσσης 

http://hristospanagia3.blogspot.com

 

Why does God allow sickness?Father Paisios.

Why does God allow sickness?

One of the reasons our God may not make a sick person well is so the person does not lose his reward in the afterlife. This is similar to a father not giving all of the inheritance to his children at once so they don’t go on to waste it. We should always consider this and the afterlife as a continuum then we can understand that God may have plans to reward us in the afterlife.

http://apantaortodoxias.blogspot.com/2021/05/why-does-god-allow-sicknessfather.html

One monk from the Holy Mountain was from a village in Bulgaria.

 One monk from the Holy Mountain was from a village in Bulgaria. There were many unbaptized. This monk told me that, still a layman and unbaptized, he saw in a dream his little nephew, who had recently died. The kid was standing behind the fence of a beautiful garden and wept. And the garden was full of little children, who were happy and playing. "Why don't you go to the garden?" - asked the man who had the dream. “How can I go there?

Monastic versus family life - St. Paisios

 One day St. Paisios  was asked: can monastic life be considered higher than family life? To which the elder answered with a short parable: 

“Suppose two people go on a pilgrimage. One goes along a well-groomed road, the other goes along the path. However, both marchers have the same goal.

Filokalia

Filokalia

Reading the Filokalia No. 1

Elder, if we read books like Filokalia* that refer to the Jesus Prayer (Lord have Mercy on me a sinner), the so called prayer of the heart, then do we improve in our praying?

They help but only those who have humility. However, those who have pride and aim within a certain time to reach spiritual “heights”, to become like the Fathers of old, then they do not help them. One day some people came to my hut at Mount Athos and they said:

“We came here to teach us the Jesus Prayer, as you are one of those who excel in this prayer.”

“Eliminate me from your list”, I told them. “I have nothing and all I do is ask the mercy of God.”

Reading the Filokalia No. 2

The great value of our prayers for our departed.

 The venerable Saint Paisios the Athonite used to pray and commemorate the departed souls 

The Elder related:

“As soon as I went to live at the skete, old Thanassis, who worked for Philotheou  as a forester, found out about it and came to see me. He was a friend of mine, and he brought me some blessings, since it was early on then, and I didn’t have anything. “I thanked him, and I told him to write down the names of his departed relatives ,so  that I could commemorate them. Influenced by a Jehovah’s Witness, he replied, ‘When someone dies, there’s nothing else―after death everything’s lost.’ “Soon after that, he himself died. When I found out, I went to Philotheou and saw his grave. Every day I prayed from the heart that God would give rest to his soul. “About thirty days afterward, I found out that someone from Philotheou was looking for me.

BEES and FLIES - Elder Paisios on Positive Thinking

 

"I know from experience that in this life people are divided in two categories. A third category does not exist; people either belong to one of the other. The first one resembles the fly. The main characteristic of the fly is that it is attracted by dirt. … 

The other category is like the bee whose main characteristic is to always look for something sweet and nice to sit on. When a bee is found in a room full of dirt and there is a small piece of sweet in a corner, it will ignore the dirt and will go to sit on top of the sweet. 

Now, if we ask the bee to show us where the garbage is, it will answer: "I don't know. I can only tell you where to find flowers, sweets, honey and sugar; it only knows the good things in life and is ignorant of all evil." This is the second category of people who have a positive way of thinking, and see only the good side of things.

Holy sayings

 LISTENING

When someone has a problem, you must listen to him carefully. The entire time that he is talking do not show him that you got tired, because then you lost everything. One time I was listening to a young man for nine hours without moving. This is why I got a problem with my intestines!

St. Paisios the Hagiorate

PREPARATION FOR PRAYING

To pray, you need to create for yourself the proper “climate”. Then the Lord himself will teach us how to pray.

St. Paisios in Sinai: What We Can Learn from Camels

 

St. Paisios in Sinai: What We Can Learn from Camels

On July 12th the Church celebrated the memory of a new saint of our times, St. Paisios of the Holy Mountain, canonized in 2015. In his monastic life there actually were two Holy Mountains  –  Mount Athos and Mount Sinai as well.  The beloved Elder spent several years early in the 1960s at Saint Catherine’s Monastery, living most of the time alone, as a hermit, in the skete of St. Galaktion and Epistime, high above the Monastery.

More details of St. Paisios’s life in Sinai you can find in a remarkable video – it is a Sinai chapter of a full 6-part documentary about the Saint’s life by director Alexander Kouprin - in our Video Library or on a FMSM page: (http://www.mountsinaimonastery.org/news-blog/2016/7/12/new-video-on-st-paisios-time-at-st-catherine-monastery)

From Elder Paisios from the Holy Mountain book

 

The Elder was sitting in his garden with a few pilgrims having a discussion on spiritual matters. A little boy, standing near by, was hitting the ground with a piece of wood making a loud noise, thus attracting the attention of the pilgrims. The Elder, who had a very simple and charming way of telling people how to correct their mistakes without hurting their feelings, turned to the child and whispered laughingly:

The model in spiritual life must be...

The model in spiritual life must be the saints, and not the people of this world. 

- St. Paisios the Athonite

http://apantaortodoxias.blogspot.gr/2018/05/the-model-in-spiritual-life-must-be.html?m=1

If a person or several people have an ascetic spirit...

If a person or several people have an ascetic spirit, it is very helpful to others.

Do not place trust in ourselves . Self confidence is an obstacle for the Holy Grace . When we leave everything to God , HE is " obligated " to help us . Saint Paisios the Athonite.

 

Having  a young graduate and another on the way as well  others of friends and relatives , how do we get the youth and young adults to truly understand this concept of humility and reliance on the Grace of The Lord in a world where we are all taught to be trust our selves , " you did it ", " you are the best", "you can do anything if you trust your own instinct " , " no one can stop you " . 

In a world full of " Me , me , me , myself and I " .

or " I did it my way " .

There are two pleasures for a person: one - when he takes, and the other - when he gives.

 There are two pleasures for a person: one - when he takes, and the other - when he gives. The joy that they experience, giving away, is incomparable to that which they feel taking something. Man, in order to understand whether he is doing well in relation to the spiritual, must first of all test himself, whether he rejoices, giving, and not when accepting. And then, if he works in a spiritual way,  doing some kind of good, he never remembers it, but he never forgets the smallest good done to him. He can not close his eyes to even the most insignificant benefit of others towards him. 

He himself, perhaps, gave someone a whole vineyard and forgot about it. But one grape cluster, given to him from the vineyard, he can never forget.

SAYINGS OF ELDER PAISIOS

" We went through fire and water..."

The crosses of ordeals

•  I have always on me the small cross you gave me, O Elder, and it helps me to overcome difficulties.

•  Yes, these small crosses are our crosses. Like the ones we wear around our necks and protect us in our lives. What do you think? Do we bear a big cross? Only Christ's Cross was very heavy because Christ did not want to use for Himself His divine strength out of love for us, the people. Moreover, he bears the weight of all the crosses of the world and disburdens us from the pains of the ordeals with His divine help and His sweet comfort.

Good God provides each person with a cross relevant to their strength; the idea is not suffering but the ascent from the cross to Heaven – because in reality the cross is a stairway to Heaven. If we realise what treasure we are saving from the pain of ordeals, we will not groan, but praise God bearing the small cross he gave us as a gift. Thus, we will enjoy this life and we will receive pension and "gratuity" in the other one. God has secured our reward in Heaven. If we ask to be relieved from an ordeal, then He gives the reward to someone else and we lose it. Whereas, if we are patient, He will gives us interest as well.

What does it mean to pray?

A man asked Saint Paisios the Hagiorite: “Elder, what does it mean for you to pray?’
He responded: “It means that I am sending a message, I ask for help. I ask continuously help from Christ, our Mother the Theotokos, our Saints, for myself and everybody else. If I don’t ask, I am not going to get any…”

Translated by Dr. Nick Stergiou

http://www.orthodoxpath.org/saints-and-elders-counsels/what-does-it-mean-to-pray/

Preparation is important for praying

   “If while praying we don’t feel comfort, something is clearly going on: we must repent and correct it. Some people say that this happens because of the devil’s jealousy –but this isn’t true. Instead, it’s as though God is saying us, ‘I don’t understand the way you’re speaking to me”. Just like Holy Communion, prayer is mystical nourishment. In the same way, preparation is needed – i.e., a clean conscience”.

Turn the wheel

 For everybody that lives in the world, do not despair when you are possessed by many passions, the weight of your sins is extremely heavy, and you feel you are driving really fast “downhill”. Put your hope in Christ’s hands and turn suddenly and abruptly the steering wheel in the way of God, uphill. Soon you will even bypass other slowly moving cars that were running ahead for many years on the road of God.

St. Paisios the Hagiorite

Translated by Dr. Nick Stergiou

http://www.orthodoxpath.org/spiritual-life/turn-the-wheel/

Avoid the causes

 

  “Avoid the causes, what triggers sin. For example, if you have diabetes and you are supposed not to eat sweets, how can you stop them if all the time you are inside or around stores that sell sweets and pastries?

(Source: Dion. Tatsis, Outdoor Archontariki, Recorded teachings of St. Paisiou, Konitsa Feb. ’94, 32)

Translated by Dr. Nick Stergiou

http://www.orthodoxpath.org/spiritual-life/avoid-the-causes/

Sayings of Saint Paisios

 “A person ought to act in accordance with his spiritual state. To do, therefore, things that correspond to the spiritual state in which he finds himself”. (i.e., to not exceed his spiritual measure).

***

 “During the day, you ought to do as did St. Anthony the Great: a little handy work, a little prayer. During the night, a little study and prayer. Small but hard serious study helps a lot.