I want nothing of the world.
I want nothing of the world, for the world has nothing to be desired.
I want nothing of the world, for the world is too poor to give me.
I want nothing of the world, for I am not of the world.
I want nothing of the world, I want You alone.
‘The Release of the Spirit’ - HH Pope Shenouda III
1 Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”
3 Surely he will save you
from the fowler’s snare
and from the deadly pestilence.
4 He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
5 You will not fear the terror of night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
6 nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
nor the plague that destroys at midday.
7 A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
8 You will only observe with your eyes
and see the punishment of the wicked.
9 If you say, “The LORD is my refuge,”
and you make the Most High your dwelling,
10 no harm will overtake you,
no disaster will come near your tent.
11 For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways;
12 they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
13 You will tread on the lion and the cobra;
you will trample the great lion and the serpent.
14 “Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
15 He will call on me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him.
16 With long life I will satisfy him
and show him my salvation.”
“Do not turn Your face away from Your child, for I am afflicted; hear me speedily. Give heed to my soul and redeem it”
With the solemn chanting of these urgent words of the Psalmist King David (Psalm 68:17-18), the time has come once again for the arena of virtues, Great Lent, to be opened for all faithful Orthodox Christians. We enter the arena taking up the “full armour of God” (Ephesians 6:11) to do battle with “bright sadness” in anticipation of the greatest victory in history of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ over sin and death.
But what is Great Lent to me? Why must I fast and pray and sacrifice my comforts and pleasures? Why has the Church put aside these forty days before the “Feast of Feasts” that is Pascha?
The forty days of Great Lent serve as a reminder to us that the Christian life is serious; it is not lived according to whims or sudden impulses. We find ourselves in our daily life imprisoned in selfish, destructive habits – our passions. Great Lent offers a way to overcome and free ourselves from them. It is a time to heal our hearts and set our lives right, a time for self-examination and self-denial; to repair our broken relationships with God and people alike through prayer, fasting and almsgiving. We have especially been given the Lenten prayer of St Ephraim to recite throughout Lent:
Lord and Master of my life, take from me the spirit of sloth, despondency, lust for power and idle talk.
But grant unto me, Your servant, a spirit of chastity, humility, patience and love.
Yes, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own faults and not to judge my brothers and sisters. For blessed are You unto ages of ages. Amen.
Most of all, Great Lent is a time of joy and a new beginning.
Fr Alexander Schmemann in the Introduction of his book “Great Lent” writes: …as we make the first step into the “bright sadness” of Lent, we see — far, far away — the destination. It is the joy of Easter, it is the entrance into the glory of the Kingdom. And it is this vision, the foretaste of Easter, that makes Lent’s sadness bright and our lenten effort a “spiritual spring”. The night may be dark and long, but all along the way a mysterious and radiant dawn seems to shine on the horizon. “Do not deprive us of our expectation, O Lover of man!”
When you find Christ, you are satisfied, you desire nothing else, you find peace. You become a different person… Christ is in all your thoughts, in all your actions. You have grace and you can endure everything for Christ.
-Elder Porphyrios
(Source: orthodoxwayoflife.blogspot.com)
Greece is not going well. Everything here is collapsing in front of our eyes. And of course this comes from the elimination of God from our lives.
And of course, the only one that was expecting Greece’s todays situation was the Orthodox Church. For example, Elder Paisios, an elder that had…
The way we respond to the natural environment is directly reflects the way we treat human beings. The willingness to exploit the environment is revealed in the willingness to permit avoidable human suffering. So the survival of the natural environment is also the survival of ourselves. When we will understand that a crime against nature is a crime against ourselves and sin against God?
- His All Holiness, Bartholomew I, Archbishop of Constantinople New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch
Christ is Everything. He is joy, He is life, He is light. He is the true light who makes man joyful, makes him soar with happiness; makes him see everything, everybody; makes him feel for everyone, to want everyone with him, everyone with Christ.
-Elder Porphyrios
Psalm 72(73)
1 Surely God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
2 But as for me, my feet had almost slipped;
I had nearly lost my foothold.
3 For I envied the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4 They have no struggles;
their bodies are healthy and strong.
5 They are free from common human burdens;
they are not plagued by human ills.
6 Therefore pride is their necklace;
they clothe themselves with violence.
7 From their callous hearts comes iniquity;
their evil imaginations have no limits.
8 They scoff, and speak with malice;
with arrogance they threaten oppression.
9 Their mouths lay claim to heaven,
and their tongues take possession of the earth.
10 Therefore their people turn to them
and drink up waters in abundance.
11 They say, “How would God know?
Does the Most High know anything?”
12 This is what the wicked are like—
always free of care, they go on amassing wealth.
13 Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure
and have washed my hands in innocence.
14 All day long I have been afflicted,
and every morning brings new punishments.
15 If I had spoken out like that,
I would have betrayed your children.
16 When I tried to understand all this,
it troubled me deeply
17 till I entered the sanctuary of God;
then I understood their final destiny.
18 Surely you place them on slippery ground;
you cast them down to ruin.
19 How suddenly are they destroyed,
completely swept away by terrors!
20 They are like a dream when one awakes;
when you arise, Lord,
you will despise them as fantasies.
21 When my heart was grieved
and my spirit embittered,
22 I was senseless and ignorant;
I was a brute beast before you.
23 Yet I am always with you;
you hold me by my right hand.
24 You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will take me into glory.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.
27 Those who are far from you will perish;
you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.
28 But as for me, it is good to be near God.
I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge;
I will tell of all your deeds.
"Do not give your heart to that which does not satisfy your heart" Abba Poemen
