He who does not know himself does not know God, either. And he who does not know God does not know the truth and the nature of things in general... He who does not know himself continually sins against God and continually moves farther away from Him. He who does not know the nature of things and what they truly are in themselves is powerless to evaluate them according to their worth and to discriminate between the mean and the precious, the worthless and the valuable. Wherefore, such a person wears himself out in the pursuit of vain and trivial things, and is unconcerned about and indifferent to the things that are eternal and most precious.
Man ought to will to know himself, to know God, and to understand the nature of things as they are in themselves, and this becomes an image and likeness of God.
Saint Nektarios
TRUE PRAYER is undistracted, prolonged, performed with a contrite heart an alert intellect. The vehicle of prayer is everywhere humility, and prayer is a manifestation of humility. For being conscious of our own weakness, we invoke the power of GOD.
PRAYER unites one with GOD, being a divine conversation and spiritual communion with the Being that is most beautiful and highest.
PRAYER IS FORGETTING EARTHLY THINGS,
AN ASCENT TO HEAVEN.
THROUGH PRAYER
WE FLEE TO GOD.
PRAYER is truly a heavenly armor, and is alone can keep safe those who have dedicated themselves to God. Prayer is the common medicine for purifying ourselves from the passions, for hindering sin and curing our faults. Prayer is an inexhaustible treasure, an unruffled harbor, the foundation of serenity, the root and mother of myriad's of blessings.
Saint Nektarios
The Teachers of the Eastern Orthodox Church, having Holy Scripture as their foundation, teach that those who die in the Lord go to a place of rest, according to the statement in the Apocalypse: "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them" (Revelation 14:13). This place of rest is viewed as spiritual Paradise, where the souls of those who have died in the Lord, the souls of the righteous, enjoy the blessings of rest, while awaiting the day of rewarding and the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus...
About the sinners, they teach that their souls go down to Hades, where there is suffering, sorrow, and groaning, awaiting the dreadful day of the Judgment.
The Fathers of the Orthodox Church do not admit the existence of another place, intermediate between Paradise and Hades, as such a place is not mentioned in Holy Scripture.
After the end of the General Judgment, the Righteous Judge (God) will declare the decision both to the righteous and to the sinners. To the righteous He will say: "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;" while to the sinners He will say: "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." And these will go away to eternal hades, while the righteous will go to eternal life. This retribution after the General Judgment will be complete, final, and definitive. It will complete, because it is not the soul alone, as the Partial Judgment of man after death, but the soul together with the body, that will receive what is deserved. It will be final, because it will be enduring and not temporary like that at Partial Judgment. And it will be definitive, because both for the righteous and for the sinners it will be unalterable and eternal.
Saint Nektarios
Even though fasting is clearly documented in the Holy Scriptures, some people still challenge this commandment of God. Often times the words of our Lord “not what goes into the mouth, but what comes out defiles man” are misused to claim that
neither does God require us to fast, nor is it a sin if someone chooses not to fast.
Let us examine this Gospel verse to see what exactly is recorded.The scribes and Pharisees once asked our Lord: “Why do Your disciples transgress
the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread” (Mt. 15:2).
This question evidently refers to why Christ’s
disciples did not wash their hands before eating.
It makes no mention of fasting. Thus Christ
responded: “Hear and understand: not what goes into the mouth defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man” (Mt. 15:11).
That is to say, even if the food or our hands are not perfectly clean and we consume foreign particles, this will not render us sinful before God. Why?
Because “whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated.”
Evil desires, however, which are contrary to the law of God, which originate from within man, and which man externalizes, are what render man sinful before God. “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things that
defile a man. But to eat with unwashed hands,”
underlines the Lord, “does not defile a man” (Mt. 15:18-19).
It is thus evident that Christ’s statement that “what goes into the mouth does not defile man” is in no way related to nor negates the commandment of fasting.
The following is taken from the autobiography of Elder Philotheos Zervakos regarding the final meeting he had with his spiritual father, Saint Nektarios:
I considered it my divine obligation and duty to see my spiritual father, St. Nektarios, before returning to the holy monastery of my repentance [in Paros]. Therefore, I went to see him at the Rizareios Theological School. However, I learned that he had resigned from his post and was now living in Aegina, so I went to Aegina. It was August now, and the sun was burning fiercely when I arrived outside the convent about 1:00 PM. I was just outside the gates when I saw an elderly man with a white beard, a shabby cassock held by a belt, and a straw hat to protect his head from the sun. He was digging with a pickax, filling a small barrel with dirt, and spreading the dirt around a 15 sq. yard area to level the convent's courtyard. I thought that he was either one of the conven't workers to whom they had given an old cassock so as not to soil his clothes, or an old novice from the monastery. Approaching the elder, I greeted him and asked, "Elder, is the Bishop here?"
"He is here," he told me.
"Inside?" I asked. "Is he in the monastery?"
"Yes," the elder said, "he is inside."
"Good, go and tell him that a spiritual child of his is here, a deacon, who wants to see him."
"May it be blessed," he responded humbly, and putting down the pickax, he showed me to a new room about fifteen yards away from the convent's entrance. He told me, "Wait here and I will go tell him to come."
Five minutes had not gone by, when - what a surprise, what depth of immeasurable humility! Surprised and shocked, I saw that the man whom I had thought to be a worker, a villager, or a peasant and to whom I had spoken harshly and ordered around, was the Bishop himself! Neither had I even considered that this was the afternoon rest hour, when everyone slept! I should have never told him to do anything, but instead, waited patiently for the time of Vespers. No, I the disciple had shown my extreme pride while my teacher and spiritual father had shown his extreme and complete humility! I was struck speechless and knelt down, tearfully begging him to forgive me for my pride and bad manners. He being guileless, meek and humble of heart, of course, forgave me. We sat down and he began to guide me, as he always has, along the way of the Lord.
"Father," I asked, "how can I be delivered from this God-hated pride?" And with love and humility (the two great virtues which God had bestowed upon him), he responded:
"My dear spiritual child in the Lord, our Holy Fathers have told us, that each sin, whether great and deadly, or small and pardonable, is defeated by the opposite corresponding virtue: that is envy is defeated by love; pride by humility; avarice by poverty; greed and hard-heartedness by charity and compassion; negligence by diligence; gluttony and servitude to the stomach by fasting and restraint; idle talk by silence; criticism and slander by self-reproach and prayer; lewdness, fornication, adultery and other sins of the flesh by remembrance of death, the Last Judgment to come, and the recompense of Hell. In general, every evil is defeate by every virtue. As the Prophet David says, 'Turn away from evil and do good.' If you wish to be delivered also from the sin of pride, the mother and cause of all sin and evil, you will be delivered through humility.
"Because we are not able to do anything on our own (as the Lord says, 'Without Me, ye can do nothing') let us ask the All-Good and man-loving God with compunction and humility, with sighs and tears, to deliver us from demonic pride. Let us sigh like the Publican, cry like the adultress, repent like the Prodigal Son, saying, 'O All-Good compassionate and man-loving Father, we have sinned before You; accept our repentance and make us as one of Your paid servants.' Let us pray and beseech the Lord as the divine Chrysostom did in his daily prayers: 'O Lord, grant us humility, a humble way of thought and obedience; O Lord grant us patience, longsuffering and meekness; O Lord, implant in our hearts the root of good, Your fear; O Lord, grant us to love You with all our soul and heart and to keep Your divine commandments.'
"Likewise, so that we may be delivered from satanic and all-destructive pride, let us look to the example of our Heavenly Teacher, and to the lesson He gave to His disciples, to us, and to all Christians of every generation and age: 'Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest in your souls,' and 'When ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say: We are unprifitable servants, we have done that which is our duty to do.'"
Receiving this and other beneficial counsel from my holy spiritual father Nektarios, I left joyous and spiritually gladdened; and at the beginning of September, 1910, I returned through Syros to the island of Paros and the monastery of my repentance.
St. Nektarios with his saintly spiritual children, (from left to right) Elder Gervasios Paraskevopoulos, Saint Savvas of Kalymnos, Elder Amphilochios Makris and Elder Philotheos Zervakos. This icon is in the Cathedral dedicated to St. Nektarios in Aegina.
