There's Only One Channel

In the hour of prayer, when our mind wanders to thoughts of bad things, or if these thoughts come without our wanting them, we shouldn’t wage an offensive war against the enemy, because, even if all the lawyers in the world joined together, they wouldn’t make any headway with a little demon. Only through ignoring them can one chase these thoughts away. The same is true for blasphemous thoughts.

If you want to grab God’s attention so He’ll hear you during prayer, turn the dial to humility, for God always works in this frequency; then humbly ask for His mercy.

Let us not expect the spiritual spring if we don’t first pass through the spiritual winter during which the spiritual vermin die. We mustn’t expect the divine to blossom within us if the human hasn’t first died.
The soft life makes people useless. Without toil and struggle sanctification doesn’t come.

When one realizes one’s sinfulness and the great mercy of God, the heart cracks, as hard as it may be, and real tears fall of themselves and then man prays and weeps without effort. This is because humility works continuously together with love and drills on the heart so that the springs increase, and the hand of God continually strokes the hard-working and loving child.

Let us struggle with all our powers to gain Paradise. The gate is very narrow, and don’t listen to those who say that everyone will be saved. This is a trap of satan so that we won’t struggle.

Live in constant glorification of and thanksgiving towards God, for the greatest sin is ingratitude and the worst sinner is the ungrateful person.

We mustn’t despair when we struggle and continuously see nothing but the slightest progress. We all do nearly nothing, some a little more, some a little less. When Christ sees our little effort He gives us an analogous token and so our nearly nothing becomes valuable and we can see a little progress. For this reason we mustn’t despair, but hope in God.

From the Sunday bulletin of Holy Theophany Orthodox Church

Snake Hunters

I know that cats are often kept on farms in order to manage the rodent population. What I didn't know was that our feline companions have also earned a reputation for keeping snakes in check. Here is an interesting account posted on the Mystagogy website:

“It is wonderful to see them, for nearly all are maimed by the snakes: one has lost a nose, another an ear; the skin of one is torn, another is lame: one is blind of one eye, another of both. And it is a strange thing that at the hour for their food, at the sound of a bell, they collect at the monastery and when they have eaten enough, at the sound of that same bell, they all depart together to go fight the snakes.” - The Venetian Francesco Suriano (1484)


The Monastery of Saint Nicholas of the Cats is regarded as a sacred cat haven in Cyprus, as it’s name has been linked to felines for almost 2,000 years.

The original monastery was built in 327 AD, by Kalokeros, the governor of Cyprus appointed by Constantine the Great, and patronised by Saint Helen, the mother of Constantine the Great. At that time, a terrible drought affected the whole of Cypus, and the entire island was overrun with poisonous snakes which made building the monastery a dangerous affair. Many of the inhabitants left their homes and moved off the island, for fear of the snakes, but Saint Helen came up with a solution to the plague – she ordered 1,000 cats to be shipped in from Egypt and Palestine to fight the reptiles.


In the following years, the cats did their duty, hunting and killing most of the snakes in the Akrotiri Peninsula, which soon came to be known as the “Cat Peninsula”. The monks would use a bell to call the cats to the monastery at meal time, and then the felines were dispatched to their snake-hunting duties. Pilgrims from all around Europe traveled to the Holy Monastery of Saint Nicholas to see its feline guardians, and the discovered documents of a Venetian monk describe them as scarred, missing various body parts, some completely blind as a result of their relentless battle against the snakes.


According to the writings of Father Stephen de Lusignan, in 1580, the Byzantine monks at the Monastery of Saint Nicholas were awarded the surrounding lands, on one condition – they had to take care of at least 100 cats and feed them at least twice a day. Legend has it, the cats were so well trained they knew that when the bell rang once they had to go hunting for snakes, and when it rang a second time, it was meal time at the monastery.

During the Turkish invasion, the Monastery of Saint Nicholas of the Cats was completely destroyed and its residing monks slaughtered or taken into captivity. Left without food and shelter, the cats left and wandered around the island, which explains the large number of cats currently living in Cyprus. Even now, locals appreciate their help in getting rid of the snakes centuries ago, and take good care of them, even if they’re strays.


After being rebuilt and abandoned several times, the modern history of the Monastery of Saint Nicholas of the Cats began in 1983, when it was assigned to a group of nuns. When they arrived there wasn’t a cat in sight, but the number of snakes was once again overwhelming, so they did exactly what Saint Helen did over 1,500 years ago – they brought in a couple of cats. Their numbers grew, over the years, and there are now six nuns at the monastery and over 70 felines. Many people bring abandoned cats to this place, and the nuns take them in.

The Monastery of Saint Nicholas of the Cats receives a small subsidy from the government, but that isn’t enough to take care of the entire feline population, so the nuns rely on donations made by locals or cat-loving tourists.

Falling and Getting Back Up

Living in a culture of high-speed Internet, microwaves, smart phones, and pills for almost everything, I find myself expecting similar immediate results in my Christian walk. Indeed, the Christian book market is filled with formulas for saving your marriage, conquering depression, losing weight, and living the single life. But if you begin to read about the lives of the saints - individuals who went through great trials and testings - you observe a quite different picture. They battled sins and temptations their entire lives. In our American culture, this appears to be an individual failure - one should identify the problem, devise a solution, and eradicate it once and for all! But in the Kingdom of God, it is in the very struggle with sin that we can grow and make progress. Here is where we are weak. Such struggling requires continual communication with God and an appeal to his mercies, for he wants to help us and purify us.

It is helpful to be aware of where and how we fail in this process:

When we still fail, it is probably for one of three reasons.

First, we do not hate sin sufficiently as to be willing to “fight to the death” to avoid or overcome it. Our concupiscence hobbles us and keeps open the back door to our hearts, allowing access to the temptations we’re supposed to be valiantly fighting.

Second, we do not trust sufficiently in the power of God’s grace to heal or strengthen or protect us, but like St Peter, walking on the water and overestimating the supposedly superior forces of wind and water and gravity, we sink, even though the Lord already has given us to power to overcome.

And third, we hinder our progress by making excuses for ourselves, and so we never really break out of habitual failures, for we sabotage our own victory by telling ourselves, in effect, that such victory is unattainable, for this reason and that. But the Lord is still trying to whisper in our ear: “My grace is sufficient; come on, get up, you can do it; take My hand and you’ll see what I can do for you.” - Father Joseph

And there are these good words also:

The evil one cannot comprehend the joy we receive from the spiritual life; for this reason he is jealous of us, he envies us and sets traps for us, and we become grieved and fall. We must struggle, because without struggles we do not obtain virtues. - Elder Ieronymos of Aegina

Christ's Descent into Hell

By St. Epiphanios of Salamis (4th century)

Anastasis *

Something strange is happening - there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness.

The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep.

The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and He has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began.

God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.

He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep.

Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, He has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, He who is both God and the son of Eve.

The Lord approached them bearing the Cross, the weapon that had won Him the victory.

At the sight of Him Adam, the first man He had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: "My Lord be with you all." Christ answered him: "And with your spirit."

He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying: "'Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.'

I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. Out of love for you and for your descendants I now by My own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake.

I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of My hands, you who were created in My image.

Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in Me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated.

For your sake I, your God, became your son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I, whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth. For your sake, for the sake of man, I became like a man without help, free among the dead. For the sake of you, who left a garden, I was betrayed to the Jews in a garden, and I was crucified in a garden.

See on My face the spittle I received in order to restore to you the life I once breathed into you.

See there the marks of the blows I received in order to refashion your warped nature in My image.

On my back see the marks of the scourging I endured to remove the burden of sin that weighs upon your back.

See My hands, nailed firmly to a tree, for you who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree.

The Christ - Viktor Vasnetsov

I slept on the Cross and a sword pierced My side for you who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in hell. The sword that pierced Me has sheathed the sword that was turned against you.

Rise, let us leave this place. The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise.

I will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven.

I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them venerate you as a god.

The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager.

The bridal chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open.

The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity."


* The Greek word ανάστασις (anástasis) means "resurrection"

The Parable of the Seeds of God

A woman once had a dream in which she went into a shop and saw the Lord God standing behind the counter.

“Lord, it’s you!” she exclaimed with joy
“Yes, it’s Me”, answered God.
“But what can I buy from you?” asked the woman.
“You can buy everything from me”, came the answer.
“Then please give me health, happiness, love, success, and lots of money”.
God smiled kindly and went into the back room for the goods she had ordered. After a while He returned with a small paper box.
“Is that it?” exclaimed the disappointed woman in amazement.
“Yes, that’s it”, answered God, adding: “Surely you knew that I only sell seeds in my shop?”

From the Pravmir website, translated from Russian.

This is the One

Good Shepherd Icon

I have been reading a wonderful homily on the Passover by Melitos of Sardis of the 2nd century. Here is an excerpt: 

When this one came from heaven to earth for the sake of the one who suffers, and had clothed himself with that very one through the womb of a virgin, and having come forth as man, he accepted the sufferings of the sufferer through his body which was capable of suffering. And he destroyed those human sufferings by his spirit which was incapable of dying. He killed death which had put man to death.

For this one, who was led away as a lamb, and who was sacrificed as a sheep, by himself delivered us from servitude to the world as from the land of Egypt, and released us from bondage to the devil as from the hand of Pharaoh, and sealed our souls by his own spirit and the members of our bodies by his own blood.

This is the one who covered death with shame and who plunged the devil into mourning as Moses did Pharaoh.
This is the one who smote lawlessness and deprived injustice of its offspring, as Moses deprived Egypt.
This is the one who delivered us from slavery into freedom, from darkness into light, from death into life, from tyranny into an eternal kingdom, and who made us a new priesthood, and a special people forever.
This one is the passover of our salvation.
This is the one who patiently endured many things in many people: This is the one who was murdered in Abel, and bound as a sacrifice in Isaac, and exiled in Jacob, and sold in Joseph, and exposed in Moses, and sacrificed in the lamb, and hunted down in David, and dishonored in the prophets.
This is the one who became human in a virgin,
who was hanged on the tree, who was buried in the earth, who was resurrected from among the dead, and who raised mankind up out of the grave below to the heights of heaven.
This is the lamb that was slain. 

This is the lamb that was silent. 

This is the one who was born of Mary, that beautiful ewe-lamb. 

This is the one who was taken from the flock, and was dragged to sacrifice, and was killed in the evening, and was buried at night; the one who was not broken while on the tree, who did not see dissolution while in the earth, who rose up from the dead, and who raised up mankind from the grave below.

For the complete homily, click here.

The Silence of Death

If anyone grasped the darkness

he was pulled away by death.

And one of the first born,

grasping the material darkness in his hand,

as his life was stripped away,

cried out in distress and terror:

“Whom does my hand hold?

Whom does my soul dread?

Who is the dark one enfolding my whole body?

If it is a father, help me.

If it is a mother, comfort me.

If it is a brother, speak to me.

If it is a friend, support me.

If it is an enemy, depart from me, 

for I am a first-born.”

Before the first-born fell silent, the long silence held

him and spoke to him:

“You are my first-born, 

I am your destiny, the silence of death.”

- Melito of Sardis

St. Melito obviously offers an alternative view of the world. The Christ who “trampled down death by death,” the Lord of Pascha, is foreshadowed in the world (particularly the account of the Old Testament). The Christ proclaimed by St. Melito is the Christ who confronts death itself, including the meaninglessness that we know too well in our modern world. This Christ is God in the Flesh, who has condescended into the existence of man and grappled with the “destiny of the silence of death.” In the face of the death of His friend, Lazarus, Christ cries out, “Lazarus, come forth!” With that cry the Church’s observance of Holy Week begins.

For the complete post by Fr. Stephen Freeman click here.