Orthodox Wisdom Readings from Saints of Holy Orthodoxy

This short excerpt from Elder George's treatise discusses the characteristics of experiences of theosis, union with God, the true purpose of each and every human being. Elder George (Kapsanis), former Abbot of the St. Gregorios Monastery on Mount Athos who reposed in the Lord on Pentecost 2014, presents the Orthodox understanding of Theosis and the essential path towards receiving this divine gift.

-READ "Theosis: The True Purpose of Human Life" by Elder George in many languages:
http://orthodoxinfo.com/general/theosis.aspx
-LISTEN to "Theosis: The True Purpose of Human Life - Part I"
https://youtu.be/ReheAcnRPmU
-READ a reflection on the life and works of Elder George by Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos:
https://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2014/07/fr-george-kapsanis-former-abbot-of.html
-FIND an Orthodox parish and monastery near you:
https://orthodoxyinamerica.org/

This recording is an excerpt from "Theosis: The True Purpose of Human Life - Part II"
https://youtu.be/E5tLjZBrpS0
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Elder George teaches:

If man cannot be deified with divine Grace and divine energies what purpose does his life have? Only that he becomes morally better. But moral perfection is not enough for man. It is not enough for us simply to become better than before, simply to perform moral deeds. We have as our final aim to unite with holy God Himself.
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Orthodox Wisdom is dedicated to sharing the writings and lives of the Saints of the Orthodox Church. Glory to Jesus Christ!


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This short excerpt from Elder George's treatise explains the qualifications for attaining the true purpose of each and every human being: union with God, or Theosis. Elder George (Kapsanis), former Abbot of the St. Gregorios Monastery on Mount Athos who reposed in the Lord on Pentecost 2014, presents the Orthodox understanding of Theosis and the essential path towards receiving this divine gift.

-READ "Theosis: The True Purpose of Human Life" by Elder George in many languages:
http://orthodoxinfo.com/general/theosis.aspx
-LISTEN to "Theosis: The True Purpose of Human Life - Part I"
https://youtu.be/ReheAcnRPmU
-READ a reflection on the life and works of Elder George by Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos:
https://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2014/07/fr-george-kapsanis-former-abbot-of.html
-FIND an Orthodox parish and monastery near you:
https://orthodoxyinamerica.org/

This recording is an excerpt from "Theosis: The True Purpose of Human Life - Part II"
https://youtu.be/E5tLjZBrpS0
______

Elder George teaches:

If man cannot be deified with divine Grace and divine energies what purpose does his life have? Only that he becomes morally better. But moral perfection is not enough for man. It is not enough for us simply to become better than before, simply to perform moral deeds. We have as our final aim to unite with holy God Himself.
______

Orthodox Wisdom is dedicated to sharing the writings and lives of the Saints of the Orthodox Church. Glory to Jesus Christ!


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St. Luke teaches: "With this deep and fiery repentance the force that prevented her from entering the church receded and she finally entered. There she fell before the life-giving Cross of the Lord and did not get up until the end of the service. Tears flowed from her eyes, from the eyes that once seduced men and are now cleansed with wholehearted and fervent repentance."

-READ the Life of St. Mary of Egypt by St. Sophronius of Jerusalem:
https://www.orthodox.net/saints/mary-of-egypt.html
-READ St. Luke's homily here:
https://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2021/04/homily-for-fifth-sunday-of-great-lent.html
-WATCH Trisagion Films video on the Life of St. Mary of Egypt:
https://youtu.be/BBXvDuNElB8?si=Uk16Pa18mAXX9BMq
-READ about St. Luke’s life here:
http://full-of-grace-and-truth.blogspot.com/2008/10/st-luke-archbishop-of-simferopol.html?m=1
-FIND an Orthodox parish and monastery near you:
https://orthodoxyinamerica.org/
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St. Luke teaches:


On the fifth Sunday of Great Lent, our Holy Church honors the memory of Saint Mary of Egypt. Her truly wonderful life is known to you because every year on this day it is narrated in the churches. But I will describe her again in a few words to remember the unusual and unique life of this Saint.


Let us stand with Saint Mary at the gate of the church. We now see her heart overwhelmed by the fear of God, when she realizes that she cannot, in God's judgment, enter the church with the others. She alone is unworthy to enter, while everyone else enters freely. Her entrance is prevented by an invisible force. When she realizes her tragic situation, a strong flame of the fear of God lights up in her soul. She is shaken by the fear she feels in front of All-Holy, All-Wise, Almighty and Just God.

It was not a fear of punishment, it was a shame that burned like fire, a shame for the impurity of her soul and body. It was a shame and pain for her that God, because of her impurity, did not allow her to enter the church and appear before Him. Then she prayed fervently. She fell before the icon of the Panagia which was placed above the entrance of the church and with tears begged the Mother of God to pray for her to her Son.

With this deep and fiery repentance the force that prevented her from entering the church receded and she finally entered. There she fell before the life-giving Cross of the Lord and did not get up until the end of the service. Tears flowed from her eyes, from the eyes that once seduced men and are now cleansed with wholehearted and fervent repentance.
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Orthodox Wisdom is dedicated to sharing the writings and lives of the Saints of the Orthodox Church. Glory to Jesus Christ!


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In this letter, Fr. Seraphim expresses his reaction to unhealthy approaches to Blessed Augustine, the great bishop and Church father of Africa, and shares a more personal side of his own experience with Augustine and his works: "I feel in Augustine the love of Christ."

In Fr. Seraphim Rose’s time, as well as today in 2024, many diverse and strongly held opinions exist when it comes to how we should regard Blessed Augustine of Hippo. In one extreme, some treat him as either the greatest father of the first millennium, as one can see in some western confessions and even by some Orthodox. In another extreme, some see him as the root source of a multitude of heresies, even explicitly or implicitly condemning him as a heretic.

The text of this recording is his full letter to Fr. Michael Azkoul written on June 13/26, 1981.

-BUY “The Place of Blessed Augustine in the Orthodox Church” by Fr. Seraphim Rose:
https://www.sainthermanmonastery.com/mobile/Product.aspx?ProductCode=blaug
-LISTEN to a fuller treatment of the Orthodox Church's understanding of Blessed Augustine according to Fr. Seraphim Rose:
https://youtu.be/1KT4APf8GFM
-READ this letter and others from Fr. Seraphim Rose:
https://thoughtsintrusive.wordpress.com/letters-of-fr-seraphim-rose-1961-1982/
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Fr. Seraphim writes:

If your attempt is to find our Augustine’s real place in the Orthodox Church, I think your approach is all wrong. It assumes that “we moderns” are the ones who can do this—that we can “know better” than anyone in the Orthodox past. I don’t think so. I have a deep distrust of all of us who are writing on theological subjects today—we are more under “Western influence” than anyone before, and the less we are aware of it, the more obnoxious our “Westernism” becomes. Our whole cold, academic, and often disdainful approach to theology is so remote from the Fathers, so foreign to them. Let us admit this and try not to be so presumptuous (I speak for myself also).

I myself am no great admirer of Augustine’s doctrines. He does indeed have that Western “super-logicalness” which the Eastern Fathers don’t have (the same “super-logicalness” which the critics of Augustine today display so abundantly!). The one main lovable and Orthodox thing about him is his Orthodox feeling, piety, love for Christ, which comes out so strongly in his non-dogmatic works like the Confessions (the Russian Fathers also love the Soliloquies).

I myself fear the cold hearts of the 'intellectually correct' much more than any errors you might find in Augustine. I sense in these cold hearts a preparation for the work of Antichrist (whose imitation of Christ must also extend to 'correct theology'); I feel in Augustine the love of Christ.
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Orthodox Wisdom is dedicated to sharing the writings and lives of the Saints of the Orthodox Church. Glory to Jesus Christ!


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St. Seraphim of Sofia discusses an important aspect of the Ecumenical Movement in the 20th century: Freemasonry. Presenting to the Moscow Pan-Orthodox Congress of 1948, which included representatives from nearly all autocephalous Orthodox churches, St. Seraphim highlights the well-known Freemason, John Raleigh Mott, the main promoter of "unity" among separate Christian groups. Mott spearheaded the 1910 World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh and the first meeting of the World Council of Churches in 1948. Mott helped send Protestant student missionaries with the YMCA to evangelize Orthodox countries and for his ecumenical efforts won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1946. St. Seraphim understands that ecumenical efforts only serve to blur the boundaries between the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church (the Orthodox Church) and other sects claiming to be part of the Church. Such blurring draws people away from the only place, as St. Seraphim teaches, men can become saints: the Orthodox Church. Unfortunately, despite St. Seraphim's warning of the sinister nature and dreadful consequences of the Ecumenical Movement for Holy Orthodoxy, the Patriarchate of Moscow joined the World Council of Churches at its Third Assembly in New Delhi in 1961 and has been one of its most active members ever since.

-READ St. Seraphim's full address to the 1948 Moscow Pan-Orthodox Congress: http://www.dep.church/downloads/StSeraphimEcumenism.pdf
-READ the book of his life and works:
https://churchsupplies.jordanville.org/saint-seraphim-of-sofia-his-life-teachings-miracles-and-glorification/
-READ a brief account of St. Seraphim's life here:
https://blog.obitel-minsk.com/2021/02/adapt-your-life-to-your-faith-not-the-other-way-around-st-seraphim-sobolev.html
-RESOURCE to help laity write respectful letters to their hierarchs:
https://www.voiceoforthodoxlaity.com/
-FIND an Orthodox parish and monastery near you:
https://orthodoxyinamerica.org/

This recording is an excerpt from "Does the Russian Orthodox Church Need to Participate in the Ecumenical Movement? (Part II/II)":
https://youtu.be/P2w0hvEgE6Q

TEXTS on Freemasonry and Orthodoxy:
-Freemasonry: Official Statement of the Church of Greece (1933):
http://orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/masonry.aspx
-Freemasonry and the Orthodox Church. This article details, among other things, that Ecumenical Patriarchs Meletios (+1935) and Athenagoras (+1972) were Freemasons:
https://orthodoxhistory.org/2023/09/27/freemasonry-and-the-orthodox-church/

VIDEOS on Freemasonry from an Orthodox viewpoint:
-Elder Athanasios Mitilinaios on Revelation
https://youtu.be/u6y0a4kx58s?si=LN1tb5iYaKSAa4hH
-Freemasonry: Today’s Satanic Gnosticism by Fr. Peter Heers (analyzing the teachings of Elder Athanasios Mitilinaios)
https://youtu.be/kUv6jfzRcts?si=uhoR9694xoQSflpU

BOOKS/ARTICLES on Ecclesiology and Ecumenism:
--Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future by Fr. Seraphim Rose
https://www.sainthermanmonastery.com/product-p/orf.htm
--The Orthodox Church and Ecumenism by St. Justin Popovic
https://lazarica.co.uk/bookshop/
--The Missionary Origins of Modern Ecumenism by Fr. Peter Heers
https://uncutmountainpress.com/shop/product/the-missionary-origins-of-modern-ecumenism/
--A Confession of Faith Against Ecumenism (signed by saints, elders, hierarchs, priests, and laity around the world):
https://www.impantokratoros.gr/FA9AF77F.en.aspx
--On Common Prayer with the Heterodox According to the Canons of the Church by Fr. Anastasios Gotsopoulos
https://uncutmountainpress.com/shop/product/on-common-prayer-with-the-heterodox/
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Orthodox Wisdom is dedicated to sharing the writings and lives of the Saints of the Orthodox Church. Glory to Jesus Christ!


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Elder Epiphanios Theodoropoulos (+1989) was a celibate priest who lived his whole life in the world. “He didn’t retreat to Mt. Athos which he loved dearly, but lived in the city of Athens...." Absorb the wisdom of this faithful priest of our times.

0:00 Beginning
0:07 Fasting and Dieting
2:21 Fasting and Name Days
3:02 Fasting and Hospitality

-READ the text here:
https://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2013/11/elder-epiphanios-faces-challenging.html
-FIND an Orthodox parish and monastery near you:
https://orthodoxyinamerica.org/
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Elder Epiphanios teaches:


Fasting has two objectives: the ascetic pursuit of abstinence for the body by limiting nutrient-rich foods, and conformity to the commands of the Church, which is an ascetic pursuit for the soul.



The Elder said that to take care of people is a great virtue, the practice of which cannot be suspended during fasting periods. However, at the table there will necessarily be offered fasting foods. With certain limits they can be better prepared or more delicious if we want to honor someone, but they must of necessity be for fasting.



Nowhere in the Gerontikon does it praise an ascetic or display them as an example because they abolished the fast for the sake of hospitality. What it does mention is that certain holy hermits abolished their personal ascetic fasting, which was much more austere than what the Church required.
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Orthodox Wisdom is dedicated to sharing the writings and lives of the Saints of the Orthodox Church. Glory to Jesus Christ!


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