Quote of the Day: St. Raphael of Lesbos

Have faith that is as unshakable as a rock, so that nothing frightens you...the person who has deep faith within himself, fixes his attention on the good path, and seeks to improve the condition of his soul and to adapt his thought to the good is happy... The happiness of man consists in faith in God and in good acts which are done with love.

Elder Paisius the Athonite on Faith

"I remember an elderly monk at Esphigmenou Monastery on Mount Athos who was so simple that he thought "Ascension" was the name of a woman saint. He prayed to her on his prayer rope, "Saint of God, intercede for us!" Once, he had to feed a sick brother in the infirmary and had nothing to offer him. He immediately went down the stairs, opened a window overlooking the sea, stretched his arms out and said, "Ascension, my Saint, give me a little fish for the brother!" And right away, as if by miracle, a big fish jumped out of the sea and into his hands. The others who saw him were astonished, but he simply looked at them smiling, as if he were saying, 'What's so strange about what you've just seen?' And then look at us. We may know everything about the life and martyrdom of the Saints, or about when and how the Ascension took place, and yet we cannot even catch a tiny little fish! These are the strange and paradoxical things of the spiritual life, which the reasoning of those intellectuals that are centered on themselves and not on God cannot explain..."

I'm indebted to another's blog for this excerpt from Elder Paisius' Spiritual Counsels.

Interview on Yuriy Gagarin's Faith

In honor of today's celebration of Yuriy Gagarin and the first manned spaceflight I'd like to bring this interview to your attention. Enjoy!

Quote of the Day: St. Ignatius of Antioch

The beginning is faith, and the end is love. Now these two, being inseparably connected together, are of God, while all other things which are requisite for a holy life follow after them.

Quote of the Day: St. Ephraim of Syria

Blessed is the person who has consented to become the close friend of faith and of prayer: he lives in single-mindedness and makes prayer and faith stop by with him. Prayer that rises up in someone's heart serves to open up for us the door of heaven: that person stands in converse with the Divinity and gives pleasure to the Son of God.