We don't always trust that God believes in us; and therefore we are not always able to believe in ourselves.
Only he can teach and lead another who is himself a student and novice.
The neighbor, in the understanding of the Gospel, is the one who needs us.
... demandingness in love is reflected, first of all, in inspiring a loved one, in assuring him that he is infinitely significant and valuable, that he has everything necessary to grow into a greater measure of humanity.
When you are praised, do two things. First: remember why you are praised, and try to become one. And secondly, never try to dissuade people, because the more you dissuade, the more more people they will see humility in you, which you don’t have at all...
We are all at the mercy of time, but through our own fault, time has nothing to do with it. The fact that time flows and the fact that we are in a hurry to get somewhere are two completely different things. Hurry is internal state; to act accurately, accurately, quickly - this is a completely different matter.
Sometimes a small drop of cordiality, one warm word, one thoughtful gesture can transform the life of a person who would otherwise have to cope with their life alone.
Everything in life is mercy, and everything in life can be joy if you equally perceive with a joyful heart what is given and what is taken away.
We must remember that every person we meet during our lives, even by chance, even while on the subway, on a bus, on the street, at whom we looked with sympathy, with seriousness, with purity, without even saying a word, can in an instant receive hope and strength to live.
There are people who go through years without being recognized by anyone, go through years as if they do not exist for anyone. And suddenly they found themselves in the face of a person unknown to them, who looked at them with depth, for whom this person, rejected, forgotten, non-existent, exists. And this is the beginning of a new life. We must remember this.I suggest you now: sit in church silently for half an hour, without talking to each other, face to face with yourself, and ask yourself the question: is what was just said fair? Am I standing in my way? Am I not casting my shadow on everything that is bathed in the sun around me? Haven’t I lived my whole life, reducing all its scope and depth only to myself, thinking about what makes me happy, what’s scary for me, what’s useful to me, what I need? And if so, can’t I find in my circle, in the circle of my interests and people, several people or several objects on which I could, as an exercise, with effort, against all my habits, concentrate my gaze and attention so that put them at the center of my life? And ask yourself: who can I do good to? Who can I serve to benefit from the experience of my life - both the good and the bad experiences of life?
I once had to stand waiting for a taxi near the Ukraine Hotel. A young man came up to me and said:
“Judging by your dress, are you a believer, a priest?” I answered: “Yes.”
- “But I don’t believe in God...” I looked at him and said: “It’s a shame!”
- “How will you prove God to me?”
- “What kind of proof do you need?”
- “But here: show me your God in the palm of your hand, and I will believe in Him...”
He extended his hand, and at that moment I saw that he had a wedding ring. I tell him: “Are you married?”
- "Married"
- "Do you have children?"
- “And there are children”
- “Do you love your wife?”
- “Why, I love you”
- “Do you like children?”
- "Yes"
- “But I don’t believe in this!”
- “What do you mean: I don’t believe it? I'm telling you..."
- “Yes, but I still don’t believe it. Now put your love in my palm, I’ll look at it and believe it...”
“I remember one incident that shocked me. There was a priest who came to our small church in Paris, who never served because he was a heavy drinker. He came to the temple with deep repentance, with a contrite heart, and I put him in a corner and stood in front of him so that if he fell, he would fall on me and no one would notice. And then, at some point during German occupation, our parish priest was arrested, and he was replaced by the priest who usually could not serve because he was not sober. Then he came to his senses and began to serve; and served with tears, with a depth that shook our souls. I once came to him for confession, opened my soul to him, and he stood next to me and cried over me - not with drunken tears, but cried with tears of compassion and understanding. When I finished my confession, he said to me: “You know what kind of person I am; I am not worthy to hear your confession or give you advice. But you are young, you have your whole life ahead of you, come to your senses, don’t become what I became, and for this I will tell you what Christ would have told you in the Gospel...” And he quoted me several words of the Savior Christ. This was one of the most amazing confessions I have ever experienced. This man had reached the bottom in his repentance and from these depths could give birth to repentance in me, could give advice - advice taken from his own tragic life, but sanctified by the words and teachings of Christ...”
“The Lord sets before us an inexorable demand of faith: stop feeling sorry for yourself, stop thinking only about yourself, stop focusing on your grief, life lives on, life is bottomless, life is victorious, life has not stopped even now for us on earth, who are heading towards our death - and could go to her with such bright hope, with such a joyful trembling of expectation, not for those who finally entered the great peace of the Lord through the door of death.”
“It is given to us, if only we want it with a sincere heart, if only we make a creative and, sometimes, crucifixious effort, to bring back to life people who have died for this life, people who have lost hope and continue to exist, but no longer live , people who have lost faith in God, faith in other people, faith in themselves, and who live in darkness and despair..."
“When I was making a living as a doctor, my mother and I decided never to spend more on ourselves than we needed for shelter and food, because we believed (I still think so) that everything spent beyond that was stolen from someone.” -someone whose need is greater than yours. This does not darken existence, it brings joy to share, give and receive. But I have a feeling that as long as there is at least one hungry person, too much joy, too much comfort is theft...”
“The experience of my childhood told me that life is cruel, rude, heartless, that man is a wolf to another and the cause of suffering, that only a very few, those closest to you, stick together and do not pose a danger to you. As a teenager, I knew that everyone around me was a threat. To survive, you have to fight, win; to emerge victorious, you must fight back with all your might... When I discovered God - and I found Him through the Gospel - the first thing that struck me was that for this God everyone is significant, that He does not divide people, that He is not God good against evil, not the God of believers against unbelievers, not the God of some against others. Each person exists for Him as an individual, full of content and values. And since I discovered such a God, my attitude towards everyone around me should have become the same.”
“The first thing we must learn is to accept our whole life: all its circumstances, all the people who entered into it - sometimes so painfully - accept, and not reject. Until we accept our life, all its contents without a trace, as from the hand of God, we will not be able to free ourselves from internal anxiety, from internal captivity and from internal protest.”
A living heart must be cultivated in oneself with great early years; we must take care that the heart remains responsive, despite the fact that responsiveness brings with it not only the joy of communication, but also the pain of communication; and not only communication, but also the pain of separation, abandonment and rejection. We would all be glad to have a sensitive and joyful heart, but we are afraid that our heart remains sensitive when we pay for this sensitivity with pain, which we might not otherwise experience. And here it takes a lot of courage, a lot of determination to say: let my heart, if necessary, be torn by pain, but I will not close it
Loving always costs a lot; because to truly love means to treat another in such a way that your life is no longer dear to you - his life is dear, his soul is dear, his destiny is dear. To love means to enter into such a relationship with at least one person that you don’t remember yourself. The Lord speaks about this: deny yourself; love so much that you no longer remember yourself, so that you can live looking at another.
It is not the constant thought of one’s sins, but the vision of God’s holiness that allows the saints to recognize their sinfulness.
When we look at ourselves without the fragrant background of God's presence, sins and virtues seem to be something small and, in some sense, insignificant; Only against the background of the Divine presence do they appear in all relief and acquire all their depth and tragedy.
The main obstacle that stands in the way of educating the heart is our fear of suffering, of heartache, before spiritual tragedy. We are afraid of suffering, and therefore we narrow and protect our hearts. We are afraid to look and see; we are afraid to listen and hear; we are afraid to see a person in his suffering and hear the cry of his soul. And so we close. And, closing ourselves off, we become narrower and narrower, and become prisoners of this closedness of ours.
Ask and...Many of our prayers are petitionary prayers, and people tend to think that asking is the lowest level of prayer; then comes thanksgiving, then doxology. In fact, gratitude and praise are expressions of less deep relationships. At our level of half-faith, it is easier to praise or thank God than to trust Him enough to ask Him for something in faith. Even semi-believing people can turn to God with gratitude when something pleasant happens to them; and there are moments of elation when everyone is able to sing to God. But it is much more difficult to have such undivided faith as to ask God with all your heart and all your mind with complete trust. We should not look down on petitionary prayers, because the ability to offer them is a test of the reality of our faith.
While we are in ignorance, nothing is asked of us, but as soon as we know something, we are responsible for how we use our knowledge. It may be given to us as a gift, but we are responsible for every particle of truth that we have learned, and once it becomes our own, we cannot leave it inactive, but must manifest it in our behavior. And in this sense, we are required to answer for every truth that we understand.
“Thy will be done” Thy will be done - not as an alien will, not as a strong will and capable of breaking us, but as a will with which we have become completely in agreement. And we must, pronouncing these words, accept everything that is connected with the state of sonship with God, with the state of the members of a single body. Just as the Son of God came into the world to die for the salvation of the world, so we are chosen for the same thing; and at a price, maybe own life we must bring peace around us and plant the Kingdom.
Vladyka Anthony had an incredible gift of speech. Looking for the brightest places in his conversations and sermons is a thankless task, because every letter, every sound in his words is not accidental, suffered through suffering and deeply thought out. Our selection, therefore, is not in any way an attempt to find the best among what Metropolitan Anthony said. These are just some of his words, which, perhaps, will become a reason for someone to new Meeting with the Lord.
1. We do not always trust that God believes in us; and therefore we are not always able to believe in ourselves. ("Man Before God")
2.Only he can teach and lead another who is himself a student and novice. ("Man Before God")
3. The neighbor, in the understanding of the Gospel, is the one who needs us. ("The Beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God")
4.…demandingness in love is reflected, first of all, in inspiring a loved one, in order to assure him that he is infinitely significant and valuable, that he has everything necessary to grow into a greater measure of humanity. ("Man Before God")
5. The job of a shepherd is to look at his flock, to look prayerfully, to look humbly, and to help them become what they are called by God. ("Shepherding")
6. When you are praised, do two things. First: remember why you are praised, and try to become one. And secondly, never try to dissuade people, because the more you dissuade, the more people will see in you humility, which you don’t have at all... (“Pastoring”)
7. Ask yourself how the Gospel judges you. The Gospel does not condemn me, it calls me to eternal life. How do I answer this call to the eternal life of the gospel, and what prevents me from answering it? ("Shepherding")
8. We are all at the mercy of time, but through our own fault, time has nothing to do with it. The fact that time flows and the fact that we are in a hurry to get somewhere are two completely different things. Hurrying is an internal state; to act accurately, accurately, quickly - this is a completely different matter. ("Shepherding")
9. Haste lies in the fact that a person wants to be half an inch in front of himself: not where he is, but always a little ahead. And while a person lives like this, he will not pray, because the person who is not here cannot pray, and the one who is here does not pray. (“Pastoration”)
10. We forget that there is sin in our lives, we become insensitive to it, we forget it easily, we grieve for it little. And at the same time, this is the only misfortune of human life. (“Sermons”)
11. Sin kills. He kills our soul, making it insensitive and callous, he kills our relationship with God and with people; he kills our conscience and life in others, he kills Christ on the Cross. ("Sermons")
12. Eternity does not mean that sometime after death we will live endlessly. Eternity is our communion with God. ("The Beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God")
13. The miracle lies in the fact that God, through human faith, restores the harmony that previously existed and was disrupted by human malice, madness, and sin. ("The beginning of the Gospel...")
14. Repentance is to come to your senses, make a decision and act accordingly. Crying is not enough Furthermore- fruitless. ("The beginning of the Gospel...")
15.Love always costs a lot; because to truly love means to treat another in such a way that your life is no longer dear to you - his life is dear, his soul is dear, his destiny is dear. ("Sermons")
16. Not only is dying difficult, living is difficult. Sometimes living is more difficult than dying, because it means dying day after day. Sometimes it's easier to die at once. ("Sermons")
17. Sin kills everything in life - and we least of all feel it as death. We cry about everything, we lament about everything, we grieve about everything, except that we are dying alive, that gradually an impenetrable ring of alienation is forming around us, both from the sinner, and from the righteous, and from God, that this ring cannot be opened even by love others, because we are the more ashamed and afraid the more we are loved... (“Sermons”)
18. Sometimes a small drop of warmth, one warm word, one attentive gesture can transform the life of a person who would otherwise have to cope with his life alone (Conversation on the Parable of the Good Samaritan)
19.Who is our neighbor? Who is the one for whose sake I must distract myself from the deepest experiences of the heart, from the highest interests of the mind, from all the best things that I experience? - then Christ’s answer is direct and simple: Everyone! Anyone who is in need, on any level; actually simple level food and shelter, tenderness and warmth, attention and friendship. (“Discourse on the Parable of the Good Samaritan”)
20. Everything in life is mercy, and everything in life can be joy if you equally perceive with a joyful heart what is given and what is taken away. (“Sermons”).
21. We must remember that every person we meet during our life, even by chance, even while on the subway, on a bus, on the street, at whom we looked with sympathy, with seriousness, with purity, without even saying a word , can receive hope and strength to live in an instant.
There are people who go through years without being recognized by anyone, go through years as if they do not exist for anyone. And suddenly they found themselves in the face of a person unknown to them, who looked at them with depth, for whom this person, rejected, forgotten, non-existent, exists. And this is the beginning of a new life. We must remember this.
22. I suggest you now: sit in church silently for half an hour, without talking to each other, face to face with yourself, and ask yourself the question: is what was just said fair? Am I standing in my way? Am I not casting my shadow on everything that is bathed in the sun around me? Haven’t I lived my whole life, reducing all its scope and depth only to myself, thinking about what makes me happy, what’s scary for me, what’s useful to me, what I need? And if so, can’t I find in my circle, in the circle of my interests and people, several people or several objects on which I could, as an exercise, with effort, against all my habits, concentrate my gaze and attention so that put them at the center of my life? And ask yourself: who can I do good to? Who can I serve to benefit from the experience of my life—both the good and the bad experiences of life? (“Proceedings”)
23.How can you begin to pray in the face of the tomb with the words Blessed is our God? How much faith, trust, reverence for God, acceptance of His ways, humility - or at least the will to all this - is needed to bless God at the moment when everything dear to us is taken away from us... This is the moment of the ultimate, perhaps, sobriety of Orthodox worship. Bless the Lord - because the center is in Him, not in you, not even in that loved one who now lies dead in front of you. This man gathered us not by his death, but by his life, and brought us before the face of God to contemplate the ways of God, the mysteries of God, to worship in horror and reverence before God, who remains even in these terrible moments the God of love.
24. When we try to understand what importance God Himself attaches to man, we see that we are bought at a price, that the price of man in the eyes of God is all life and all death, tragic death His Only Begotten Son on the cross. This is how God thinks of man - as His friend, created by Him so that he would share eternity with Him.
25.Every person is an icon that needs to be restored in order to see the Face of God.
26.I once had to stand waiting for a taxi near the Ukraine Hotel. A young man came up to me and said: “Judging by your dress, are you a believer, a priest?” I answered: “Yes.” - “But I don’t believe in God...” I looked at him and said: “It’s a shame!” - “How will you prove God to me?” - “What kind of proof do you need?” - “And here: show me your God in the palm of your hand, and I will believe in Him...” He extended his hand, and at that moment I saw that he had a wedding ring. I tell him: “Are you married?” - “Married” - “Are there any children?” - “And there are children” - “Do you love your wife?” - “Well, I love you” - “Do you like children?” - “Yes” - “But I don’t believe in it!” - “What do you mean: I don’t believe it? I’m telling you...” - “Yes, but I still don’t believe it. Now put your love in the palm of my hand, I’ll look at it and believe it...” He thought: “Yes, I didn’t look at love from this point of view!...”
Prepared by Maria Khorkova
We don't always trust that God believes in us; and therefore we are not always able to believe in ourselves. ("Man Before God")
Only he can teach and lead another who is himself a student and novice. ("Man Before God")
The neighbor, in the understanding of the Gospel, is the one who needs us. ("The Beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God")
... demandingness in love is reflected, first of all, in inspiring a loved one, in assuring him that he is infinitely significant and valuable, that he has everything necessary to grow into a greater measure of humanity. ("Man Before God")
The job of a shepherd is to look at his flock, to look prayerfully, to look humbly, and to help them become what they are called by God. ("Shepherding")
When you are praised, do two things. First: remember why you are praised, and try to become one. And secondly, never try to dissuade people, because the more you dissuade, the more people will see in you humility, which you don’t have at all... (“Pastoring”)
Question how the Gospel judges you. The Gospel does not condemn me, it calls me to eternal life. How do I answer this call to the eternal life of the gospel, and what prevents me from answering it? ("Shepherding")
We are all at the mercy of time, but through our own fault, time has nothing to do with it. The fact that time flows and the fact that we are in a hurry to get somewhere are two completely different things. Hurrying is an internal state; to act accurately, accurately, quickly - this is a completely different matter. ("Shepherding")
Haste lies in the fact that a person wants to be half an inch in front of himself: not where he is, but always a little ahead. And while a person lives like this, he will not pray, because the person who is not here cannot pray, and the one who is here does not pray. (“Pastoration”)
We forget that there is sin in our lives, we become insensitive to it, we forget it easily, we grieve for it little. And at the same time, this is the only misfortune of human life. (“Sermons”)
Sin kills. He kills our soul, making it insensitive and callous, he kills our relationship with God and with people; he kills our conscience and life in others, he kills Christ on the Cross. ("Sermons")
Eternity does not mean that sometime after death we will live endlessly. Eternity is our communion with God. ("The Beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God")
The miracle lies in the fact that God, through human faith, restores the harmony that previously existed and was disrupted by human malice, madness, and sin. ("The beginning of the Gospel...")
Repentance is about coming to your senses, making a decision, and acting accordingly. Crying is not enough, moreover, it is fruitless. ("The beginning of the Gospel...")
Loving always costs a lot; because to truly love means to treat another in such a way that your life is no longer dear to you - his life is dear, his soul is dear, his destiny is dear. ("Sermons")
Not only is dying difficult, living is difficult. Sometimes living is more difficult than dying, because it means dying day after day. Sometimes it's easier to die at once. ("Sermons")
Sin kills everything in life - and we least of all feel it as death. We cry about everything, we lament about everything, we grieve about everything, except that we are dying alive, that gradually an impenetrable ring of alienation is forming around us, both from the sinner, and from the righteous, and from God, that this ring cannot be opened even by love others, because we are the more ashamed and afraid the more we are loved... (“Sermons”)
Sometimes a small drop of warmth, one warm word, one attentive gesture can transform the life of a person who would otherwise have to cope with his life alone (Conversation on the Parable of the Good Samaritan)
Who is our neighbor? Who is the one for whose sake I must distract myself from the deepest experiences of the heart, from the highest interests of the mind, from all the best things that I experience? – then Christ’s answer is direct and simple: Everyone! Anyone who is in need, on any level; at the simplest level of food and shelter, tenderness and warmth, attention and friendship. (“Discourse on the Parable of the Good Samaritan”)
Everything in life is mercy, and everything in life can be joy if you equally perceive with a joyful heart what is given and what is taken away. (“Sermons”).
We must remember that every person we meet during our lives, even by chance, even while on the subway, on a bus, on the street, at whom we looked with sympathy, with seriousness, with purity, without even saying a word, can in an instant receive hope and strength to live.
There are people who go through years without being recognized by anyone, go through years as if they do not exist for anyone. And suddenly they found themselves in the face of a person unknown to them, who looked at them with depth, for whom this person, rejected, forgotten, non-existent, exists. And this is the beginning of a new life. We must remember this.
With saiI suggest you now: sit in church silently for half an hour, without talking to each other, face to face with yourself, and ask yourself the question: is what was just said fair? Am I standing in my way? Am I not casting my shadow on everything that is bathed in the sun around me? Haven’t I lived my whole life, reducing all its scope and depth only to myself, thinking about what makes me happy, what’s scary for me, what’s useful to me, what I need? And if so, can’t I find in my circle, in the circle of my interests and people, several people or several objects on which I could, as an exercise, with effort, against all my habits, concentrate my gaze and attention so that put them at the center of my life? And ask yourself: who can I do good to? Who can I serve to benefit from the experience of my life - both the good and the bad experiences of life? (“Proceedings”)
How can you begin to pray in the face of the tomb with the words Blessed is our God? How much faith, trust, reverence for God, acceptance of His ways, humility - or at least the will to all this - is needed to bless God at the moment when everything dear to us is taken away from us... This is the moment of the ultimate, perhaps, sobriety of Orthodox worship. Bless the Lord - because the center is in Him, not in you, not even in that loved one who now lies dead in front of you. This man gathered us not by his death, but by his life, and brought us before the face of God to contemplate the ways of God, the mysteries of God, to worship in horror and reverence before God, who remains even in these terrible moments the God of love.
When we try to understand what importance God Himself attaches to man, we see that we are bought at a high price, that the price of man in the eyes of God is all life and all death, the tragic death of His Only Begotten Son on the cross. This is how God thinks of man - as His friend, created by Him so that he would share eternity with Him.
Each person is an icon that needs to be restored in order to see the Face of God.
I once had to stand waiting for a taxi near the Ukraine Hotel. A young man came up to me and said: “Judging by your dress, are you a believer, a priest?” I answered: “Yes.” - “But I don’t believe in God...” I looked at him and said: “It’s a shame!” - “How will you prove God to me?” - “What kind of proof do you need?” - “And here: show me your God in the palm of your hand, and I will believe in Him...” He extended his hand, and at that moment I saw that he had a wedding ring. I tell him: “Are you married?” - “Married” - “Are there any children?” - “And there are children” - “Do you love your wife?” - “Well, I love you” - “Do you like children?” - “Yes” - “But I don’t believe in it!” - “What do you mean: I don’t believe it? I’m telling you...” - “Yes, but I still don’t believe it. Now put your love in the palm of my hand, I’ll look at it and believe it...” He thought: “Yes, I didn’t look at love from this point of view!...”
Prepared by Maria Khorkova