Joel

Orthodox Inquirer ☦️ | Christ is Risen! | occasional anime enjoyer || 🇵🇷

[Father Spyridon Bailey @Fatherspyridon]

"Do you desire to become a Saint? Be severe to yourself but kind to others." — St. John Chrysostom

[Alexei @alexei_karamazo]

"Say to the Lord; 'Gather my scattered mind, O Lord and humble my hardened heart with fear of Thee, and have mercy on me!' For without Divine help we are powerless; we cannot even deal with flies, much less invisible enemies."
St Anthony of Optina

[Thaddeus Patrick ☦️ @thaddeusthought]

"Remember that not a single word is lost during prayer, if you say it from your heart; God hears each word, and weighs it in a balance... The Lord responds to every desire of the heart, expressed in words or unexpressed."

St. John of Kronstadt

[Joel @ClassicalJo]

@the_primuspilus @Nicholai_Korea My other comment should be of interest to you then.

[Joel @ClassicalJo]

@Nicholai_Korea Check out @pept_aura if you’re interested you could purchase gray market peptides directly through them. Another option would be @rorynotsorry. Highly recommend you dive into his website and substack.

[Fr. Michael Lillie @FrLillie]

When you feel overwhelmed call upon God saying:

Almighty God, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, come to my help and deliver me from this difficulty that besets me. I believe Lord, that all trials of life are under Thy care and that all things work for the good of those who love Thee. Take away from me fear, anxiety and distress. Help me to face and endure my difficulty with faith, courage and wisdom. Grant that this trial may bring me closer to Thee for Thou are my rock and refuge, my comfort and hope, my delight and joy. I trust in Thy love and compassion. Blessed is Thy name, of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.

[Jonah In Wales 🦊 @JonahInWales]

🙏🏻☦️

[Fr. Daniel☦️ @Fragbaza]

“When a man tries to uproot a passion in his heart, he stops, and the devil pulls him down; but God, seeing his struggle, sends him grace. It also happened to me in my youth, struggling against a passion, and although I called upon the name of the Lord, I always fell, coming to believe that I would never gain virtue. This is how the enemy works: bringing despair and making you think you are not progressing when in reality you are improving. We don't see how many we struggle today and how many tomorrow; we say we will not make mistakes, but we fall again, perhaps worse, and then we panic. The devil gathers more temptations and troubles us with thoughts to tire us and throw us into despair, wanting to lose courage. If we could see the invisible struggle, we would understand that it is not in vain. The man humbles himself, prays, and perseveres, and God, seeing the weakness, gives him grace; and so, even being weak, by grace he wins. Therefore, do not abandon the struggle and do not be afraid of opposition, for this is a sign that the passion is beginning to weaken.

St. Paisios of Mount Athos

[Thaddeus Patrick ☦️ @thaddeusthought]

☦️☦️☦️☦️☦️☦️☦️☦️☦️☦️

[Jonah In Wales 🦊 @JonahInWales]

🙏🏻☦️

[Amy @amytheartist]

“Do not be afraid of difficulties. Through them, God is shaping your soul.”
- St. Paisios the Athonite

[Man of Myth @Mythos_Man]

“God provides the wind, man must raise the sails.”

— Saint Augustine of Hippo

[Iustinian ☦︎ @Iustinica59]

"God does not interfere in our lives but waits for us to ask Him to help us, for He respects our freedom."
- St. Paisios the Athonite

[B @AngloVarangian]

The passion of lust wars against everyone, and at the toll-houses the demon of lust will boast before all the princes of darkness that he provided hell with more spoils than all the rest. Be patient, and emplore Divine help.
- Saint Anatoly of Optina, living without hypocrisy, pg. 5

[Thaddeus Patrick ☦️ @thaddeusthought]

+ THE NATIVITY +

Yes, Christ was Incarnated so he could die for our sins, but that is not the primary reason (as I was taught growing up). The Fathers tell us that, theoretically, had man not fallen, Christ would have become a man.

The reason is because man was made for union with God, to be "partakers in the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4). We were made to be intimately close to our God, to be His friend, to "know" Him on a level even deeper than a husband and wife "know" each other. Some think it strange and crass to see intimacy with God compared to sexual intimacy, but this is backwards, because sexual intimacy is a lower version of this deep intimacy with God. An icon.

But man only understands what it means to be man, like how a cassette player cannot play CDs. In order for a cassette player to participate in the contents of a CD, that music would have to be transferred to a cassette. Similarly, man only understands what it means to be God when he knows God as a man like himself. God brings divinity down to man's level as the Godman, so that man can participate upwards in divinity, receiving Godhood not by nature, but as an inheritance, shared by the Eldest Brother, Christ our Lord. "True manhood lies only in God-manhood; and no other manhood exists under heaven" (St. Justin Popovich).

Today is the death of loneliness, not just because Christ slays the sin and pride that produce selfishness and isolating tendencies, but because He fills us with the joy and power of knowing Him, and thus of understanding all men and all of Creation.

Truly, the mysteries of the works of our Lord and His love for us are bottomless wells of treasures for those who, like the Theotokos, ponder all of these things in their hearts.

CHRIST IS BORN!

[Michael Boegl @michaelboegl]

the art of framing