Tag: Monasticism

The Saints and the animals: “Pacify yourself and heaven and earth will be pacified for you” (Abba Isaac) – Part 1

The relationship of men towards animals perhaps should be presented under the prism of the creation of the world. We specifically read in Genesis, “and God created the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the animals after their kind and all that creep on the earth after their kind and God saw that it was good (Gen 1:25).  Continue reading “The Saints and the animals: “Pacify yourself and heaven and earth will be pacified for you” (Abba Isaac) – Part 1″ →

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Fasting from Iniquities and Foods (Part 2)

DESIGNATED DAYS FOR FASTING

The period of time before the celebration of Holy Week of the Christian Church was designated as a time of fasting in imitation of the fasting of the Lord Jesus Christ before He began His official mission. This period of time has been designated for the Christian as one of utmost dedication to the principles of Christian life and for repentance, forgiveness and absolution of sins. This period is known as the Great Lent (Tessarakoste, Quadragesimal, forty days). It is the time when the pious Christian humbly prepares himself for the commemoration of Christ’s Resurrection with more zeal in prayers, alms-giving and fastings from sins and foods. During the Great Lent special services and prayers are observed by the individual Christian and the corporate Church.
For the commemoration of the fasting of Jesus Christ, the Christian is directed to abstain from certain foods. Canon 69 of the Apostles determined this period of fasting officially

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The holy anarchists

As of the 4th century A.D., the desert lands of Egypt saw the beginning of the longest–living anarchic society of all time: that of the Christian anachorites. These were people who had chosen to live there, in order to find the tranquility that was necessary for their praying. Comparatively speaking: when we want to listen very attentively to some very subtle music, we usually shut doors and windows and isolate ourselves in our quietest corner (according to fr. Sophrony of Essex). The same applies when you want to hear the voice of God – you isolate yourself in the quietest place you can find. You don’t do it out of spite or aversion to the world, or to your body or to the joys of life etc.. This has been made clear innumerable times in the history of Christianity; quite simply, the quietest place on earth that enables one to hear is the desert.

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