Written by Greg Pantelidis BSc(Hons)
gregpantelidis@gmail.com
The law of God does not permit overeating, but the world is filled with overeating. The law of God does not permit stealing and love of possessions, but the world is filled with stealing, overpossessing, and love of possessions. The law of God does not permit vanity of the body or vanity of the soul, but the world is filled with vanity of body and vanity of soul. The law of God does not permit idleness and disobedience, but the world is filled with idleness and disobedience to elders. The law of God does not permit fornication and adultery, but the world is filled with lust and unchastity.
Practice perfect continence. Perfect continence of mind. Perfect continence of heart. Perfect continence of speech. Perfect continence of eyes. Perfect continence of ears. Perfect continence of taste. Perfect continence of body.
Let perfect continence be your bride. Perfect continence is true joy.
Pride and incontinence are our two great enemies. Humility and continence are the signs of the truly pious person.
Cursed pride! Cursed incontinence!
Be humble, continent, and charitable, not proud, incontinent, and greedy.
Pride is death, pride is falsehood. Incontinence is death, incontinence is falsehood. Greed is death, greed is falsehood.
Study and practice the Law of Moses. Study and practice the Law of Lord Jesus.
The kingdom of God on earth is the Orthodox Christian Church, the community of the believers in the Holy Trinitarian Lord.
Practice humility, continence, and love, always.
The secular church overeats, steals and overpossesses, lies and reviles, is vain, is disobedient, is unchaste. The Orthodox Christian Church fasts, gives charity, truth-speaks and blesses, is humble, obeys and prays and keeps vigil, keeps chastity.
Addictions and bad habits must be defeated by changing your cyclic routine. You must break with those persons, locations, and activities, which feed the addictions and bad habits.
Natural law is symmetry. (See Gal. 6:7). Nature keeps this law both in physiology and in ethics. Spiritual law is to practice charity. (See Matt. 5:44). Spiritual law forgives, practices good always, loves always, and with the power of faith and gratitude can achieve all things. (See Mark 9:23).
Maintain a canonical cyclic physiology. Maintain a canonical cyclic psychology. Maintain a canonical cyclic routine.
Virtues and good habits give us joy and happiness. Vices and bad habits give us sorrow, guilt, torment, and unhappiness.
The Shekinah has come. The Shekinah has come to the sons and daughters of God, the believers in Lord Jesus.
Grace and Truth have come. Through repentance and the sacraments we receive Grace and walk the path of salvation. (See John 1:17).
Always be just, for the unjust will not inherit the kingdom of God. (See 1 Cor. 6:9).
Which person transgressed the Law of God and saw success and happiness in their life? Transgressing the Law of God is guilt, sorrow, torment, cursedness, unhappiness, failure.
Live the ascetical life: fasting, continence, vigil, prayer, guarding of the mind and heart, charity, silence, reading, truth-speaking and blessing and encouraging, humility, obedience, self-denial, keeping your assigned cyclic typikon, love, service, labor, chastity, Holy Confession, Holy Communion, Holy Water, Holy Oil, faith and trust and hope and love of God, simple and humble dress, decorum, contemplation.
Natural justice is symmetry. Spiritual justice is charity. We must exceed natural justice and practice spiritual justice in order to be saved. (See Matt. 5:20).
(Matt. 19:17): “If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”
Sin is our choice. That is why the responsibility and guilt is ours. Choose justice always, and if you sin repent and confess.
Be just in mind. Be just in heart. Be just in speech. Be just in eyes. Be just in ears. Be just in hands. Be just in feet. Be just in body.
We are saved by a living faith, a faith which keeps the commandments. (See Matt. 19:17).
An Orthodox Christian philosopher must practice his cyclic typikon every day. This typikon includes the essential eating, the essential washings, the essential chores, the essential economics, and the essential work. A philosopher should practice the middle way, avoiding all excess and deficiency.
The aim of our life is to increase in purification, illumination, and deification. Increasing in wealth, glory, and comforts, is not the aim of our life.
Be humble-minded, humble-hearted, humble-tongued, and humble-bodied.
We will soon depart from here leaving behind our wealth, glory, and comforts. What we will take with us is our degree of purification, illumination, and deification.
Never transgress the legal rights and ethical rights of any person. You must respect every right of other persons.
Do nothing that is illegal. Do nothing that is illegal according to civil law. Do nothing that is illegal according to religious law.
The philosophical and theological life is practiced every day through the daily routine and daily typikon. Through the activities of the daily routine virtue and contemplation is practiced. Through the activities of the daily routine we increase in purification, illumination, and deification.
The God of Orthodox Christians is a Trinitarian God, not a Unitarian God. The God of Orthodox Christians is One in essence, but Three in persons. The Trinitarian Lord of Orthodox Christians is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and forever!
The likes, dislikes, and neutralities of other people are their concern. You should not force yourself to conform to the likes, dislikes, and neutralities of other people. Each person is unique and different. You should not try to force unity where there is natural difference. You should seek the persons who have similar likes to yourself.
Ask yourself: Today have I practiced the commandments? Have I repented and confessed my transgressions? Have I forgiven my enemies? Have I loved God and neighbor? Have I prepared for death and the Judgment of God?
We must resolve our faults in this life. In the other life there is no resolution of faults, only judgment and retribution.
Beware of the four horns of the dragon: pride, lust, greed, and gluttony.
You will never defeat you faults unless you throw at them all your fury, stubbornness, rancor, enmity, contradiction, and hatred. From faith in Lord Jesus and repentance you will achieve all these.
Both rich and poor must do good works. The rich can do expensive works but the poor do non-expensive works. Both rich and poor can practice ascetic works.
Persons who believe in their Creator practice humility, chastity, charity, and fasting. Persons who do not believe in their Creator believe in the anti-Creator, the dragon, and practice pride, lust, greed, and gluttony.
Hope in the mercy of God. Only the mercy of God can free us from the passions and grant us salvation.
Be humble in mind, humble in heart, continent in desire, continent in anger, continent in body, humble and continent in speech, loving in manner.
Do you think virtue is yours? Do you think wisdom is yours? Do you think spiritual gifts are yours? Do you think bodily gifts are yours? Nothing we have is ours, all are God’s. Ours are only our wrong choices: wrong thoughts, wrong feelings, wrong words, wrong practices.
It is the mercy of Lord Jesus that effects our purification, illumination, and deification.
Observe your family psychology. Observe your school psychology. Observe your workplace psychology. Observe your community psychology. Observe when these psychologies are corrupted by pride, lust, greed, and gluttony.
Practice the middle way of the cardinal virtues. Avoid the deficiency and excess that arise when you underpractice or overpractice the cardinal virtues. Practice prudence, not folly or cunning. Practice self-restraint, not licence or insensitivity. Practice justice, not deficiency or excess. Practice courage, not cowardice or rashness. Practice love, not hate or overlove. Practice humility, not pride or people-pleasing. Practice patience, not impatience or condescension. Practice self-control, not incontinence or severity.
Hope in the mercy of Lord Jesus. The mercy of Lord Jesus can help you defeat every problem.
Whatever you want to know ask God. Whatever you need ask God. (See Matt. 7:7).
Know the four cardinal virtues of the Old Testament: Prudence, self-restraint, justice, courage. Know the eight cardinal vices of the Old Testament: Folly, cunning, licence, insensitivity, deficiency, excess, cowardice, rashness. Know the four cardinal virtues of the New Testament: Love, humility, patience, self-control. Know the eight cardinal vices of the New Testament: Hate, overlove, pride, people-pleasing, impatience, condescension, incontinence, severity.
Deficient humility is pride. Excess humility is people-pleasing.
Do not be self-guided. Be guided by your spiritual father and your elders in Christ.
Which way of life will you choose: the married life or the unmarried life? The way of virtue or the way of vice? The middle way of the cardinal virtues or the fringe way of the cardinal vices?
Practice self-denial and the mercy of Lord Jesus will grant you every blessing.
Practice the middle way of virtue, not the fringe way of vice.
Practice the middle way of canonical eating, canonical sleeping, canonical possessing, canonical speaking, humility, and chastity.
The life of virtue, wisdom, and spiritual gifts is the life of true happiness.
Instead of God and His gifts we prefer overeating, greed, pride, and lust.
Wherever you are you must keep the Law of Moses and the Law of Lord Jesus.
Are you incontinent and pretending to be continent? Are you greedy and pretending to be charitable? Are you proud and pretending to be humble?
Seek the third, perfect, continence of the mind. Seek the third, perfect, continence of speech. Seek the third, perfect, continence of desire. Seek the third, perfect, continence of anger. Seek the third, perfect, continence of the body.
The virtues and the vices are mutually exclusive. You cannot practice both the virtues and the vices. You practice either one or the other. For example, you cannot be continent if you practice incontinence. You cannot be charitable if you practice greed. You cannot be humble if you practice pride.
You cannot be called humble if you practice under-humility, which is pride, or over-humility, which is people-pleasing.
Are you proud, incontinent, and greedy? You must repent and become humble, continent, and charitable.
Each virtue is the middle way. Above is the vice of overvirtue, and below is the vice of undervirtue. Each virtue appears as a triad of initial or first degree, middle or second degree, and perfect or third degree. Each of these degrees are mutually exclusive. The overvirtue and undervirtue is also divided into a triad. For each virtue we have the first virtue, second virtue, third virtue, the third undervirtue, the second undervirtue, the first undervirtue, the first overvirtue, the second overvirtue, and the third overvirtue. All these triads of undervirtue, virtue, and overvirtue, are mutually exclusive.
We do not understand God’s economy for our life. We must though trust in Him and practice self-denial in the face of problems. As a loving and wise God He cares for us, leading us to salvation. (See 1 Peter 5:7).
Practice self-denial and you will always be happy and content.
Think good always. If you dwell on bad thoughts how are you going to think good thoughts? Thinking good and thinking bad are mutually exclusive. Stop dwelling on bad thoughts and think good. Ignore every bad thought and concentrate on good thoughts.
Are you incontinent in food? Are you incontinent in lust? Are you greedy for possessions? Are you proud? Be continent in food. Be continent in lust. Be charitable in possessions. Be humble.
Practice self-denial of opinion and self-denial of will, and you will be free, happy, and useful to the community of believers.
Do you want to live in a community of cenobites or a community of hesychasts?
Are you attached to food, possessions, glory, or romance? Freedom is detachment from food, possessions, glory, and romance.
The world, and in particular youth, practice natural law: good for good, bad for bad, neutrality for neutrality. The world keeps the inverse of the golden rule: It greets after being greeted, gives are being given, serves after being served, loves after being loved. The world has second place: It greets second, gives second, serves second, loves second. The Orthodox Christian practices the golden rule: Greet and you will be greeted, give and it will be given to you, serve and you will be served, love and you will be loved.
If we were all humble life on earth would be paradise.
Humility is the panacea for all our problems.
Life on earth is a partial hell. A partial hell of material loss, dishonor, and bodily suffering.
Lord God of my virtue. Lord God of my knowledge. Lord God of my spiritual gifts. Lord God of my salvation.
In our every practice the Lord co-practices with us. Without the Lord we cannot practice any good. (See John 15:5).
A ruler must be humble. A ruler who speaks with harshness, discouragement, and mocking, is not a true ruler. A true ruler has humility, meekness, mercy, and love.
There is nothing worse than a harsh, discouraging, and mocking, religious leader.
Regard the need of your fellow persons as your own need. Place yourself in the position of your fellow persons. Treat your fellow persons as yourself. Love your fellow persons as yourself.
Detachment is the mother of love. Detachment from your fellow persons allows you to love and respect them properly. Be detached. Be detached to love and respect. Be detached to help and serve. Be detached to be free, true, and blessed.
With the help of God you can do all things. (See Phil. 4:13).
We only have one life on earth. One life on earth and then the future life of eternity. We must practice the commandments in our one life on earth. If we practice the commandments we will enter into eternal life in heaven, not an eternal life in hell. (See Matt. 19:17).
Do not accept the suggestions of the cursed and unethical demons.
Lord Jesus will judge our thoughts, feelings, words, and practices, from the day of our birth till the day of our death.
Consider what is natural, what is supernatural, and what is subnatural.
What is your cyclic daily routine? Is your cyclic daily routine aimed at increasing in virtue, knowledge, and spiritual gifts?
Are you detached from wealth, glory, and pleasure?
Give food, possessions (including knowledge), glory, and romance, to the person who rightly needs them.
Do you radiate goodness and holiness?
Keep your mind clear. Accept only good thoughts.
Lord Jesus will judge our every wrong thought, wrong feeling, wrong word, and wrong practice.
Be clean in mind. Be clean in heart. Be clean in words. Be clean in eyes. Be clean in ears. Be clean in body.
Have a clear mind. Have a clear heart. Have a clear tongue. Have clear eyes. Have clear ears. Have a clear body.
Do not sow wrong thoughts, wrong feelings, wrong words, or wrong practices. If you sow these you will reap them. (See Gal. 6:7).
Beware of temptation of the mind. Beware of temptation of the heart. Beware of temptation of speech. Beware of temptation of the eyes. Beware of temptation of the ears. Beware of temptation of the body.
When a brother or sister speaks harshly to you or in any way causes you suffering see it as due to temptation. Bear the suffering with self-reproach, patience, humility, and good thought, knowing that it is due to temptation.
Never judge or belittle a person who sins. See the temptation that has tempted the person and pray for them.
See the faults in other persons as due to temptation. Never judge their fault.
Be merciful to those who are being tempted. Help them as much as you can.
