Written by Greg Pantelidis BSc(Hons)
gregpantelidis@gmail.com
What has value is virtue, wisdom, and spiritual gifts. Wealth, glory, and pleasure pass, but virtue, wisdom, and spiritual gifts last.
Practice of virtue frees us from idleness, sorrow, despondency, and lethargy.
The dragon does not know which seed of his will take root in us. At the front line he sows the seeds of overeating, overpossessing, vanity of the soul, vanity of the body, disobedience, and lust. From these six seeds arise all other vices.
People in the world compete for food, possessions (including knowledge), glory, and romance. An Orthodox Christian has stopped competing for these things, and instead practices fasting, charity, humility, non-glory, obedience, and chastity.
A type of Messiah is he who can end wars and disputes over food, possessions (including knowledge), glory, and romance.
Faith and obedience give birth to every virtue.
Virtue, knowledge, and spiritual gifts are not ours, but gifts of the Lord.
Faith, obedience, and continuous practice, will make us perfect in virtue, knowledge, and spiritual gifts.
The Lord wishes us all to go to the top in virtue, wisdom, and spiritual gifts. (See Matt. 5:48).
Do not be negligent but practice virtue continuously.
Are you crucified to sin? Are you devoted to a life of faith, obedience, and the practice of gospel virtue?
Wherever you are practice the middle way of virtue.
Live a simple, humble, and obedient life, and you will be happy, peaceful, and Comforted.
Do your spiritual work diligently.
To bear the fruit of the Spirit what is needed is faith, humility, and obedience. (See Gal. 5:22).
Education and Power will change the world. Power comes from the sacraments of the Orthodox Christian Church.
Salvation comes from a living faith, a faith which keeps the commandments. (See James 2:22).
We have so much departed from the canonical life that we view a true Orthodox Christian as a deluded person! Woe to our error!
When the majority of people begin to value the spiritual and not the material, then will the world change and wars and disputes diminish.
If you let go of ego, grace will freely flow, leading you to salvation. (See Matt. 16:24).
Get to work! Practice gospel virtue!
Always take the last place and you will be happy and Comforted.
Do not meditate on lawless thoughts. Meditate only on lawful thoughts.
The root cause of all sin is vanity of the mind, or what we may call exaltation of the mind, or conceit and presumption. This illness forgets that all good thoughts are gifts of God and so leads to ego.
Just rulers are true rulers. Unjust rulers are false rulers. Unjust rulers are tyrants and oppressors. May God give us just rulers, since they are the true rulers.
The Kingdom of the Holy, the Orthodox Christian Church, contains the power of God and the wisdom of God. To partake of the power and wisdom of God you must be a living, that is active, member of the Kingdom of the Holy, the Orthodox Christian Church.
Allow the flow of the Shekinah, the Holy Spirit. Let go of ego, and the Shekinah will flow.
Allow the living water to flow! (See John 4:10).
Do your spiritual accounting well. Consider your debits, which are your wrong thoughts, wrong feelings, wrong words, and wrong practices. Seek to repent, confess, and correct these. Consider your credits, which are your right thoughts, right feelings, right words, and right practices. Seek to increase these. On Judgment Day you must give an account of your credits and debits.
Persons are divided into three groups: the godly, the ungodly aggressive, and the ungodly non-aggressive.
The aim of the Orthodox Christian life is to bear the fruit of the Spirit. Having the fruits of the Spirit, that is the virtues, we become like the Lord Jesus. Only the kin of Lord Jesus will inherit eternal life.
Because virtue is a fruit of the Spirit, every person must be devoted to the Lord and to the Orthodox Christian sacraments to bear the fruit of virtue.
Grace comes to us when we are humble, simple, obedient, and have good thoughts. Obedience is what generates humility, simplicity, and good thoughts.
Be just in food, possessions (including knowledge), glory, and romance. Remember that the unjust will not inherit eternal life. (See 1 Cor. 6:9).
A true ruler cares for his citizens. For young and old, for rich and poor. A true ruler strives that all citizens receive a good general, religious, and vocational education. A true ruler strives that all have a good work position and income, and a good standard of living. A true ruler strives that all citizens progress in virtue, wisdom, and spiritual gifts.
Be still and allow the flow of grace, ideas, virtue, wisdom, and spiritual gifts.
There are three types of person: the godly, the aggressive ungodly, and the non-aggressive ungodly. We must do good and love all three types. Our kin though, are the godly.
Be a good accountant of your thoughts, feelings, words, and practices. Always have right thoughts, right feelings, right words, and right practices. Be a stranger to wrong thoughts, wrong feelings, wrong words, and wrong practices.
See every day as special. Everyday resolve to increase in gospel virtue, gospel wisdom, and spiritual gifts. Everyday is a new opportunity to practice spiritual law. Everyday you must increase your devotion to Lord Jesus. Forgive, give, serve, love, enjoy!
Practice gospel virtue in the home, in the school, in the workplace, in all social places. When leaders of the home, the school, the workplace, the social place, are practitioners of gospel virtue, then will gospel virtue increase.
Lord Jesus respects our choice. We can choose to follow Him or can choose to not follow Him. Only those who follow Him can be saved. (See Matt. 16:24).
In our life we experience tyranny. The tyranny may come from our parents, our siblings, our spouses, our employers, or our social groups.
When you encounter another person, a man or woman, remember that you are meeting a special person, a king or queen of the earth. Show them respect and love for they are a king or queen of the earth.
The less you require the happier you are.
Live a life of right thoughts. Reject wrong thoughts when they appear.
Refer your ideas to your spiritual father for testing. Never accept untested ideas. (See 1 Thess. 5:21).
Always seek to raise up your fallen brethren. We must pray for and help the fallen, that the Lord may raise them up. (See James 5:15).
(1 John 1:10): “Whoever does not practice justice is not of God.”
Be just always.
Humility means last place, not first place. Humility means few things, not many things. Humility means no showing, not public showing. Humility means seeking advice, not being self-guided. Humility means ranking lowest, not ranking highest.
(Saint Ephraim the Syrian): “Woe to that person who trusts in his own strength and astuteness, and does not have all his hope in God, for only from Him is strength and virtue given.”
Six are the primary vices: Unbelief, overeating, overpossessing, vanity, disobedience, and lust.
God gives gifts to the humble and obedient. (See 1 Peter 5:5).
The humble increase in virtue, wisdom, and spiritual gifts. The proud increase in vice, folly, and spiritual dysfunction.
Every person is a king or queen of the earth. No person should reign over another person, since no king or queen reigns over another king or queen.
Have a mesophronema, that is, a middle-way disposition. The mesophronema is the way of virtue. An acrophronema is the way of extremes, the way of vice.
We must keep our conscience clear, practicing good and rejecting evil.
Live a life of discipline: Fasting, charity, obedience, humility, truth-speaking, prayer, chastity.
Be devoted to your Creator. Be devoted to the Lord: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We must pray that God places the just in positions of office in the family, in schools, in workplaces, in social groups, and in governments.
The world is not food, possessions (including knowledge), glory, and romance. What constitutes the world are the passions of overeating, overpossessing, vanity, disobedience, and unchastity.
Our kin in the Lord are the humble, meek, merciful, and loving. The proud, wrathful, unmerciful, and hating, are alien to us.
The life of discipline is the happy life. The life of discipline is: Fasting, charity, prayer, work, humility, truth-speaking, obedience, study, and chastity.
“I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink.” (Matt. 25:35). These words must be kept towards all, friend, enemy, and neutral.
Think right thoughts. Feel right feelings. Speak right words. Practice right practices.
Lord Jesus is the Lamb of God who bears the sin of the world. (See John 1:29). It is the choice of every person to accept Lord Jesus, to die with Him to sin, and to be resurrected to a new life of obedience to God and virtue.
Go to Lord Jesus for refuge. Go to the gospel for refuge. Go to the Orthodox Christian Church for refuge.
A material person seeks wealth, glory, and pleasure. A spiritual person seeks virtue, wisdom, and spiritual gifts.
The life of gospel practice is the true and happy life. Live a life of gospel practice!
We should view all good and bad we experience from the point of view of cause and effect. The good is from the economy of God, the evil is from our sins. Good effects good fruit. Evil effects evil fruit.
Keep the precepts assigned to you. The precepts of the married if married. The precepts of an unmarried celibate if unmarried. The precepts of a monk or nun if you are a monk or nun. Keep the precepts that correspond to your mode of life.
Wisdom is to keep the precepts. Wisdom is to practice the precepts. Folly is to not practice the precepts.
To depart from the world is to cease transgressing the gospel precepts. True departure from the world is to keep the gospel precepts.
We can speak of precepts all we like, but to keep precepts is what makes one a true Orthodox Christian.
If you love Lord Jesus keep His precepts: Fasting, charity, prayer, study, work, humility, truth-speaking, obedience, and chastity.
Are you going to live a vain life of competition over food, possessions (including knowledge), glory, and romance? Or are you going to live a life of gospel precepts?
The world is full of disputes over food, possessions (including knowledge), glory, and romance. When we seek virtue, wisdom, and spiritual gifts, we cease from all such disputes.
Partake of the blessing of Lord Jesus. Seek refuge in Lord Jesus and in the sacrifice of the Cross. The Cross is what saves us from sin and death.
A true Orthodox Christian is he who practices gospel precepts: Fasting, charity, prayer, study, humility, forgiveness, obedience, work, visitation, service, and chastity.
Fasting is not only to abstain from certain foods. Fasting is to abstain also from sleep, television, cinema, theatre, laughter, music, cultural festivals, cultural shows, worldly news, marketplaces, secular pursuits, bodily comforts, sweets, and secular conversations.
We must do penance according to the measure of our transgressing of the precepts. Greater penance for greater transgression.
Do not live the wild life of the passions. Live the blessed life of the precepts.
Egypt is the life of transgressing precepts. Israel is the life of keeping precepts.
Have the following precepts before you at all times: Fasting, charity, prayer, humility, obedience, and chastity. When temptation tries to sway these precepts resist and do not be swayed.
How wonderful it would be if all returned to Lord Jesus! If all did penance! If all kept the precepts! If no one was lost! If all were saved!
Be always occupied: Pray, read, work, visit, contemplate. By being always occupied you banish lethargy, sorrow, and evil thoughts.
Never be idle. Idleness makes us open to lethargy, sorrow, and evil thoughts. Always be occupied. Avoid idleness.
Always have before you the basic precepts: Fasting, charity, prayer, humility, obedience, and chastity. You must at all times practice these basic precepts.
Whatever you encounter remember that you have sowed it. (See Gal. 6:7). If you encounter good, you have sowed it. If you encounter suffering, you have sowed it. The law of ethical symmetry teaches us to be fully self-responsible. Doing good reaps good fruit. Doing evil reaps evil fruit.
Basic Orthodox Christian philosophy is the following precepts: Fasting, charity, prayer, humility, obedience, truth-speaking, and chastity. At all moments an Orthodox Christian philosopher must keep these precepts in thought, feeling, word, and practice.
Wealth, glory, and pleasure are vanity. Charity, humility, and continence are not vanity.
The first precept is faith in Lord Jesus. The second precept is fasting. The third precept is charity. The fourth precept is prayer. The fifth precept is humility. The sixth precept is obedience. The seventh precept is truth-speaking. The eighth precept is chastity.
The first transgression is unbelief in Lord Jesus. The second transgression is overeating. The third transgression is overpossessing. The fourth transgression is non-prayer. The fifth transgression is pride. The sixth transgression is disobedience. The seventh transgression is lying. The eighth transgression is unchastity.
Recall the Ten Precepts: Faith in Lord Jesus, fasting, charity, prayer, humility, obedience, truth-speaking, chastity, study, and work. To practice these ten precepts is what makes one an Orthodox Christian.
Are you crucified to wealth, glory, and pleasure, and living a life of virtue, wisdom, and spiritual gifts?
The message is simple. If you want to enter into life keep the precepts. (See Matt. 19:17).
Transgressing the precepts is decadence. Keeping the precepts is blessedness and culture.
The Egyptians is the community of those who transgress the precepts. The Israelites is the community of those who keep the precepts.
The victory over vanity and lust is the greatest of victories.
Lord Jesus gives us the victory over vanity and lust.
