ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN REFLECTIONS AT ADVENT

  In Orthodox Christianity, the ancient Faith, the forty days before Christmas (Advent) is a preparatory season of fasting and introspection.  The festive Christmas season begins on December 25 and lasts twelve days, through Theophany on January 6.


He who created us without our help, will not save us without our consent.

                                                                                        Augustine of hippo, 354-430 AD



Why do you increase your bonds? Take hold of your life before your light grows dark and you seek help and do not find it. This life has been given to you for repentance.  Do not waste it in vain pursuits.

                                                          St. Isaac the Syrian, 7th century





Compel yourselves; say the prayer; stop idle talk; close your mouths to criticism; place doors and locks against unnecessary words. Time passes and does not come back, and woe to us if time goes by without spiritual profit.

Elder Ephraim of Philotheou, B 1927 AD





"...those who have suffered for Christ are adorned forever with their wounds… Their wounds become for those who bear them
windows to let in the light that is without evening… Their scars will not be obliterated when suffering comes to an end, in so far as they procure immortality."

                                                                               St. Gregory Palamas, 1296-1359 AD.  Homily 19



      

"I shall repeat again: Maintain the conviction that our disorderliness is not natural to us, and do not listen to those who say, ‘It is no use
talking about it, because that is just how we are made, and you cannot do anything about it.’ That is not how we are made, and if we

undertake to cure ourselves, then we will be able to do something about it."

                                                                    St. Theophan the Recluse, 1815-1894 AD; The Spiritual Life: And How to Be Attuned to It.







Abba John the Dwarf said, 'We have put the light burden  on one side, that is  to say, self-accusation; and we have  loaded

ourselves with a heavy one, that  is to say, self-justification.'

                                              The Sayings of the Desert Fathers (Abba John ca.339-ca.405 AD)







Almost everyone feels more or less uneasy most of his life in this earthly existence. This is a part of the cross that we all must bear.

Elder Sergei of Vanves





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