Elder Charalambos of Dionysiou: Wonder and weep in the presence of God

 If you don’t see Christ with the eyes of your soul when you pray, you haven’t learned to pray. If only you knew what it is to see Christ with your eyes…
As soon as you see Him, you’re filled with indescribable joy. Yet you’re overcome with an overwhelming feeling of awe, so that your legs fold involuntarily, you fall on your face before Him and you stay there, in ecstasy, sobbing unceasingly.
What can you say there, in the presence of God? You simply wonder, you’re shattered and you weep constantly.

Freedom belongs to God.Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica

The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God and Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Let us lift up our hearts.

We lift them up to the Lord.

Peace be with all.

Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica

We can go wherever we want and do whatever we want, but that is not freedom. Freedom belongs to God. When a person is free from the tyranny of thoughts, that is freedom. When he lives in peace, that is freedom. He is always in prayer, he is always expecting help from the Lord—he listens to his conscience and does his best. We must pray with our whole being, work with our whole being, do everything with our whole being. We must also not be at war with anyone and never take any offense to heart. Let it be. Today we are offended by one person—who knows who will offend us tomorrow?