Spiritual Fragrance Publishing

09/18/2022

04/28/2022

" As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.
“Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him.
But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’ ”"

Mark 16:5-7

02/01/2022

"Only if you see yourself as ZERO, being full of passions, can you see God. If you cannot see that you are nothing then you cannot see God. God lives only in the humble person."

The Blessed Abbes Macrina of Odigitria Monastery

01/31/2022

Conscience is a small God. Before going to bed, render a short account to yourself: how you spent the day, what you did, when you sinned, what should have been done. Be demanding towards yourself.

Idle talk is offensive for God. Kind deeds mean love for the neighbor.

The Lord our God will demand love for God and the neighbor; whoever holds out to the end will be saved.

St. Gabriel the confessor of Georgia

01/30/2022

Love everyone; if you can’t, at least show a goodwill.

In the End Days a man will be saved by love, humbleness and kindness. Kindness will open the gates of Heaven; humbleness will lead into the Heaven; a man, whose heart is filled with love, will see the God.

+ St. Gabriel the confessor of Georgia

01/29/2022

Woe to those who will try to interpret the Holy Testament in their own way. Later, the Antichrist followers will also attend church services; make sign of the cross and preach Holy Testament. True believers will be recognized by the good deeds.

A true faith finds its place in the man’s heart, not in his mind. Antichrist will be disclosed by the believers having their faith in their hearts; those with their faith in their mind follow him.

+ St. Gabriel the confessor of Georgia

01/28/2022

Death is transfiguration. Don’t be afraid of death; rather be afraid of the Judgment Day. When you go in for examinations before your professor, your heart starts palpitating; imagine how you will feel before the Creator. Greatness of GOD is incomparable.

+ St. Gabriel the fool of Christ

01/27/2022

"Seas dry up, mountains collapse, but the glory of Christ remains for ever."

"This is my last will and testament: raise your prayers for everyone; your prayers will move the mountains. Love each other."
-St. Gabriel the New Confessor of Georgia (+1995)

01/26/2022

“And above all things have fervent love for one another, for ‘love will cover a multitude of sins.'”

~ 1 Peter 4:8

01/25/2022

“Set aside half an hour of the twenty-four to say the Jesus Prayer. Whenever you are able, but the evening is best. Say it without using the prayer rope- in supplication, pleading and with tears: “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me”. Cultivate this and you will see the fruit it will bring. From half an hour it will become an hour. And guard this hour. Whether the phone is ringing, or you have this task you need to do now, or you’re sleepy, or some blasphemy is confronting you. Nothing, Turn off the phone. Finish your tasks. Do this half hour and you’ll see. You’ve planted a little tree, and tomorrow or the day after it will bear fruit. St. John Chrysostom and St. Basil began like this and became luminaries for the whole world. St. Symeon the New Theologian had experiences of the uncreated Light while still a layman. He was a layman. How many laymen appear as such, but deep down are monastics”

+ St. Ephraim of Katounakia

01/24/2022

Christians leading an un-Christian like life are the dry branches on the shoots coming from the root - Christ; and “every branch in me that beareth not fruit He taketh away. . . and cast them into the fire.”

+ St. John of Kronstadt

01/23/2022

Pride makes us forget our sins, for the remembrance of them leads to humility.

+ St. John Climacus

01/22/2022

“Christ is Bringing a New Crew to Lead His Ship”
- Saint Porphyrios of Kafsokalyvia
Thirty years ago Saint Porphyrios said to Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou:
“You will see, my son, that when you pass your 50th year [the Metropolitan is now 60 years old] that God has a plan to change the ‘crew’ of the ship.”
“I said to him, what do you mean, Geronda, the “crew of the ship”?. . .”
“The ship of Christ is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic, Orthodox Church. Only this Church.,” he tells me. “Whoever is a ‘captain,’ whether he be a patriarch, an abbot, a priest, a deacon...He will change them if they are not doing their job well. He will allow a variety of events to happen - sicknesses, earthquakes, floods, and a massive war...and after all of this there will come a great peace with the NEW crew of the ship, which Christ will bring. And in the crew it is not only the captains, but also the simple people.”
And Metropolitan Neophytos continues:
“Doesn’t is make an impression on you how many faithful from among such as the singers, actors, etc., which the church goers did not have in great estimation, as coming from a place of sinfulness, now come and confess their faith and work for the sake of Orthodoxy, and we have bishops which are afraid to say clearly, ‘come my children to the Church and don’t be afraid’.... Oh, my bishop!, oh, my father!, Christ is sending us a fantastic opportunity to teach the people how to repent for particular sins and we are talking about how to protect ourselves and live another 20 or so years!...and yet we will nevertheless die!. . . Our problem is repentance, forgiveness of sins and eternal life! . . . The hierarchy needs to be talking about this - our life after death (a death which lasts all of 2 seconds); afterwards?...our eternal life. . .”

This is our translation of an excerpt from this radio interview, posted today (Nov. 21) online (on You Tube): “Neophytos of Morphou: What did Saint Porphyrios say about the Crew of the Church?”
https://youtu.be/bV6CoTI1otg

Αποσπάσματα από την συνέντευξη που έδωσε ο μητροπολίτης Μόρφου Νεόφυτος στον δημοσιογράφο Στέφανο Δαμιανίδη στο ραδιόφωνο Focus FM 103.6.πηγη ηχιτικού Focus ...

01/21/2022

Nearly all of us, at times, find ourselves unable to sleep at night. We lie awake during the dark, silent hours. This rarely happens when our hearts and souls are at peace; it usually happens when we are troubled in some way.

For this reason, do not curse your lack of sleep. These times of wakefulness have been sent by God, as a sign that something is wrong and as a period for reflection.

So when you cannot sleep, allow the thoughts that lie deepest in your heart to rise up to the surface.

+ St. John Chrysostom

01/20/2022

For when a person knowingly gives in to a temptation, later there will come a time when he is no longer able to listen to what is healthy and salutary, because the hearing of his soul will already be ruined. After that, he becomes contemptuous and walks towards perdition.

+ Saint Joseph the Hesychast.
Monastic Wisdom Pg. 101

01/20/2022

“Drink Holy Water as often as possible. It's the best and most effective medicine. I say this not as a bishop, but as a doctor, from my experience in medicine”

– St Luke of Simferopol

01/19/2022

When you are sick ask God to forgive your sins, and since you beg Him in humility and pain God will forgive your sins, and will also make your body better.

Don't pray with a ulterior motive saying:
“God forgive me my sins” whilst having your mind attached to your physical illness. Such a prayer will not work.

You when you pray, try to forget about your physical illness and accept it as a medicine for the forgiveness of your sins.

Don't worry about anything else leave it to God, for He knows His work.

+ Saint Porphrius of Kaussokalyvia

01/18/2022

“One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek after: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may behold the delight of the Lord, and that I may visit His holy temple.”

[Psalm 26(27):4]

01/17/2022

That secular logic is harmful to one’s spiritual life

“Things are different in the spiritual life. What is needed is simplicity. Act with simplicity and trust in God…You need to enter the simple world of the Gerontikon [the teachings of the Desert Fathers], and get to know the spiritual science — which lifts and refreshes the soul and gets rid of headaches… [When we act with simplicity,] then we keep the self out of our actions. We should not act for the sake of our own comfort. This will keep Christ away from us. We should act for the comfort of others, and this way we too shall be comforted. God will then find comfort in us, and we shall cease to be merely human; we shall become deified. But if we put only the mind in charge, everything will be carnal and human.
Indeed, the mysteries of God will be impossible to know, and will appear strange and contrary to nature, as long as we don’t overturn our secular mindset and see everything with spiritual eyes. Those who believe that they can come to know God’s mysteries through mere scientific theory, without a spiritual life, resemble a fool who thinks that he can look through a telescope and see Paradise. Logic is very harmful when we use it to scrutinize the divine, the mysteries and the miracles.”

On Logic and Spiritual Life - by St. Paisios the Athonite

01/16/2022

“I will love Thee, O Lord, my Strength; the Lord is my foundation, and my refuge and my deliverer. My God is my helper, and I will hope in Him, my defender, and the horn of my salvation, and my helper.”

[Psalm 17(18):1-2]

01/15/2022

“The soul that has been given over to the will of God is afraid of nothing.”
+ St. Silouan the Athonite

01/14/2022

Two spiritual pearls on our Most Beloved Panaghia:

“It was through the Theotokos alone that the Lord came to us.”

+St. Gregory Palamas

“He who is devout to the Mother of God will certainly never be lost.”

+St. Ignatios of Antioch

01/13/2022

Do not fight to expel darkness from the chamber of your soul. Open a tiny aperture for light to enter, and the darkness will disappear.
Attack your passion head on, and you’ll see how strongly it will entwine you and grip you and you won’t be able to do anything…Let all your strength be turned to love for God, worship of God, and adhesion to God. In this way your release from evil and from your weaknesses will happen in a mystical manner, without you being aware of it and without exertion.

+ Saint Porphyrios Ascetic experience

01/12/2022

"The humbler our opinion of ourselves, the more swiftly our prayer rises to God. So soon as we lose humility, each and every ascetic effort is nullified. If pride is active in us, or fault-finding, or unfriendliness, the Lord stands remote from us."

-- Archimandrite Sophrony (His Life is Mine: Part 2, Chapter 3; SVS Press pg. 123):

01/11/2022

“When we see the people around us have no love for God we are distressed. But with our distress we achieve nothing at all. Nor do we achieve anything by trying to persuade them to change their ways. That’s not right either. There is a secret, however, and if we understand it, we will be able to help. The secret is our prayer and our devotion to God so that His grace may act. We, with our love, with our fervent desire for the love of God, will attract grace so that it washes over those around us and awakens them to divine love. Or rather God will send His love and will rouse them all. What we are unable to do, His grace will achieve. With our prayers we will make all worthy of God’s grace”

+ St. Porphyrios