Athonite Fathers

"I did not go to culinary schools nor do I have a cooking diploma. However, I learned close to the Elders how to fry an onion over low heat, because, as they would say, the slower and more delicate an onion is, as fried it turns golden brown, the more delicious the meal will be. I learned that at the end of the cooking process, all meals require patience and perseverance, when over a charcoal fire we wait for the remaining liquids of the food to be absorbed."

"I love cooking not because I want to please or be flattered but because I love the people I am cooking for."

"Hadji-Georgis had had profuse, guileless love for everyone. He had always been peaceful, long-suffering, and forgiving. He had had a big heart, which is why it had been able to hold all things and all people exactly as they were. He had somehow become incorporeal. By having lived the Angelic life, he had become an angel and flown to the Heavens because he had not held onto anything, neither passions of the soul, nor material items. He had cast them all aside, which is also why he had soared to great heights."

""Patience must be acquired, it cannot be bought," an ascetic used to say."

"An elder said: "The spiritual life of a monk begins when he distances himself from all visible and invisible things, save God." And he also said: 'When I was in the world everyone would say: 'The monk, the monk.' So I said to myself, 'If you're a monk, then, what are you still doing in the world?'""

"An elder said: "I am unable to describe to you, my son, the joy I felt in my heart every time I was unjustly treated by others. I felt that I was clothed in the cloak of injustice also worn by Christ.""

"A virtuous monk advised: "Show love to all, but have no particular friendship with anyone.""

"A contemporary hermit would say: "Today there is plenty of dough, but there is no yeast...""

"Elder Modestos the Konstamonitan would say: "Act as if you can't see. Do not look at another's faults.""

"Another said: "Why don't we have many saints in our times? Because we have put aside prayer and stillness.""

"Geronda D... you are poor and have no money," I once said to a truly poor Skete-dweller. And he replied: "Only the devil is poor!..."

"An elder used to say: "A monk resembles a small, clever fish. He knows how to escape the world like the fish which avoids the bait that hides the deadly hook.""

"After the daily liturgy, the great hesychast father Daniel the Hosiopetritan would withdraw into his cell for an hour for silence. It was an hour dedicated to tears and compunction. He would say: "While the lantern indeed gives light to many, its wick holder is usually burned...""

"The famous father Dionysius, one of the Kartesonians, once advised monk Daniel saying: "My son, from the things you hear against someone, you should not believe anything, and out of what you see, believe half. And not even half, for many pretend to be fools. Do not judge anyone.""

"A brother asked an elder whose hair had grown white over many years which he had spent in ascesis: "How old are you, Geronda?" The elder replied: "One does not count age by the passing of years but by one's pure thoughts and pure way of life.""

"A great contemporary hesychast who had to go out into the world for medical reasons for a few days said to me: "When I returned to the Holy Mountain, a month had to pass before I was able to gather my mind from its roaming and wandering during prayer.""

"A monk asked another elder, who was over one hundred years old: "Now that you will depart from this temporary life, what do you feel?" "I feel so joyful and peaceful, as if I am going to a wedding," he replied."

"A good and virtuous priestmonk from the holy Monastery of St. Paul reposed outside the Monastery while sitting on a small rock, blessing with his right hand."

"A cheeky young man said to an elder: "God does not exist. I don't believe that there is a God!" "Come closer," the monk said. "Don't you know that the cicada chirping now is talking about God? Can't you see this little kitten that I've got here, the fur it has? Not even Queen Frederika owned a coat like this." The young man was moved by the elder's words. The hardness of his unbelief left him."

"An elder said: "Many saints would have liked to be living and struggling in our times.""

"When St. Akakios of Kafsokalyvia stood in prayer, he resembled a steadfast pillar; and when seated he was unaware of his body, as it were, because he was in an elevated state of being, filled with grace and divine, uncreated light."

""Many possess a neptic prayer but they do not even realize it," a hermit used to say."

"A monk used to say: "The prayer Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me; this is the foundation of monastic life.""

"An elderly monk, a worker of noetic prayer, said: "We should always say the Jesus Prayer. With every opportunity we should say it. Our mind should not wander on vain things. In saying the Jesus Prayer one's mind finds rest and joy. Just like small children. They run around all day, shouting, playing, hitting each other. But the one thing that gives them rest and great joy is when at night they find themselves beside their mother. This is how it is with our mind also. It should not wander on vain things. It should be occupied with the Jesus Prayer.""

"An elder said: "We are like nettle plants. From a distance they appear green and fresh as in a field or garden, but when you go close and touch them, that is when you see their ugliness and feel their sting.""

"And he said again: "Saints sense themselves to be truly unworthy and sinful.""

"An elder said: "The spiritual life requires patience, steadfast patience. Man undergoes all sorts of changes even from one day to the next.""

"An elder said: "Illness is a divine visitation. Illness is a great gift from God. The only thing that man can give to God in return is his pain.""

"A hermit said: "A monk is one who stands continually before the invisble God, as if He were visible.""

"St. Savvas from Kalymnos was a Hagiorite. He was from St. Anne's. He had absolutely no love of money. He did not even want to hold it in his hands."

"Later, when I had heard that there are twelve anchorites at the peak of Athos – some said seven – I got to thinking, so I related the incident to some experienced Elders, who told me: “That would have been one of the righteous anchorites who live invisibly at the peak of Athos”!"

""We suffer because we have no love. Whoever does not love does not have peace, even if he was placed in Paradise," said an elder."

"An elder said: "He who loves God does not only love his fellow man, but also all of nature: trees, grass, flowers. Everything with the same love.""

"Living in a state of high spirituality, and of perfect possessionlessness – we do not know if they are still alive – were seven, or twelve according to others, hermits in the virgin forests of the Holy Mountain. Totally naked, living like the birds of the air on wild greens, on roots, on chestnuts, on pine cone seed etc. It has been said that they would go and receive Holy Communion at the cave of St. Peter from the eminent hesychast Father Daniel. The learned Lavriotan and physician, monk Spyridon Kambanaos wrote concerning these earthly angels and heavenly men: "And what can we say of those who live in the area of Krya Nera, where only the all-seeing eye of God knows their way of life.""

"The elders of Mount Athos say: "Not where you live but the way you live is going to save you.""

"Εΐπεν ένας γέρων μοναχός:"

""Elder, is monastic life difficult?" we asked a wise monk. "It is not difficult. There comes a time when you forget yourself entirely and you realize that it is the lightest burden to carry," he replied."

"An elder said: "To the monk, the world is a charcoal-maker" (that is, the world dirties one's soul, like one who handles charcoal)."

"While the superior rejoiced and was delighted with Romanos' obedience, zeal and propriety, in his mind Romanos pined away, desiring that he might again abandon the tumult of the world, and that he might live in a a deserted place far from men, like the turtle­dove which loves solitude. He had learned about Paroria where a monastery was being built by a great man before God, Gregory of Sinai, who brought souls to God each day by the music of his words and the example of his life. Romanos was engrossed in planning a departure and wished he had wings so that he could fly through the air and get there as quickly as possible. So great a yearning did word of that holy man inspire in him, as I have heard him relate. From that time on then, while Zagora held his body, the wilderness of Paroria possessed his soul. Just as the thirstiest deer seeks the fountainhead he thirsted, and he asked God that he might go to Paroria."

"God is infinite Nous and man, through his nous, is both related to God, and also approaches Him. God is infinite Love, and man, with a purified heart, experiences God. God is simple, and man believes with simplicity, and struggles humbly and in a philotimo-filled way, and experiences the mysteries of God."

"The greatest memorial service for both the people in the world and our ancestors is our spiritual progress, because then they are entitled to divine help. This is apart from our prayer, which is bold before God, and the joy which our grandparents feel over us, their pride and joy. But if we lead a bad life, they suffer threefold."

"As just remarked, there are two main forms of ecstatic longing for God:"

"The source and ground of our distractive thoughts is the fragmented state of our memory. The memory was originally simple and one-pointed, but as a result of the fall its natural powers have been perverted: it has lost its recollectedness in God and has become compound instead of simple, diversified instead of onepointed."

"We recover the original state of our memory by restoring it to its primal simplicity, when it will no longer act as a source of evil and destructive thoughts. For Adam's disobedience has not only deformed into a weapon of evil the soul's simple memory of what is good; it has also corrupted all its powers and quenched its natural appetite for virtue. The memory is restored above all by constant mindfulness of God consolidated through prayer, for this spiritually elevates the memory from a natural to a supranatural state."

"He who practises hesychasm must acquire the following five virtues, as a foundation on which to build: silence, self-control, vigilance, humility and patience."

"Nothing so fills the heart with contrition and humbles the soul as solitude embraced with self-awareness, and utter silence."

"Noetic prayer is an activity initiated by the cleansing power of the Spirit and the mystical rites celebrated by the intellect."

"For beginners prayer is like a joyous fire kindled in the heart;"

"According to theologians, noetic, pure, angelic prayer is in its power wisdom inspired by the Holy Spirit."

"The short ladder of spiritual progress – which is at the same time both small and great – has five rungs leading to perfection."