people-from-greece

"“For Greece, damn it.”"

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

"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."

"Athenagoras [was] the leader of the people [Syracusans] and very powerful at that time with the masses."

"If a man does not strike first, he will be the first struck."

"It may be observed that when Thucydides reports the speech of the Syracusan demagogue Athenagoras, he marks his manner by a certain violence of expression.E.g. vi. 40, ἀλλ' ἔτι καὶ νῦν, ὦ πάντων ἀξυνετώτατοι, εἰ μὴ μανθάνετε κακὰ σπεύδοντες, ἢ ἀμαθέστατοί ἐστε ὧν ἐγὼ οἶδα Ἑλλήνων, ἢ ἀδικώτατοι, εἰ εἰδότες τολμᾶτε.In a Mémoire sur Thucydide, by M. Meierotto (in the Memoirs of the Berlin Academy for 1790–91, p. 530), the writer observes, with reference to the discrimination of character in the speeches: "Cléon et Athénagore parlent ordinairement d'un ton dur, offensant et grossier, dont pourtant ils s'écartent quelquefois." We have only one speech of Cleon and one of Athenagoras; so far as these go, however, the striking thing, it seems to me, is not the resemblance, but the contrast."

"As if to leave no doubt about the iron of Athenagoras’ fraudulent democratic rhetoric, Thucydides reports that following the debate the Syracusan assembly was prevented from making any decision at all."

"When dealing with an enemy it is not only his actions but his intentions that have to be watched, since if one does not act first, one will suffer first."

"Athenagoras dismisses the invasion issue and seeks to inflame passions by gratuitously raising the spectre of an oligarchic revolt."

"In the case of Athenagoras we are shown a politician who virtually succeeds in turning a deliberation assembly into a mob."

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

"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."

"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.""

"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."

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

"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”!"

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

"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.""

"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...""

"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)."

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

"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 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."

"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."

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

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

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

"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.""

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

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

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

"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.""

"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."

"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.""

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

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

""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.""

"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: "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?'""

"I doubt that better general relations with Orthodox Christians would improve the situation of Catholics in Greece."

"When the monk cleans the senses in stillness, the mind becomes peaceful and the heart is cleansed, and he receives grace and the light of knowledge. He becomes completely light, completely mind, completely transparent. Then he gushes theology, such that even if three people were to write down his experiences they wouldn't manage, the flow of waves is so great, and it spreads peace and the complete cessation of the passions throughout the body. The heart is enflamed from love of God and shouts out, "slow down the waves of Your grace, my Jesus, for I am melting like a candle!" And truly he melts without suffering. The mind is taken up into divine vision; and a mixing takes place. Man is transformed and becomes one with God, such that he doesn't recognize himself, just as iron becomes one with fire."

"For the time being I live in a cave. I have wonderful stillness. I am the luckiest of men, for I live without cares and enjoy the honey of stillness unceasingly. And when grace departs for just a little, stillness comes as another grace and it shelters me in its harbor. And thus, the pains and sadness of this evil and tiring life seem less significant. In the present life, until one's final breath, sadness always comes mixed with joy."

"Behold, another new year! Once again, wishes and hopes. But death is lurking somewhere, waiting for us, too. Some day or night will be the last one of our life. Wherefore, blessed is he who remembers his death day and night and prepares himself to meet it. For it has a habit of coming joyfully to those who wait for it, but it arrives unexpectedly, bitterly, and harshly for those who do not expect it."

"So when grace abounds in a person and he knows all that we have written, he attains great simplicity; his nous expands and has great capacity. Just as you tasted that drop of grace when much joy and exultation came upon you, it comes again in the same manner when the nous remains in prayer. But much more comes, like a subtle breeze, like a mighty gust of fragrant wind. It overflows throughout the body, and the prayer stops; the bodily members cease to move, and only the nous is in theoria within an extraordinary light. A union of God and man occurs. Man is unable to distinguish himself. It is just like iron: before it is thrown into the fire it is called iron, but once it ignites and becomes red-hot, it is one with the fire. It is also like wax which melts when it approaches fire; it cannot remain in its natural state."