Job Was Faithful Because He Was Not Bound To This World

By Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol

What can someone do to a person who has hope in God? Nothing!

What is fear? What is it that you fear? The fear of death? Christ abolished death! Where does fear lie? Where does the threat lie? There is only one threat for us. Our threat is one - to lose Christ. That is a threat.

If a person loses his relationship with Christ, indeed, whatever he acquires in his life is miserable. The person who has lost Christ in his life is miserable. And for the one who has found Christ in his life, everything else is secondary.

"Whoever is Kind to the Poor Lends to the Lord": The Simple Faith of Saint John the Merciful

 

By Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol

If you have read the life of Saint John the Merciful - which I urge you to read for the umpteenth time - you will see that when Saint John the Merciful was young (he was around 17-18 years old at the time) he saw a vision from God, he saw a princess who told him:

"If you conquer me, I will lead you to the King's throne. For I am the King's best daughter. And if you succeed and get me as your life partner, I will make you king too!"

And when he asked her: "Who are you?" she told him that she was empathy, mercy, compassion.

So the Saint entered this struggle, as a young child, and put himself to the test: "It appears this is how things are?" he said.

Saint George and the Lord That He Longed For

 

 By Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol

There is a moving snapshot in the life and martyrdom of the Holy Great Martyr George the Trophy-Bearer, which I really say often but is so important and so telling.

It says in the life of Saint George that among the many tortures endured by this Martyr, this brave Martyr, this diamond of Christ and the Church, a young lad of 20-22 years, they led him to the stadium with a crowd of people who were shouting and saying different things. And what did they do?
   
They took iron shoes which had nails in them. Think about this, how sometimes a small stone gets into our shoe and we can't walk, it hurts us, we want to take it out, we can't, it's very painful and annoying. He had nails in his iron shoes and they put them in the fire and made them so fiery hot, says his biography, that they became one with the fire. Those shoes were completely red-hot.