Tag Archives: Humility

Difficulties in Childbearing

By Fr. Luke | Published: December 12, 2007

—Geronta, if a woman is not Orthodox, and if she is not able to conceive a child, is it alright for her to wear the belt we have blessed on the holy relics of St. Arsenios? [1]

—Does she believe in the power of the Saint or does she think that it will help in some magical way? If she believes in the Saint, it’s alright for her to wear it.

For some women who aren’t able to conceive children, the spiritual laws are at work, because they didn’t start families when they should have. They become very picky, “No, he has this problem and the other guy has these problems.” So, they make a promise to someone; but then they see someone else, so later they say “no” to the one to whom they had originally made a promise–and he, instead of seeing it as a blessing that she left him, goes and commits suicide. Eh, what kind of family is a woman like this going to make? Other women aren’t able to have children because in their younger years they lived a wild life. Then others are troubled by their diet. Many foods contain lots of drugs and hormones. Read more →

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Through Asceticism, Man Becomes Immaterial (Part II)

By Fr. Luke | Published: November 30, 2007

I know a layman who became holy with the asceticism he practiced. Yes, not many years ago there was a man and his son who worked for years on the Holy Mountain. Later, a good job opportunity presented itself back in his homeland, and the man decided to leave and take his son with him so that the entire family could be together again. His son, however, had been greatly affected by the ascetic life of the monks; and remembering the worldly life with its many pressures, he didn’t want to follow his father and return to the world. “Father, since you have other children,” he told him, “leave just one of them in the Garden of the Panagia.” Because he insisted, his father was forced to leave him. That little warrior was illiterate, but he was very softhearted and had much philotimo and simplicity. He considered himself totally unworthy to become a monk because he thought that he wouldn’t be able to fulfill his monastic duties. Read more →

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Love for Work

By Fr. Luke | Published: October 26, 2007

—Geronta, why do so many people feel bored at work?

—Maybe they don’t love their job? Or, maybe they work on the same thing continually? With some jobs—say at a factory where they make door and window frames—a laborer might do the same thing from morning till the time he leaves: glue, glue, glue. Another constantly handles windows; another, putty. They constantly do the same monotonous work; and their boss is always watching them—not for just one or two days, either. It is always the “same old, same old,” to the point of boredom. In the old days it wasn’t like that though. A contractor would be given four walls from the carpenters and was expected to present the owner with a finished house and the key. He would have built the floors, the door and window frames, and would even have set the windows with putty. Afterward he would have built spiral staircases, turned banisters; after that he would have painted, built the cupboards and the shelves—even the furniture! Even if he didn’t do all of it himself, he knew how to do it. In a pinch a contractor could even put the tiles on the roof. Read more →

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