You are here: Home / Archives for By Saint / St. Nectarios of Aegina 1846-1920

On Happiness and Worldliness

Wednesday, February 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment

St. Nektarios of Aegina 1846-1920

How mistaken are those people who seek happiness outside of themselves, in foreign lands and journeys, in riches and glory, in great possessions and pleasures, in diversions and vain things, which have a bitter end! In the same thing to construct the tower of happiness outside of ourselves as it is to build a house in a place that is consistently shaken by earthquakes. Happiness is found within ourselves, and blessed is the man who has understood this. Happiness is a pure heart, for such a heart becomes the throne of God. Thus says Christ of those who have pure hearts: “I will visit them, and will walk in them, and I will be a God to them, and they will be my people.” (II Cor. 6:16) What can be lacking to them? Nothing, nothing at all! For they have the greatest good in their hearts: God Himself! (St. Nektarios of Aegina, Path to Happiness, 1)

Filed Under: All, Ascetics, St. Nectarios of Aegina 1846-1920

On Classical Christianity

Thursday, December 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment

St. Nectarios of Aegina 1846-1920

Christianity is a religion of revelation. The Divine reveals its glory only to those who have been perfected through virtue. Christianity teaches perfection through virtue and demands that its followers become holy and perfect. It disapproves of and opposes those who are under the influence of the imagination. He who is truly perfect in virtue becomes through Divine help outside the flesh and the world, and truly enters another, spiritual world; not, however, through the imagination, but through the effulgence of Divine grace. Without grace, without revelation, no man, even the most virtuous, can transcend the flesh and the world. (“Modern Orthodox Saints, St. Nectarios of Aegina”, by Dr. Constantine Cavarnos)

Source: http://www.serfes.org/writtings/stnectarios.htm

Filed Under: All, Epistemology, Holy Fathers, St. Nectarios of Aegina 1846-1920

The Mystery of Mysteries

Saturday, October 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment

St. Nectarios of Aegina 1846-1920

The Mysterion of the Divine Eucharist that has been handed down by the Lord is the hightest of all the Mysteria; it is the most wondrous of all the miracles which the power of God has performed; it is the highest which the wisdom of God has conceived; it is the most precious of all the gifts which the love of God has bestowed upon men. For all the other miracles result through a transcendence of certain laws of Nature, but the Mysterion of the Divine Eucharist transcends all these laws. Hence it may justly be called, and be viewed as, the miracle of miracles and the Mysterion of Mysteria.  (“Modern Orthodox Saints, St. Nectarios of Aegina”, by Dr. Constantine Cavarnos)

Source: http://www.serfes.org/writtings/stnectarios.htm

Filed Under: All, Eucharist, Holy Fathers, Sacrament, St. Nectarios of Aegina 1846-1920

St. Nectarios on Sacred Tradition

Wednesday, August 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

St. Nectarios of Aegina 1846-1920

Sacred Tradition is the very Church; without Sacred Tradition the Church does not exist. Those who deny the Sacred Tradition deny the Church and the preaching of the Apostles. (Constantine Cavarnos, St. Nectarios of Aegina)

Filed Under: All, Holy Fathers, Oral Tradition, St. Nectarios of Aegina 1846-1920, The Church