On Care For the Soul

by St. Nektarios, St. George Monastery, Anna Skoubourdis

On Care for the Soul was first published in 1894, at the end of Saint Nektarios’s tenure as a preacher in Athens (1891–1894), before he began his fifteen-year career as the director of the Rizarios Ecclesiastical School in Athens. In this collection of eleven homilies, Saint Nektarios takes us through the central issues of life and the purpose of a human being and of his eternal soul. Saint Nektarios first lays out the foundation of man’s moral freedom in order to talk about why he is culpable for his sin. As the consequences for man’s sin are the offending of divine justice and the death of his soul, repentance and confession are required of him to rectify those consequences. Finally, having accomplished these things, the ultimate healing of man’s soul is found in his participation in the Mystery of the Holy Eucharist. Each carefully crafted homily pivots upon a passage from the Bible from which Saint Nektarios launches into an engaging explanation of each theme, drawing deeply and broadly from the Holy Scriptures, the Church Fathers, liturgical texts, church canons, and Classical writers. These timeless homilies speak with as much pertinence and relevance to the eternal soul of every human being today as they did at the turn of the 19th century.

97 pages, Paperback

Published February 5, 2021

Reviews

[Signe · Rating 5 out of 5]

"...St John of Damascus says,

'The good is the reason and goal we are aiming for when we commit evils; for everything is done for the sake of the good, both all that is good and all that is contrary to the good; for even these things we do in a desire for the good. For no one aims at evil when he is doing what he is doing; hence, evil itself has no substance, but is rather a by-product, brought about in an attempt to attain the good and not existing in and of itself, for everything that brought about occurs either for the sake of the good or for the sake of that which is deemed good'

In his pursuit of the good man, when he is misled through ignorance, makes a bad choice for the things that are given to him, and thus he chooses the apparent good instead of that which is truly good. He does not desire the apparent good by nature, but chooses it contrary to nature owing to misguided judgement. But because the good that which is desirable and lovely by nature, when man prefers what is not naturally but is seemingly good, preferring that which is desirable against nature, which not even created or intended, and is consequently evil, then he sins...."

[Dr. Stephanie Douglass · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely had me examining myself but great words from the saint.
Not a light read either. I had to process each paragraph at a time to absorb the words.