The Gurus, the Young Man, and Elder Paisios Quotes

“Because He loved me, He allowed me to approach Him, and He purified me and healed me, thoroughly and deeply, of all my pains and sores. He drew me gently, steadily, and safely from darkness to light, from filth to purity, from non-being into being. He granted me a more intense, true, and vital existence, not because He had need of me, but because He is Love. I”
― Dionysios Farasiotis, The Gurus, the Young Man, and Elder Paisios

“Modern man wants everything to fit within his own perspective and resents being awakened from his blissful stupor. This is why he mocks, slanders, distorts, attacks, rejects, and hates whatever lies beyond his own worldview. He does not want to think, because television has taught him to hate thinking. He does not want to ask himself questions, because it is too tiring to do so. He doesn’t want to struggle to go beneath life’s superficiality, because modern culture has made him comfortable as he lives the pampered life of a hungry consumer in a cage of materialism. In”
― Dionysios Farasiotis, The Gurus, the Young Man, and Elder Paisios

“At a certain point, I noticed an enormous discrepancy between the image I had formed in my mind about Christians and Christian life and what I saw and experienced there. I had always thought that Christians were narrow-minded, devious wretches with psychological problems. I had thought the Christian Faith and the Church were dead, and I had always viewed the Christian tradition as a relic of the past, used by charlatans, swindlers, and other lowlifes.”
― Dionysios Farasiotis, The Gurus, the Young Man, and Elder Paisios

“It is truly folly for a creature to deny his Creator, for a beneficiary to hate his Benefactor, for a sick man to strive to slay his Doctor, for a weakling to insult the Almighty, for a fool to scoff at the Fount of Wisdom, or for a mortal to boast in the presence of Immortality.”
― Dionysios Farasiotis, The Gurus, the Young Man, and Elder Paisios

“Modern man wants everything to fit within his own perspective and resents being awakened from his blissful stupor. This is why he mocks, slanders, distorts, attacks, rejects, and hates whatever lies beyond his own worldview. He does not want to think, because television has taught him to hate thinking. He does not want to ask himself questions, because it is too tiring to do so. He doesn’t want to struggle to go beneath life’s superficiality, because modern culture has made him comfortable as he lives the pampered life of a hungry consumer in a cage of materialism.”
― Dionysios Farasiotis, The Gurus, the Young Man, and Elder Paisios

“Every so often, the parrot would mechanically say, “Lord, have mercy.” The elder would respond, “Look, the parrot can say the prayer, but does that mean that it is praying?”
― Dionysios Farasiotis, The Gurus, the Young Man, and Elder Paisios

“Father Porphyrios had a small parrot that he taught to pray in order to illustrate the absurdity of some Christians’ empty repetition of the words of prayer,”
― Dionysios Farasiotis, The Gurus, the Young Man, and Elder Paisios

“At a certain point, I noticed an enormous discrepancy between the image I had formed in my mind about Christians and Christian life and what I saw and experienced there. I had always thought that Christians were narrow-minded, devious wretches with psychological problems. I had thought the Christian Faith and the Church were dead, and I had always viewed the Christian tradition as a relic of the past, used by charlatans, swindlers, and other lowlifes. I was shocked to encounter a different reality. Something”
― Dionysios Farasiotis, The Gurus, the Young Man, and Elder Paisios