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The Ineffable Folly of Divine Love
The angels are always mindful of their createdness: they cover their faces and their feet with four wings to preserve their humility before the Lord Who brought them from non-being into being. Although they are immortal and incorporeal beings, they never forget that they are creatures, that they are not without beginning. Therefore, it is with restrained boldness – with only two wings – that they fly around ‘the throne of the Majesty in the heavens’. Humility gives them the strength to abide in everlasting doxology before God.
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Calendar 2026
Our 2026 wall calendar adorned with photos from our newly built church dedicated to Saint Sophrony the Athonite alongside extracts from the book The House of our Father.
Size A4 landscape.
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Audiobook: Remember Thy First Love
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Once again the words of Father Zacharias aim high and lead us well through the disparities of a world that has forgotten what it means to know and love the Lord.
When we learn to let go of our own machinations of thought, and cling to the hem of His garment, Christ will lead us through the labyrinth of hypocrisy that radiates in the world. And we learn, through this upside-down inside-out view of true and authentic spiritual life, to navigate by following Him, and Him alone, through every storm and difficult passage. It is hard to learn these lessons because we are so self reliant and trust our own thinking. And God may present to us very unexpected circumstances, but if we learn to trust Him with every fiber of our being, most especially when it looks like folly and great foolishness in the eyes of the world, there will be recompense beyond measure.
To Him be the glory. Amen.
I’m interested in the calendar but from the preview of months January and July, it seems many days have no saints or commemoration at all. A Church Kalendar should list the saints for each day…
My Reverend Monastic Community of St. John the Baptist, Essex
Εὐλογει̃τε!
I have received your book “THE HOUSE OF THE FATHER” , (in Greek “Ο ΟΙΚΟΣ ΤΟΥ ΠΑΤΡΟΣ”) and I am writing to you to express my great joy and enthusiasm as soon as I looked through it.
In the beginning, I would like to tell you that I have been an expert in the restoration of Byzantine monuments, as an engineer and architect (PhD in Byzantine architecture, Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne University) and my professional activity is directly related to Byzantine and modern Church Building. I was also a student of Leonide Ouspensky in icon painting when I was a post-graduate student in Paris in 1983 – 1989.
I have already read three books written by nun Gabrielia on the art of Saint Sophrony, and I was really excited because very little was known about his art, especially during his early life.
As far as the book “THE HOUSE OF THE FATHER” is concerned, I was really impressed by this wonderful work, both on the architecture and the quality of its iconography. I assume that the paintings of the walls bear the stamp of Sister Gabriela, who was also a student of Saint Sophrony.
I dare say, with modesty, that I have also designed modern churches based on the tradition of Byzantine architecture.
I have read with great interest the unfolding of the Saint’s thoughts regarding the design of the new round church dedicated, today, to Saint Sophrony. I am impressed by the choice of the type of Rotunda, by the design of the Proskomidi behind the Holy Altar, by the two corridors in the Sanctuary, by the contracted narthex and by many other modern elements of this great work of your Monastery.
This note of mine is of course also addressed to Sister Gabrielia, whom I do not know. I do not remember if she were in your Monastery at that time (in 1983), when I visited it.
May be I would have the chance in the future to admire on the spot the round Chapel as well as the other works of your Monastery, which undoubtedly bear the stamp of Saint Sophrony, the founder and Abbot.
I visited your Monastery in 1983 and I had the great honor to receive his blessing and chat with him for a short time.
I am writing to you in English, but I speak fluently French and of course Greek. I would like to know if we could communicate on either languages.
With respect and honor, sincerely
Michael Chatzigiannis
Ierolochiton 9, 38334, Volos, Greece, Tel. : 6974365973, e-mail: hatzimih_byz@yahoo. co.uk
Όπως πάντα, με βοηθησε πολύ στον πνευματικό μου αγώνα.
Wavering in Quest of the Kingdom Which Cannot Be Moved, is an incredible book with rich insights on the struggles one faces when seeking to grow deeper in their relationship with God. Fr Zacharias masterfully explains the mystery of God’s working in our lives, the various changes a person experiences (with the comings and goings of Grace), and how to navigate these changes until a person reaches the “measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). The text clearly shows how the spiritual fatherhood of St Silouan has passed onto St Sophrony, and now onto Fr Zacharias, demonstrating the mystery of how true Orthodox life, is passed down “from generation to generation”, in an unbroken line, through the mystery of obedience. A must read for anyone that wants to enter deeper into the mystery of God’s love.
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Continuing the Christian teaching legacy of Saints Silouan and Sophrony through our publications. We share posts with our books on Instagram if you are there. But if you're not? That's healthier. Keep it like that.
The missionaries from Byzantium did not go to Russia to convert by force; they were invited there by the emperor. The Orthodox have never had the tendency to use politics or armies to propagate Christianity and impose their faith. Indeed, we are sometimes accused of being a ‘closed circle’ because of our relative lack of missionary work. When we do carry out missionary work, we respect the freedom of others. If others invite us and are willing to hear, we preach the word of God. Otherwise, we simply try to live the tradition that we have received.
If those Russian emissaries had been forbidden from entering the church of Saint Sophia because they were pagans, they would not have been able to experience the atmosphere of the Divine Liturgy. But because they were welcomed and honoured, they were inspired and convinced by their experience. People who lack compassion of this kind pray externally, not with their heart.
Prayer with the heart fills man with the desire for all to share in the grace he has received. A simple example of this are the peasants in Cyprus, who used to thank God after every meal and say: ‘Lord, do not deprive all Thy world from the same.’ This is true Christian compassion.
— Excerpt from: The Ineffable Folly of Divine Love • The Mystery of the Church (p. 95-96) • Archimandrite Zacharias (Zacharou)
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How did Saint Sophrony receive the non-Orthodox guests who visited your monastery?
Saint Sophrony had unshakeable confidence in the unique truth of the Orthodox Tradition; he would never compromise the dogmatic truth of the Church. But he would go out of his way to show love and honour to anyone who came to him.
Let us suppose that a non-Orthodox bishop comes to our monastery. It does us no harm to honour him, because that is the treatment he is accustomed to having from the people in his church. He may have travelled far to visit us, and we must receive him with honesty, humility and love, and give him the possibility to hear, to learn, to live with us.
Let us take the example of the Slavs. The emperor sent emissaries to examine all the religions of the world and advise him on which religion to adopt for his empire. On their return, they told him: ‘Only in Constantinople have we found the true religion. When we entered the church of Saint Sophia during the Liturgy, we thought we were in heaven.’ The emperor then invited missionaries from Constantinople to come and teach his people.
— Excerpt from: The Ineffable Folly of Divine Love • The Mystery of the Church (p. 95) • Archimandrite Zacharias (Zacharou)
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True prayer uniting us with the Most-High is nothing other than light and strength coming down to us from heaven. In its essence it transcends our plane of existence. … True prayer to the true God is contact with the Divine Spirit which prays in us. The Spirit gives us to know God. The Spirit draws our spirit to contemplation of eternity. Like grace coming down from on High the act of prayer is too much for our earthly nature and so our mortal body, incapable of rising into the spiritual sphere, resists. The intellect resists because it is incapable of containing infinity, is shaken by doubts and rejects everything that exceeds its understanding. The social environment in which I live is antagonistic to prayer — it has organised life with other aims diametrically opposed to prayer. Hostile spirits cannot endure prayer. But prayer alone can restore the created world from its fall, overcoming its stagnation and inertia, by means of a mighty effort of our spirit to follow Christ’s commandments.
— Excerpt from: On Prayer • Prayer — An ever-new Creation (p. 11-12) • Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov)
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Forgive me, I am saying this to you to put you on guard, out of love for you. The Catholics, according to what I have heard, suffer precisely from these defects. That is why one observes among them cases of stigmata and sensory visions (or rather, apparitions). Apart from this, some people confuse the spiritual and the psychological, not understanding anything about the first, that is, about spiritual weeping, and they take these tears for psychological tears, and condemn them. May the Lord grant you' to know true (not illusory) prayer of the heart, and spiritual weeping.
Believe me, my dear Father, that if I permit myself on occasion to use the terms ‘Catholics’, or ‘Catholic’, or ‘Catholicism’ to point out their insufficiencies or their errors, I will not be doing this in order to denigrate them - may the Lord preserve me from that! - but solely to tell you in simplicity and openly, whenever it seems needed, where they do not have the truth. In the present case, I can tell you that your soul should no longer be troubled by observing a notable superiority of Catholicism over the Orthodox Church as far as exterior organisation and rules of discipline are concerned, for this is ‘of the earth’. Likewise, do not allow yourself to be deceived by the fact that at the present time, the Orthodox Church is indeed crucified - this is the threshold of heaven.
— Excerpt from: Striving for Knowledge of God (Correspondence with David Balfour) • Letter 5 (p. 80, 74) • Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov)
**Typeface used for the handwritten text was selected for design purposes. It is not the handrwritting of Saint Sophrony.**
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Prayer is infinite creation, far superior to any form of art or science. Through prayer we enter into communion with Him that was before all worlds. Or, to put it in another way, the life of the Self-existing God flows into us through the channel of prayer. Prayer is an act of supreme wisdom, of all-surpassing beauty and virtue. Prayer is delight for the spirit. But the circumstances accompanying this creative work are complex.
Time after time we experience an eager upsurge towards God, followed repeatedly by a falling away from His Light. Time and again we are conscious of the mind’s inability to rise to Him. There are moments when we feel ourselves on the verge of madness. Pain forces the cry, ‘Thou didst give me Thy precept to love, which I accept with all my being, but there is no strength in me for this love. Thou Who art love, come and abide in me, and perform in me all that Thou hast enjoined, for Thy commandment exceeds my powers. My mind is too frail to comprehend Thee. My spirit cannot see into the mysteries of Thy life. I desire to do Thy will in all things but my days go by in perpetual conflict. I am tortured by the fear of losing Thee because of the evil thoughts in my heart; and this fear crucifies me. I sink. Lord, save me, as Thou didst save Peter who dared to walk on the water, to go to Thee’ (Matt. 24:28-31).
— Excerpt from: On Prayer • Prayer — An ever-new Creation (p. 9) • Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov)
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The complete formula of the Jesus Prayer runs like this: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me, a sinner,” and it is this set form that is recommended to the beginner. In the first half of the prayer we profess Christ-God made flesh for our salvation. In the second we affirm our fallen state, our sinfulness and our redemption. The conjunction of dogmatic confession with repentance makes the content of the prayer more comprehensive.
It is possible to establish a certain sequence in the development of this prayer. First, it is a verbal matter: we say the prayer with our lips while trying to concentrate our attention on the Name and the words. Next, we no longer move our lips but pronounce the Name of Jesus Christ, and what follows after, in our minds, mentally. In the third stage mind and heart combine to act together: the attention of the mind is centered in the heart and the prayer is said there. Fourthly, the prayer becomes self-propelling. This happens when the prayer is confirmed in the heart and, with no special effort on our part, continues there, where the mind is concentrated. Finally, the prayer, so full of blessing, starts to act like a gentle flame within us, as inspiration from on High, rejoicing the heart with a sensation of Divine love and delighting the mind in spiritual contemplation. This last state is sometimes accompanied by a vision of Light.
A gradual ascent into prayer is the most trustworthy. The beginner who would embark on the struggle is usually recommended to start with the first step, verbal prayer, until body, tongue, brain and heart assimilate it. The time this takes varies. The more earnest the repentance, the shorter the road.
— Excerpt from: On Prayer • The Jesus Prayer: Method (p. 142-143) • Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov)
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