When Saint Porphyrios Traveled Invisibly To Serbia and Observed the Emptiness of the Youth

Saint Porpyrios of Kavsokalyva once said the following to Bishop Irinej of Bačka:

"One day I sat on a bridge over there in your parts [in Serbia, where he used to travel in an invisible way by divine grace], I was observing the people who were passing by. And by the grace of God I saw them transparent, both their bodies and their souls.

What can I say to you, Irinej! I saw empty, lonely, wounded, broken souls. I saw boys and girls passing by holding hands, but without their souls having the strength to truly love. They fall in love roughly and superficially. Raised without a family or even in an atheistic family, they have no provisions for true love. Many of your girls are not even in a position to become mothers from the libertine life they lead.

Teaching Children Not To Be Egotistical (St. Porphyrios of Kavsokalyva)

 

By St. Porphyrios of Kavsokalyva

 

The truth of Christ stresses that, if you praise a person, you make him an egotist. The egotist is burdened, and is guided by the devil and the evil spirit. Thus, growing up in the midst of egotism, the first act is to deny God and to be an egotistical misfit in society.

When, therefore, we praise the child we create this 'super-ego', we choke them with egotism, and we cause a great evil. We make them more susceptible to diabolical things.