Volume 1 of Spiritual Counsels

This is the first volume of the series 'Spiritual Counsels of the Elder Paisios of Mount Athos'.  It is divided into four thematic parts. Each part is subdivided into chapters and every chapter into sections with the appropriate subheadings:

Part 1 Sin and the Devil
Part 2 Modern Civilization
Part 3 The Spirit of God and the Spirit of the World
Part 4 The Church in our Times

"How can a man feel truly consoled if he does not believe in God and in the true eternal life after death? When we grasp the deeper meaning of the true life, anxiety falls away, and divine consolation comes and we are healed." -Elder Paisios

The Blessed Elder Paisios was born on 25 July 1924.  From the time that he was a child, Elder Paisios lived an ascetic life, and was nourished by the lives of the Saints, whose feats he sought to imitate with great zeal and admirable precision.  He practiced unceasing prayer, cultivating all along the virtues of humility and love.  He led an ascetic life on Mount Athos, in the Holy Monastery of Stomion in Konitsa, and on Mount Sinai in Egypt.  He lived in obscurity, giving himself completely to God, and God in turn revealed him and gave him to the whole world.  He guided, consoled, healed and granted peace to multitudes of people who sought him.  His sanctified soul overflowed with divine love and his saintly face radiated the divine Grace.  All day long, he tirelessly gathered the human pain and imparted divine consolation.  He is the founder of the Holy Monastery of Saint John the Theologian in Souroti of Thessaloniki, Greece, which he also guided spiritually for twenty-eight years (1967-1994).  After suffering excruciating pains, which, as he used to say, benefited him more than the ascetic struggles of his entire life, he fell asleep in the Lord on 12 July 1994.