“I feel the need to reaffirm my confidence in the youth and to pledge that their voice will always be heard in the Holy Archdiocese of Australia. Our Church will always have her arms open to embrace them with affection, to empower them, to give them the space they need, to give them a say and a role for the future. Above all, to give them Christ.”
Archbishop Makarios of Australia
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“The abstinence and chastity of the young people will be considered as a Martyrdom of the moral sense.”
Saint Paisios the Athonite
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Saint John the Russian, after his Blessed Repose, once appeared to a girl and told her: “Come and see my pillow which is full of tears. I am weeping for you the youth. I am especially Praying to God for the youth to support you.” In 1977, the Priest at the Church of Saint John the Russian in Evia opened the Holy Reliquary and saw the pillow on which the Saint was lying was completely clean, but beside his eyes it was wet with a large stain of tears.
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“Now while you are young, fight against the passions; fight against your evil thoughts; fight against the imagination; struggle to fulfill your obedience; exert yourself with things you find difficult; sweat and Pray during the night. All these labours and struggles are ‘work’; they constitute work years. Later, when the body grows weak and no longer has the strength to take up arms, when you are old and have worked during the years that God has allotted for you, then He will give you a pension. Depending on your skill and position, you will receive an analogous pension. What is this pension? It is the Grace of God.”
Saint Joseph the Hesychast
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“The Elder had a special Spiritual relationship with young people. He truly loved them like his own children, and he Prayed for them, out of concern that they find their way. Identifying with them and feeling compassion for them, he helped them overcome their difficulties and problems, he sympathised with them, and he felt compassion for them. And they, sensing his great love, trusted him unreservedly, were obedient to him, and adored him. At his cell one would see not only young people who were living Spiritually and wanted to dedicate themselves to God as well as others who wanted to have families, but also drug addicts, anarchists, runaways, the mentally ill, as well as confused and suicidal youth. By means of the Elder’s counsels, they repented and pulled themselves together, and when they would next visit him they would be Spiritually transformed. They also became preachers of repentance to their friends, and brought them to see the Elder.”
The Elder is Saint Paisios the Athonite
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“Young persons should try to live as Spiritually as they can before marriage, since preserving their chastity secures their physical and Spiritual health.”
Saint Paisios the Athonite
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“The cunning devil takes advantage of young people, who, on top of everything else, have to deal with the rebellion of their flesh, and he tries to destroy them during this difficult period of their life, when the mind is not yet mature, the experience is missing and their spiritual reserves are almost non-existent. This is why, during this critical period, young people must always seek the advice of their elders, so that they may not slip down the sweet secular slope, which will only fill their Soul with anxiety and separate it eternally from God…”
Saint Paisios the Athonite
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“Young people should keep in mind the all-powerful words of God.”
Saint Sophia Kleisoura the Eldress
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“There is nothing what adorns the youth more, than do chastity and marriage free of any lechery.”
Saint John Chrysostom
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“There, where I shepherded the animals, I slowly read, word by word, the life of Saint John the Hut-dweller and I loved Saint John very much. I said a lot of prayers, like the young child that I was, twelve or fifteen years old, I don’t remember too well. I wanted to follow his example… I always made the effort to Pray, to read the Hymns of the Church, the Holy Scriptures and the Lives of the Saints. May you do the same. I tried, by the Grace of God, to approach God and may you also do the same.”
Saint Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia
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“If young people would taste the Grace of God just once, it would take a crane to pull them out of His Church.”
Saint Paisios the Athonite
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