Depression suppresses us from the lack of God’s grace in our heart and soul for without God nothing makes sense anymore, we lose our aim and purpose in life and since the result of God’s grace is love, happiness and peace, then that is why we fall victim to depression. Besides that we suffer from depression as a result of a cronical bad habit or because of the devil’s warfare of the thoughts which have succeeded to convince us that we are good for nothing and that nobody loves us.

Depression is cured by intense prayer, talking and contemplating with God and with persons which are close to Him, that is with spiritual men. We really need to go out and talk with such people as bearers of the image of God and hence only another real person can satisfy our need of love. On electronic media, this thing can be achieved only on a very small and insufficient level -and if !

Besides that, we need to work, to be active. We need to do something concretely for others in order to convince ourselves that we really have achieved something of value, either to ourselves or to others. The point here is to help ourselves and others even with minute things. We must avoid trusting or focusing too much in our own judgements and concluding that everything doesn’t matter or, on the contrary, everything is extremely important. We must be prepared to cut our will, to have patience, faith in God’s love and above all to despair not!

Finally a peaceful outing or a hobby, spiritual chanting and more generally, a good art – cures the spirit of sorrow in a marvelous way, however, we need to be attentive so as not fall in other passions in this way.

Based on Saint John Cassian, Saint John of the Ladder

The photos are shot in an expedition of Friends of Mount Athos at the Tower of Kaletzi (Colciu) near Vatopaidi in order to clean up the the internal area and the access path to it.

The tower of Kolitsou was initially built in the 12th or the 13th century as part of the old monastery of Kaletzi. The monastery was founded by members of the noble family of Kaletzi from Mani and it was named either Kaletzi either Collegio.

In the 14th century, the tower was reconstructed and granted to the Vatopaidi Monastery. This, most probably, happened in 1341 and was a decision of the Byzantine emperor Ioannis VI Kantakouzenos who had visited Vatopaidi that year.

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