User:Arbible/Quotations

"Fortunate is the man who has these two loves in his heart, that for God and that for his brethren. He surely has God; and whoever has God has every blessing and does not bear to commit sin. Again, wretched is the man who does not have these two loves. surely he has the devil and evil, and always sins. God, my brethren, asks us to have these two loves. As He Himself says in His Holy Gospel: `On these two commandments hang all the law and the Prophets.' Through these two loves all the Saints of our Church, men and women, attained sainthood and won Paradise."

St. Cosmas Aitolos.

"It is not free will but `it is the Lord Who sets the captives free' (Ps. 145:7). It is not our own virtue but `it is the Lord Who lifts up those who were laid low' (Ps. 145:8). It is not application to reading but `it is the Lord Who gives wisdom to the blind.' It is not our cautiousness but 'it is the Lord Who protects the stranger' (Ps. 145:9). It is not our endurance but 'it is the Lord Who raises or gives support to the fallen' (Ps. 144:14)."

St. John Cassian.

"A man cannot receive spiritual knowledge except he be converted, and become as a little child. For only then does he experience that delight which belongs to the Kingdom of the Heavens. By `Kingdom of the Heavens' the Scriptures mean spiritual divine vision. This cannot be found through the workings of our deliberations, but by grace it can be tasted. Until a man has been purified, he is not even capable of hearing of it, for no one is able to acquire it by instruction."

St. Isaac the Syrian.

"Let us toil, carrying each other`s burdens, as Christ carried our diseases in His body without flinching. If Christ is our master, then let us imitate Him and bear His injuries, lest in the age to come we be separated from our brothers who suffered afflictions. Such was also the fate of others because they wanted to give themselves not to virtues but rather to vices."

St. Pachomius the Great.