welcome… me… just the sinner… a listener, an observer, a thinkerGlory to Jesus Christ! Glory Forever! Lord Jesus Christ, an admirer… I am an Orthodox Catholic Christian interested in computersSon of God, electronics, automation, soccer, music, life, love, Truth, Holy Tradition, the Holy Trinityhave mercy on me, the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, the Holy Bible/Holy Scripture, ethics, morality, philosophy, religion, spirituality, asceticism, Creation, and pro-lifesinner.
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welcome… me… just the sinner… a listener, an observer, a thinker, an admirer… I am an Orthodox Catholic Christian interested in computers, electronics, automation, soccer, music, life, love, Truth, Holy Tradition, the Holy Trinity, the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, the Holy Bible/Holy Scripture, ethics, morality, philosophy, religion, spirituality, asceticism, Creation, and pro-life.
The Orthodox Church in America received me into membership by Chrismation by priest/monk Fr. Rev. E.A. (Simeon) Weare, memory eternal, in the parish St. Nicholas the Wonder-Maker in 1992.
—the unworthy servant and chief of sinners, th
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Orthodoxy [one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church] is the true faith believed by all the Saints, everywhere, at all times.
We are Orthodox… but not Jewish… We are Evangelical… but not Protestant… We are Catholic… but not Papist… We are Pre-Denominational… but not Divided… We are the Christian Church… but not a Church… We have believed, taught, preserved, defended, and died for the Faith of the Apostles since the Day of Pentecost… Saints… We are the HOLY ORTHODOX CATHOLIC CHURCH… Est. 33 AD
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Favorite Quotations:
“The finest trick of the devil is to persuade you that he does not exist.” —Charles Baudelaire, Paris Spleen (Le Spleen de Paris)
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” —Edmund Burke
“The problem with the future is that it keeps turning into the present.” —Bill Watterson
“The future is not what it once was.” —Yogi Berra
“I keep six honest serving-men
“I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.” —Albert Einstein
“When two men [in business] always agree, one of them is unnecessary.” —William Wrigley Jr., The American Magazine, 1931 “Assume the person you're listening to knows something you don't.” —Dr. Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos “Inequality is the price of civilization.” —George Orwell “During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.” —George Orwell “The only thing we learn further a society drifts from history the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it.” —George Orwell “Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.” —George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four “The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth.” —George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four “We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.” —George Orwell “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” —George Orwell “People will never come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that we learn nothing from historyundo their capacities to think.” —Aldous Huxley “Censorship reflects a society's lack of confidence in itself.” — Potter Stewart “Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it.” —Friedrich Hegel—Mark Twain
“Where they burn books, so too will they in the end burn human beings.” —Heinrich Heine
“The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.” —Friedrich Hegel
“Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.” —Edmund Burke
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.” —John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton
“The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it.” —H. L. Mencken
“An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.” —Mahatma Gandhi
“Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear, and the blind can see.” —Mark Twain
“Democracy is the dictatorship of the ignorant masses.” —Plato
“So long as I do not firmly and irrevocably possess the right to vote I do not possess myself. I cannot make up my mind – it is made up for me. I cannot live as a democratic citizen, observing the laws I have helped to enact – I can only submit to the edict of others.” —Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around.” —G. K. Chesterton
“Having heard all of this, you may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again that you did not know.” —William Wilberforce
“He who strikes terror in others is himself continually in fear.” —Claudius Claudianus
“Ignorance is the cause of fear.” —Lucius Annaeus Seneca
“Who feareth to suffer suffereth already, because he feareth.” —Michel de Montaigne
“The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.” —Thomas Jefferson
“You matter because you are you, and you matter to the end of your life. We will do all we can not only to help you die peacefully, but also to live until you die.” —Dame Cicely Saunders (1918-2005), founder of the Hospice Palliative Care movement
“Sweet is the lore which Nature brings; Our meddling intellect - Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:-- We murder to dissect.” —William Wordsworth
“The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.” —Marcus Aurelius
“For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else. It is about your outlook towards life. You can either regret or rejoice.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The hardest job kids face today is learning good manners without seeing any.” —Fred Astaire
“Like father, like son.” —Traditional Proverb
“Politeness has become so rare that people mistake it for flirtation.” —unknown
“Political correctness is tyranny with manners.” —Charlton Heston
“All tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but once the fraud is exposed they must rely exclusively on force.” —George Orwell
“In the time of heroes and tyrants, the true heroes are the small men.” —unknown
“Here is the test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: If you're alive, it isn't.” —unknown
“Don't try to do two things at once and expect to do justice to both.” —Traditional Proverb
“And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count, it's the life in your years.” —Abraham Lincoln
“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” —Mark Twain
“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” —Friedrich Nietzsche
“Things turn out best for those who make the best of the way things turn out.” —John Wooden
“The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.” —Nelson Henderson
“Silence speaks volumes.” —Traditional Proverb
“Silence is golden.” —Traditional Proverb
“Silence is the element in which great things fashion themselves together; that at length they may emerge, full-formed and majestic, into the daylight of Life, which they are thenceforth to rule.” —Thomas Carlyle
“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.” —Mark Twain
“It's easier to fool people then to convince them they have been fooled.” —Mark Twain
“The wise speak because they have something to say, fools because they have to say something.” —Plato
“The refusal to take sides on great moral issues is itself a decision. It is a silent acquiescence to evil. The Tragedy of our time is that those who still believe in honesty lack fire and conviction, while those who believe in dishonesty are full of passionate conviction.” —Fulton J. Sheen
“We must always takes sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” —Elie Wiesel
“Facts don't care about feelings.” —Ben Shapiro
“At “There's nothing in the center middle of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin the road but yellow stripes and by illusiondead armadillos.” —Jim Hightower “People are funny, a point they want the front of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to Godthe bus, which is never at our disposal, from which God disposes our lives, which is inaccessible to the fantasies middle of our own mind or the brutalities of our own will. This little point of nothingness road, and of absolute poverty is the pure glory back of God in us… It is like a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heavenchurch. It is in everybody” —Debbie Macomber, and if we could see it we would see these billions of points of light coming together in the face and blaze of a sun Call Me Mrs. Miracle “Arguing that would make all you don't care about the darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely…I right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no program for this seeing. It is only given. But the gate of heaven is everywheredifferent than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say.” —Thomas Merton—Edward Snowden
“The holocaust has to be thought as a chapter in the long history of man's inhumanity to man. One cannot ignore the discrimination inflicted on many people because of race, color, or creed. One cannot ignore slavery. One cannot ignore the burning of witches. One cannot ignore the killing of Christians in the Roman period. The holocaust perhaps is the culmination of the kind of horror that can occur when man loses his integrity, his belief in the sanctity of human life.” —Dr. Randolph Braham, Holocaust Survivor
“Better to be slapped with the truth than kissed with a lie.” —Russian Proverb
“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act“Lies written in ink can never disguise facts written in blood.” —George Orwell “The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it.” —George Orwell—Lu Xun
“Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth because they don't want their illusions destroyed.” —Friedrich Nietzsche
“A man is still a slave who is afraid to speak his heart.” —Raiders of the Seven Seas (1953)
“There's no mask for a treacherous heart like an honest face.” —Captain Kidd (1945)
“Sometimes when you're troubled and hurt, you pour yourself into things that can't hurt back.” —Gentleman's Agreement (1947)
Man never is, but always to be blest:
The soul, uneasy and confin'd from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.” —Alexander Pope (, An Essay on Man, Epistle I, 1733) “Patriotism is as fierce as a fever, pitiless as the grave, blind as a stone, and irrational as a headless hen.” —Ambrose Bierce “A nation is a society united by a delusion about its ancestry and a common fear of its neighbors.” —W.R. Inge “Patriotism means unqualified and unwavering love for the nation, which implies not uncritical eagerness to serve, not support for unjust claims, but frank assessment of its vices and sins, and penitence for them.” —Alexander Solzhenitsyn “Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real estate above principles.” —George Jean Nathan
“They knew that the tree is known by its fruit and that injustice corrupts a tree, that its fruit withers and shrivels and falls at last to that dark ground of history where other great hopes have rotted and died, where equality and freedom remains still the only choice for wholeness and soundness in a man or in a nation.” —Gentleman's Agreement (1947)
“Freedom – truthful free speech, open discourse, and debate – is the soil for real science to emerge from which we may uncover truth to identify real problems so as to innovate real solutions for the health of our body, community and world.” —Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai
“Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.” —Abraham Lincoln
“Only the courteous can love, but it is love that makes them courteous.” —C. S. Lewis, The Allegory of Love
“How long is love blind? Love has eyes and sees. And if love can see, and seeing, you love anyway, that's love.” —Gertrude Berg (, The Goldbergs, s1e10, 1955)
“You never receive love until you learn how to accept it.” —Mr. Roarke (, Fantasy Island, s4e7)
“You never deny love until you learn how to reject it.” —th
“Truth can never be told so as to be understood and not be believed.” —William Blake
“The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of… We know the truth not only by the reason, but by the heart.” —Blaise Pascal
“The human heart can see what is hidden to the eyes, and the heart knows things that the mind does not begin to understand.” —They Might Be Giants (1971)
“At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God, which is never at our disposal, from which God disposes our lives, which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our own mind or the brutalities of our own will. This little point of nothingness and of absolute poverty is the pure glory of God in us… It is like a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven. It is in everybody, and if we could see it we would see these billions of points of light coming together in the face and blaze of a sun that would make all the darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely…I have no program for this seeing. It is only given. But the gate of heaven is everywhere.” —Thomas Merton
“Criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a man's growth without destroying his roots.” —Frank A. Clark
“And she [Athens] has brought it about that the name "Hellenes" suggests no longer a race but an intelligence, and that the title "Hellenes" is applied rather to those who share our culture then to those who share a common blood.” —Isocrates
“Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood, let alone believed by the masses.” —Plato
“He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare; and he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
“I teach them all the good I can, and recommend them to others from whom I think they will get some moral benefit. And the treasures that the wise men of old have left us in their writings I open and explore with my friends. If we come on any good thing, we extract it, and we set much store on being useful to one another.” —Socrates
“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, remembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree
Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.” —T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets
“What a lot of things there are a man can do without.” —Socrates
“Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.” —Aristotle
“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” —Aristotle
“Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned,
Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.” —William Congreve (, The Mourning Bride, spoken by Zara in Act III, Scene VIII)
“Control thy passions lest they take vengeance on thee.” —Epictetus
That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him
In my heart’s core, ay, in my heart of heart,
As I do thee.” —William Shakespeare (, Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 2, Page 3)
“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” —C. S. Lewis
“There are more things in heaven and earth, …
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” —William Shakespeare (, Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 5, Page 8)
“A philosophical vogue is as irresistible as a gastronomic one: an idea is no better refuted than a sauce.” —E. M. Cioran
“Mankind is made of two kinds of people: wise people who know they're fools, and fools who think they are wise.” —Socrates
“I am indeed amazed when I consider how weak my mind is and how prone to error.” —Descartes—René Descartes “…a…transparent mind, …in no way implies clear thinking.” —Columbo (1971)
“If you hear that someone is speaking ill of you, instead of trying to defend yourself you should say: ‘He obviously doesn't know me very well, since there are so many other faults he could have mentioned.’” —Epictetus
“While the admission of a design for the universe ultimately raises the question of a Designer (a subject outside of science), the scientific method does not allow us to exclude data which lead to the conclusion that the universe, life and man are based on design. To be forced to believe only one conclusion--that everything in the universe happened by chance would violate the very objectivity of science itself.” —Werner Von Braun, Ph.D., the father of the NASA space program
“With me the horrid doubt always arises whether the convictions of man’s mind, which has been developed from the mind of the lower animals, are of any value or at all trustworthy.” —Charles Darwin
“Evolutionary naturalism implies that we should not take any of our convictions seriously, including the scientific world picture on which evolutionary naturalism depends.
That is, naturalism, and therefore atheism, undermines the foundations of the very rationality that is needed to construct or understand or believe in any kind of argument whatsoever, let alone a scientific one.” —Thomas Nagel, Mind and Cosmos
“Do not say, ‘this happened by chance, while this came to be of itself.’ In all that exists there is nothing disorderly, nothing indefinite, nothing without purpose, nothing by chance… … How many hairs are on your head? God will not forget one of them. Do you see how nothing, even the smallest thing, escapes the gaze of God?” —St. Basil the Great
“Relativity applies to physics, not ethics.” —Albert Einstein
“When people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing – they believe in anything.” —G. K. Chesterton
“Our culture has accepted two huge lies. The first is that if you disagree with someone’s lifestyle, you must fear or hate them. The second is that to love someone means you agree with everything they believe or do. Both are nonsense. You don’t have to compromise convictions to be compassionate.” —Rick Warren “Evil preaches tolerance until it is dominant, then it tries to silence good.” —Charles J. Chaput “If everyone has his own truth, where is falsehood? Falsehood hides behind the guise of truth. They say to us: Every person has his own truth, we should respect everyone’s everyone's opinion and have no right to express any opposition to his error because that would be ‘intolerant’. Then where is Truth? Have we erased it? God is absolute Truth.” —Archbishop Stephan (Kalaidjishvili) of Tsageri and Lentekhi, Georgia
“Faithful copies of a counterfeit original yield only more counterfeits.” —unknown
“Seeing, contrary to popular wisdom, isn't believing. It's where belief stops, because it isn't needed any more.” —Terry Pratchett
“To trust God in the light is nothing, but to trust Him in the dark – that is faith.” —Charles Spurgeon
“Faith is not the clinging to a shrine but an endless pilgrimage of the heart.” —Abraham Joshua Heschel
“God tends the pagans too, but the Christian knows the donor.” —St. Tikhon of Voronezh
“We do not worship a created thing, but the Master of created things, the Word of God made flesh. Although the flesh itself, considered separately, is a part of created things, yet it has become the body of God. We do not worship this body after having separated it from the Word. Likewise, we do not separate the Word from the body when we wish to worship Him. But knowing that ‘the Word was made flesh,’ we recognise the Word existing in the flesh as God.” —St. Athanasius of Alexandria, Ep. ad Adelph., par. 3
“Take, in the next place, the subjection by which you subject the Son to the Father. What, you say, is He not now subject, or must He, if He is God, be subject to God? You are fashioning your argument as if it concerned some robber, or some hostile deity. But look at it in this manner: that as for my sake He was called a curse, who destroyed my curse; and sin, who taketh away the sin of the world; and became a new Adam to take the place of the old, just so He makes my disobedience His own as Head of the whole body.
As long then as I am disobedient and rebellious, both by denial of God and by my passions, so long Christ also is called disobedient on my account. But when all things shall be subdued unto Him on the one hand by acknowledgment of Him, and on the other by a reformation, then He Himself also will have fulfilled His submission, bringing me whom He has saved to God. For this, according to my view, is the subjection of Christ; namely, the fulfilling of the Father's Will. But as the Son subjects all to the Father, so does the Father to the Son; the One by His Work, the Other by His good pleasure, as we have already said. And thus He Who subjects presents to God that which he has subjected, making our condition His own. Of the same kind, it appears to me, is the expression, ‘My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?’ It was not He who was forsaken either by the Father, or by His own Godhead, as some have thought, as if It were afraid of the Passion, and therefore withdrew Itself from Him in His Sufferings (for who compelled Him either to be born on earth at all, or to be lifted up on the Cross?) But as I said, He was in His own Person representing us. For we were the forsaken and despised before, but now by the Sufferings of Him Who could not suffer, we were taken up and saved. Similarly, He makes His own our folly and our transgressions; and says what follows in the Psalm, for it is very evident that the 22nd Psalm refers to Christ.” —St. Gregory the Theologian, On God and Christ, Oration 30, V
“This I give you to share, and to defend all your life, the one Godhead and power, found in the three in unit, and comprising the three separately; not unequal, in substances or natures, neither increased nor diminished by superiorities nor inferiorities; in every respect equal, in every respect the same; just as the beauty and the greatness of the heavens is one; the infinite conjunction of three infinite ones, each God when considered in himself; as the Father, so the Son; as the Son, so “The Lord calls the Holy Spirit; the three one God when contemplated together; each God because consubstantial; one God because 'voice of the monarchiaa gentle breeze'. No sooner do I conceive of the one than I am illumined by the splendor of the three; no sooner do I distinguish them than I am carried back to the one. When I think of anyone of the three I think of him as the whole, and my eyes are filledFor God is breath, and the greater part breath of what I am thinking escapes me. I cannot grasp the greatness of that one so as to attribute a greater greatness to the rest. When I contemplate the three together, I see but one torch, and cannot divide or measure out the undivided lightwind is shared by all.” —St. Gregory Maximus the Theologian (Gregory Nazianzen, Gregory of Nazianzus), Orations 40.41, as quoted by Robert Letham, The Holy Trinity, 378Confessor
“The Lord calls “We neither call the Holy Spirit unbegotten, for we know but one unbeggoten and one source of all things, the 'voice Father of a gentle breeze'our Lord Jesus Christ, nor do we call Him begotten, for we are taught by the tradition of the faith that there is one only-begotten. For God is breathRather, and we have been taught that the breath Spirit of Truth proceeds from the wind is shared by allFather and confess that He comes from God in an uncreated fashion.” —St. Maximus Basil the ConfessorGreat, Letter 125, PG 32.549c
“We neither call the “The Holy Spirit unbegotten, for we know but one unbeggoten and one source of all thingsproceeds from the Father, not in the Father manner of our Lord Jesus Christ, nor do we call Him being begotten, for we are taught by but in the tradition manner of the faith that there procession (οὐ γεννητῶς, ἀλλ ἐκπορευτῶς). This is one only-begotten. Rather, we have been taught that a different way of existence as incomprehensible and unknown as the Spirit generation of Truth proceeds from the Father and confess that He comes from God in an uncreated fashionSon.” —St. Basil John of Damascus, An Exact Exposition on the Great (Letter 125Orthodox Faith, 1, 8, PG 3294.549c)816c
“The Father is in the Son, and the Son in the Father, whilst the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Father and resteth in the Son. But at the same time each Person has Its own particular properties: God the Father is not begotten, not created, does not proceed; the Son is begotten; the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father, whilst the substance of the three Persons is one, a Divine, incomplex substance. This similarity is based upon the words of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, Who calls Himself the Light of the world, and thus speaks of the Holy Ghost, comparing It in Its actions to the element water: ‘He that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive.’ 415 He also compared the Holy Ghost to the air or wind: ‘The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.’” —St. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ
“For the Father only is Unbegotten, the Son only is Begotten, and the Holy Ghost from Father Proceeding, Co-eternal to the Father and the Son, for there is One Work, and there is One Operation of the Will in the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. The Father Unbegotten, the Son Begotten, and the Holy Ghost from the Father Proceeding, Co-Eternal to the Father and Son; but That One [i.e. the Son] is Born, yet This One [i.e. the Holy Ghost] Proceeds, just as in the Gospel of Blessed John ye read: ‘The Spirit, Who Proceeds from the Father, He shall announce all things to you.’ Therefore the Holy Ghost is neither to be the Father Unbegotten, nor held to be the Son Begotten; but the Holy Ghost, Who from the Father Proceeds.” —St. Mochta of Ireland, "Profession of Faith" of St. Mochta
“For when we mention the Omnipotent Father, the appelation of this Fatherly Name is directed to the Person of the Son, and when we mention the Eternal Son, He is referred to the Person of the Eternal Father; and when we name the Holy Ghost we demonstrate Him to Proceed from the Person of the Eternal Father.” —St. Mansuetus, Letter of St. Mansuetus (Archbishop of Milan) at 679 Synod of Milan to Emperor Constantine IV
“This I give you to share, and to defend all your life, the one Godhead and power, found in the three in unit, and comprising the three separately; not unequal, in substances or natures, neither increased nor diminished by superiorities nor inferiorities; in every respect equal, in every respect the same; just as the beauty and the greatness of the heavens is one; the infinite conjunction of three infinite ones, each God when considered in himself; as the Father, so the Son; as the Son, so the Holy Spirit; the three one God when contemplated together; each God because consubstantial; one God because of the monarchia. No sooner do I conceive of the one than I am illumined by the splendor of the three; no sooner do I distinguish them than I am carried back to the one. When I think of anyone of the three I think of him as the whole, and my eyes are filled, and the greater part of what I am thinking escapes me. I cannot grasp the greatness of that one so as to attribute a greater greatness to the rest. When I contemplate the three together, I see but one torch, and cannot divide or measure out the undivided light.” —St. Gregory the Theologian, Orations 40.41, as quoted by Robert Letham, The Holy Trinity, 378
“The power to bear Mysteries, which the humble man has received, which makes him perfect in every virtue without toil, this is the very power which the blessed apostles received in the form of fire. For its sake the Saviour commanded them not to leave Jerusalem until they should receive power from on high, that is to say, the Paraclete, which, being interpreted, is the Spirit of consolation. And this is the Spirit of divine visions. Concerning this it is said in divine Scripture: ‘Mysteries are revealed to the humble’ (Ecclus 3:19). The humble are accounted worthy of receiving in themselves this Spirit of revelations Who teaches mysteries.” —St. Isaac the Syrian, Homily 77
“We, therefore, so long as we are beset by the corruptions of the flesh, in no wise behold the brightness of the Divine Power, as it abides unchangeable in itself, in that the eye of our weakness cannot endure that which shines above us with intolerable lustre from the ray of His Eternal Being. And so when the Almighty shews Himself to us by the chinks of contemplation, He does not speak to us, but whispers, in that though He does not fully develope Himself, yet something of Himself He does reveal to the mind of man. But then He no longer whispers at all, but speaks, when His appearance is manifested to us in certainty. It is hence that Truth saith in the Gospel, ‘I shall shew you plainly of the Father’ (John 16, 25). Hence John saith, ‘For we shall see Him as He is’ (1 John 3, 2). Hence Paul saith, ‘Then shall I know even as also I am known’ (1 Cor. 13, 12). Now in this present time, the Divine whispering has as many veins for our ears as the works of creation, which the Divine Being Himself is Lord of; for while we view all things that are created, we are lifted up in admiration of the Creator. For as water that flows in a slender stream is sought by being bored for through veins, with a view to increase it, and as it pours forth the more copiously, in proportion as it finds the veins more open, so we, whilst we heedfully gather the knowledge of the Divine Being from the contemplation of His creation, as it were open to ourselves the ‘veins of His whispering’, in that by the things that we see have been made, we are led to marvel at the excellency of the Maker, and by the objects that are in public view, that issues forth to us, which is hidden in concealment. For He bursts out to us in a kind of sound as it were, whilst He displays His works to be considered by us, wherein He betokens Himself in a measure, in that He shews how Incomprehensible He is. Therefore, because we cannot take thought of Him as He deserves, we hear not His voice, yea, scarcely His whispering. For because we are not equal to form a full and perfect estimate of the very things that are created, it is rightly said, Mine ear as it were by stealth received the veins of whispering; in that being cast forth from the delights of paradise, and visited with the punishment of blindness, we scarcely take in ‘the veins of whispering’; since His very marvellous works themselves we consider but hastily and slightly. But we must bear in mind, that in proportion as the soul being lifted up contemplates His Excellency, so being held back it shrinks from His Righteous Perfectness.” —St. Gregory the Great (Gregory the Dialogist), Book V, Sec. 52, Morals on the Book of Job
“‘And my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him’ (John 14:23). My friends, consider the greatness of this solemn feast that commemorates God's coming as a guest into our hearts! If some rich and influential friend were to come to your home, you would promptly put it all in order for fear something there might offend your friend's eyes when he came in. Let all of us then who are preparing our inner homes for God cleanse them of anything our wrongdoing has brought into them.” —St. Gregory the Great, on Pentecost in Be Friends of God
“If from one burning lamp someone lights another, then another from that one, and so on in succession, he has light continuously. In the same way, through the Apostles ordaining their successors, and these successors ordaining others, and so on, the grace of the Holy Spirit is handed down through all generations and enlightens all who obey their shepherds and teachers.” —St. Gregory Palamas, On how the Holy Spirit was manifested and shared out at Pentecost
“‘And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit’ (Acts 2:3-4). They partook of fire, not of burning but of saving fire; of fire which consumes the thorns of sins, but gives luster to the soul. This is now coming upon you also, and that to strip away and consume your sins which are like thorns, and to brighten yet more that precious possession of your souls, and to give you grace; for He gave it then to the Apostles. And He sat upon them in the form of fiery tongues, that they might crown themselves with new and spiritual diadems by fiery tongues upon their heads. A fiery sword barred of old the gates of Paradise; a fiery tongue which brought salvation restored the gift.” —St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Book Catechetical Lectures of St. Cyril of Jerusalem
“The Church is without beginning, without end and eternal, just as the Triune God, her founder, is without beginning, without end and eternal. She is uncreated just as God is uncreated. She existed before the ages, before the angels, before the creation of the world – before the foundation of the world as the Apostle Paul says. She is a divine institution and in her dwells the whole fullness of divinity. She is an expression of the richly varied wisdom of God. She is the mystery of mysteries. She was concealed and was revealed in the last of times. The Church remains unshaken because she is rooted in the love and wise providence of God.
The three persons of the Holy Trinity constitute the eternal Church.” —St. Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia, Wounded by Love
“Christ, invisible to the bodily eye, manifests Himself on earth clearly through His Church … The Church is the Body of Christ both because its parts are united to Christ through His divine mysteries and because through her Christ works in the world.” —St. John (Maximovitch) of Shanghai and San Francisco
“In the history of the human race there have been three principal falls: that of Adam, that of Judas, and that of the pope.” —St. Justin Popovich
“They [Rome] do not know and do not wish to know the truth; they argue with those who proclaim the truth to them, and assert their heresy.” —St. Basil the Great, letter to Eusebius of Samosata
“When we Greeks find fault with the filioque, they shake Peter's keys at us… … Nevertheless differences of custom and usage are no sufficient ground for schism. Experience shows that arguing about azyma and Lenten fasts gets nowhere. The Greeks should be accommodating and make concessions to the ignorant western barbarians, hoping that in time they will correct their errors to conform to the apostolic tradition stemming from Jerusalem.” —Blessed Theophylact of Ochrid, The Errors of the Latins in Ecclesiastical Matters
“Even if the whole universe holds communion with the [heretical] patriarch, I will not communicate with him. For I know from the writings of the holy Apostle Paul: the Holy Spirit declares that even the angels would be anathema if they should begin to preach another Gospel, introducing some new teaching.” —St. Maximus the Confessor, The Life of St. Maximus the Confessor
“All the teachers of the Church, and all the Councils, and all the Divine Scriptures advise us to flee from the heterodox and separate from their communion.” —St. Mark of Ephesus
“The Ecumenism is a huge lie; “‘But if,’ they speak in say, ‘we had devised some middle ground between the name dogmas (of a love outside of Christ, which excludes you from the Truth. If Papists and the Ecumenists really loved the worldOrthodox), they then thanks to this we would not disown the truth of the value have united with them and the spiritual richness of Church Tradition accomplished our business superbly, without at all having been forced to say anything except what corresponds to custom and of has been handed down (by the Holy Fathers). They disown Christianity from the gracious beauty. God has left from them, what remains ’ This is only their ego. No, we don’t need You. We lead precisely the worldmeans by which many, we rule the world, we give the bread, we give the happiness on this earth. Jesus must be arrested again not to disturb our march. Eliminating God from the world and of the soul in any way – this is the goal of the Ecumenism also repelled by Saint Justin Popovich. The Ecumenism and the globalization are at the forefront of the apocalyptic times. They want to accustom the eye and the spirit of the Orthodox with the habit to serve together with these hereticsold, until they get to have Communion from the same chalice. Because this could give them the right to build their own churches. But no, they want strategically been deceived and persuaded to compromise the shrines and the faint hearted priests follow those who are quick to “obedience”. The Ecumenists have led them off the false impression that they will bring something new in the Church steep precipice of Christ. Let us not forget impiety; believing that the Church there is some middle ground between the body whose head is Christ. You two teachings that can not break it from Christ Who is the Pathreconcile obvious contradictions, the Truth and the Life. The Ecumenists will not fulfill anything. You can not change the reality according they have been exposed to the human interestsperil. The divine reality remains the same in every age” —St. The Holy Spirit speaks through the mouths of the bearers Mark of GodEphesus, not of the bearers of human interests. The Christian Church has never gone after the crowd; not the many lead or hold the truthEncyclical Letter, but the few, chosen, as the carriers of the Holy Spirit. We do work only under this Father’s truth, the Gospel of our Lord and the Orthodox Church Tradition. All this falsehood which has appeared in our world has no other purpose than to embarrass and undermine the whole tradition and the beliefs of a nation. Questions are not posed and answers are not given, and people take for granted everything that has been written at the official level. But, by not solving these dogmatic problems the untruth slowly settles in our Orthodox Christian Church. All the Ecumenical attempts of unifying the other Christian communities found in heresyWord, the dialogues which have developed in our Orthodox Christian Church, since I know, haven’t got any result because they have false basis, they are untrue and do nothing but disturb the authentic Christian life.” —Elder Justin (Pârvu) of RomaniaMarch-April-May, Din învățăturile și minunile Părintelui Justin1967
“We do not change “Whoever preserves himself from them (the boundaries marked out by our Fathers. We keep Latins) and keeps his faith pure will stand rejoicing at the Tradition we have received. If we begin right hand of God, but whoever willfully draws close to lay down them will stand weeping bitterly with them on the Law of the Church even left. For there is no eternal life for those living in the smallest things, faith of the whole edifice will fall to Latins or the ground in no short time.” —St. John of DamascusSaracens…
“FinallyIf someone says to you: ‘Both your and our faith are from God’, in the twilight of historyyou child, the dictator of the world will comemust reply to him as follows: ‘Who are you, the son of perdition… whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth (2 Thess. 2:8). And in all you heretic? Do you think that time of peaceGod has two faiths? Have you not heard, happiness accursed and prosperity, there ‘will be great tribulation such perverted as was not from you are by an evil faith that which is written: Thus saith the beginning of the worldLord: one Lord, nor will ever be after’ (Mat. 24:21). Because of these troublesone faith, many will repent and turn to God the Saviour. And in them the Lord will have His last harvest.one baptism…’
The countries Thus they of evil faith, after holding to the world will lead the fight against Christ and His Church… The Church of Christ will be put outside the lawOrthodox faith for so many years, have turned away to an evil faith and public commemoration of Christto Satan's name will be proscribed with severe penalties. But only those who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. And the Son of Man, when He suddenly comes and destroys the ‘son of perdition’ [i.e. Antichrist], that last tyrant, will He find faith on the earth?teaching…
It will be found, but not in public. It will be found, but not in magnificent temples, such as are present, but in They have renounced the preaching of the caves and deserts. It will be found, but not as approved apostles and protected, but as something tossed to and fro. It will be found, but not in lavish liturgies and psalmody but in the temples edification of the human heart holy fathers, and in whispered speakingshave accepted a faith based on error and a perverted dogma leading to perdition. For the Church began in MartyrdomTherefore, they have been torn away from us and in the end there She will find Martyrdom, O holy brethren.” set apart…” —St. Nikolai Velimirovich, The Orthodox Church in the "twilight Theodosius of history"Kiev
“So mine “It is a little flock? But it is not being carried over a precipice. So mine is a narrow fold? But it is unapproachable by wolves; it cannot be entered by a robber, nor overcome by thieves and strangers. I shall yet see it, I know well, grow wider… I fear not for impossible to recall peace without dissolving the little flock; for it is seen at a glance. I know my sheep and am known cause of mine. Such are they that know God and are known of God. My sheep hear from my voice that which I have heard from the oracles schism – the primacy of God, which I have been taught by the Holy Fathers, which I have taught in like manner on all occasions, not conforming myself Pope exalting himself equal to fashion, and which I will never cease to teach; in which I was born, and in which I will departGod.” —St. Gregory the TheologianMark of Ephesus
“Concerning the Patriarch I shall say this, lest it should perhaps occur “The Holy Spirit is nowhere to him to show me a certain respect at the burial of this my humble body, or to send to my grave any of his hierarchs or clergy or in general any of those in communion with him in order to take part in prayer or to join the priests invited to it from amongst us, thinking that at some time, or perhaps secretly, I had allowed communion with him. And lest my silence give occasion to those who do not know my views well and fully to suspect some kind of conciliation, I hereby state and testify before the many worthy men here present that I do not desire, in any manner and absolutely, and do not accept communion with him or with those who are with him, not in this life nor after my death, just as be found among them (I accept) neither the Union nor Latin dogmas, which he and his adherents have accepted, and for the enforcement of which he has occupied this presiding place, with the aim of overturning the true dogmas of the Church. I am absolutely convinced that the farther I stand from him and those like him, the nearer I am to God and all the saints, and to the degree that I separate myself from them am in union with the Truth and with the Holy Fathers, the Theologians of the Church; and I am likewise convinced that those who count themselves with them stand far away from the Truth and from the blessed Teachers of the Church. And for this reason I say: just as in the course of my whole life I was separated from them, so at the time of my departure, yea and after my death, I turn away from intercourse and communion with them and vow and command that none (of themPapists) shall approach either my burial or my grave, and likewise anyone else from our side, with the aim of attempting to join and concelebrate in our Divine services; for this would be to mix what cannot be mixed. But it befits them to be absolutely separated from us until such time as God shall grant correction and peace to His Churchbecause their mysteries are graceless.” —St. Mark of Ephesus, The Example —Dositheos of, [as quoted in The Orthodox Word, June-July, 1967, pp. 103ff.]Jerusalem
“With all our strength let us beware lest we receive Communion from or give it to heretics. ‘Give not what is holy to the dogs,’ says the Lord. ‘Neither cast ye your pearls before swine’, lest we become partakers in their dishonour “Holy Orthodoxy has two eternal enemies: Mecca and condemnationRome.” —St. John of Damascus, Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, IV, 13Kosmas Aitolos
“In sum, “Orthodoxy has one thing to say to the Ecumenical Patriarchate, in theory embracing almost ecumenical movement: here is the whole universe and in fact extending its authority only over several diocesestruth, and in other places having only a higher superficial supervision and receiving certain revenues for join yourself to it; to remain to ‘discuss’ this, persecuted by truth not merely weakens the government at home and not supported by any governmental authority abroad: having lost its significance as a pillar of truth and having itself become a source of divisionOrthodox witness, and at the same time being possessed by an exorbitant love of power--represents a pitiful spectacle which recalls the worst periods in the history of the See of Constantinopleit destroys it.” —St—Fr. John (Maximovitch) Seraphim Rose of Shanghai and San Francisco, from Orthodox Word, vol. 8, no. 4 (45), July-August 1972, pp. 166-168, 174-175.Platina
“The Lord of all gave to His apostles “That only the power of canonical Scriptures have infallibility is testified by Blessed Augustine in the gospel, words which he writes to Jerome: ‘It is fitting to bestow such honour and by them we also have learned veneration only to the truthbooks of Scripture which are called 'canonical, ' for I absolutely believe that is, the teaching none of the Son of God—as the Lord said to authors who wrote themerred in anything. … As for other writings, ‘He who hears you hears Meno matter how great was the excellence of their authors in sanctity and learning, in reading them I do not accept their teaching as true solely on the basis that they thus wrote and he who despises you despises Methought.’ Then, and Him Who sent Me’ in a letter to Fortunatus [LkSt.10Mark continues in his citations of Augustine] he writes the following:16]. For we learned ‘We should not hold the plan judgment of our salvation from no other than from those through whom the gospel came to us. The first preached it abroada man, even though this man might have been orthodox and then later by had an high reputation, as the will same kind of God handed it down to us in authority as the canonical Scriptures, to be the foundation and pillar extent of our faith. For considering it is not right to say that they preached before they had come to perfect knowledgeinadmissible for us, as some dare to say, boasting that they are the correctors out of the apostles. For after our Lord had risen from the deadreverence we owe such men, to disapprove and reject something in their writing if we should happen to discover that they were clothed with taught other than the power from on high when the Holy Spirit came upon themtruth which, they were filled with all things and had perfect knowledgeGod's help, has been attained by others or by ourselves. They went out This is how I am with regard to the ends writings of the earth, preaching the good things that come to us from God, and proclaiming peace from heaven to all other men, all ; and each of them equally being in possession of I desire that the gospel of Godreader will act thus with regard to my writings also.” ’” —St. Irenaeus Mark of LyonsEphesus, Against HeresiesSecond Homily on Purgatorial Fire, IIIchs. 15-16; Pogodin, pp. 127-132
“Those that wish to discern “The Ecumenism is a huge lie; they speak in the name of a love outside of Christ, which excludes you from the Truth. If the Ecumenists really loved the world, they would not disown the truth may observe of the value and the apostolic tradition made manifest in every church throughout spiritual richness of Church Tradition and of the Holy Fathers. They disown Christianity from the worldgracious beauty. God has left from them, what remains is only their ego. No, we don’t need You. We can enumerate those who were appointed bishops in lead the world, we rule the churches by world, we give the apostlesbread, and their successors (or successions) down we give the happiness on this earth. Jesus must be arrested again not to disturb our own day, who never taught, march. Eliminating God from the world and never knew, absurdities such as these men produceof the soul in any way – this is the goal of the Ecumenism also repelled by Saint Justin Popovich. For if The Ecumenism and the apostles had known hidden mysteries which they taught globalization are at the forefront of the apocalyptic times. They want to accustom the perfect in private eye and in secretthe spirit of the Orthodox with the habit to serve together with these heretics, until they would rather get to have committed Communion from the same chalice. Because this could give them the right to those to whom they entrusted the build their own churches. For But no, they wished those men want strategically to be perfect and unbelievable whom they laughed as their successors compromise the shrines and the faint hearted priests who are quick to whom ‘obedience’. The Ecumenists have the false impression that they handed over their own office will bring something new in the Church of authorityChrist. Let us not forget that the Church is the body whose head is Christ. But as You can not break it would be very tediousfrom Christ Who is the Path, the Truth and the Life. The Ecumenists will not fulfill anything. You can not change the reality according to the human interests. The divine reality remains the same in a book every age. The Holy Spirit speaks through the mouths of the bearers of this sortGod, to enumerate not of the bearers of human interests. The Christian Church has never gone after the successions in all crowd; not the churches, we can found all those who in any way, whether for self-pleasing, many lead or vaingloryhold the truth, or blindnessbut the few, or evil mindednesschosen, hold on authorized meetingsas the carriers of the Holy Spirit. This we We do by pointing to work only under this Father’s truth, the apostolic tradition Gospel of our Lord and the faith that is preached to men, Orthodox Church Tradition. All this falsehood which has come down appeared in our world has no other purpose than to us through the successions of bishops; embarrass and undermine the whole tradition and creed the beliefs of the greatesta nation. Questions are not posed and answers are not given, and most ancient church, people take for granted everything that has been written at the church known to all menofficial level. But, which was founded and set up at Rome by not solving these dogmatic problems the two men most glorious apostles, Peter and Pauluntruth slowly settles in our Orthodox Christian Church. For with this churchAll the Ecumenical attempts of unifying the other Christian communities found in heresy, because of its position of leadership and authoritythe dialogues which have developed in our Orthodox Christian Church, must needs agree every churchsince I know, that ishaven’t got any result because they have false basis, they are untrue and do nothing but disturb the faithful everywhere; for in her the apostolic tradition has always been preserved by the faithful from all partsauthentic Christian life.” —St. Irenaeus —Elder Justin (Pârvu) of Lyons, Against HeresiesRomania, IIIDin învățăturile și minunile Părintelui Justin
"True Christianity is glorifying God with our own lives. To glorify God with our own life is possible only when we “We must prepare for martyrdom and beyond this, I would not have true faith to speak if people were not powerless in spirit and when mind to understand. It's not easy to live these days. But if the Lord has so pleased that faith indeed existswe should suffer these times, then we express it in words must obey and in deeds.” —St. John (Maximovitch) receive with joy all that comes upon us, as from the hand of Shanghai God, and San Francisconot from the enemy…
“I will tell you my opinion briefly and without reserve. We ought to remain in that Church which was founded by the Apostles and continues to this dayTherefore, please stop looking for solutions. If ever you hear of any that Human solutions are called Christians taking their name not from the Lord Jesus Christ, but from some otherexistent, my dears! The solution is to die for instanceChrist. Fathers will give up their sons, Marcionitesmothers, Valentinianstheir daughters, Men of the mountain or the plain, you may be sure that you have there not the Church of Christunto death. Behold, but we witness the synagogue fulfillment of Antichristthis prophecy. For If the fact that they took their rise after mother will let the foundation of the Church is proof that they are those whose coming the Apostle foretold.child be vaccinated, it's as if giving him over to die…
And let them not flatter themselves if they think they have Scripture authority for their assertionsTherefore I say to you, since trust that the devil himself quoted ScriptureLord will give you power to confess Him. We live in an anarchic world, the entire political class is an enemy of Christ and the essence a servant of the Scriptures evil, that is why even living our simple life without abdicating our Christian principles is not the letter, but the meaning. Otherwise, if we follow the letter, we too can concoct a new dogma daily confession and assert that such persons as wear shoes and have two coats must not be received into the Church.” —Stmartyrdom. Jerome
“Sometimes Japanese protestants So: do not receive this vaccine or anything that the new political powers bring you today. The Zionists rule the world and the Americans work for them and they think they have come to me own it because they have no shyness. Everything is in sight and they are aware that they have no opponent to fear and they fight to depopulate the world, with the few who will remain to worship them. Now they're studying and ask me sorting, and the way they're going to clarify some place distinguish people from each other is the chips. Do you or do you not have a chip? For what is the chip after all? A weapon against Man. And we have no weapons; our youth is weary, that even if they want to rise from the spell in the Holy Scriptureswhich they live, they have no power.
"Our only weapons are spiritual ones: prayer, humility, love, but also confession [of Faith]. You can't love without confession [of Faith]. Love is sacrificial, and if we fear to confess the truth, what sacrifice do we have your own missionary teachers? Or if we do not care about our neighbor who is unaware and we do not inform him and we let him fall prey to this system," I tell them, "Go ask them. What what love do they saywe have?" "We Those who still struggle today to awaken their brother, who have asked them. They say: understand as you know how. But I need not remained indifferent to know the real thought future of a nation and a church, those are the children of the love of God, not my own personal opinion."who lay their lives down for their brethren…
…It's not like that with us. Everything It is clear, trustworthy important to oppose all antichrists and simple, since we accept Holy Tradition in addition die with dignity; not to the Holy Scriptures. And Holy Tradition is have a living, unbroken voice of our Church from the time of Christ and His Apostles until now, and which will exist until the end of the world. In it all the meaning of the Holy Scriptures are preservedcowardly position.” —St. Nicholas —Elder Justin (Pârvu) of JapanRomania
“It “Let not us, who would be Christians, expect anything else from it than to be crucified. For to be Christian is to be crucified, in this time and in any time since Christ Himselfcame for the first time. His life is the example – and warning – to us all. We must be crucified personally, not mystically; for through crucifixion is the only path to resurrection. If we would rise with Christ, we must first be humbled with Him – even to the ultimate humiliation, being devoured and spit forth by the Bibleuncomprehending world. And we must be crucified outwardly, Who in the eyes of the world; for Christ’s Kingdom is not of this world, and the true Word world cannot bear it, even a single representative of Godit, even for a single moment. The Bibleworld can only accept Antichrist, now or at any time. No wonder then, that it is hard to be a Christian – it is not hard, it is impossible. No one can knowingly accept a way of life which, read in the right spiritmore truly it is lived, and with lead the more surely to one’s own destruction. And that is why we constantly rebel, try to make life easier, try to be half-Christian, try to make the guidance best of good teachersboth worlds. We must ultimately choose – our felicity lies in one world or the other, will bring not in both. God give us the strength to pursue the path to crucifixion; there is no other way to Himbe Christian.” —C—Fr. S. LewisSeraphim Rose of Platina, from his journal as printed in the biography Father Seraphim Rose: His Life and Works by Hieromonk Damascene
“The humility of Jesus is not a superfluous detail in “A lukewarm clergy lulls the gospel narrative. The humility of Jesus is essential people to the gospelsleep, leaves them in their former condition so they won't be upset. If Jesus lacked humility‘Look’, they say. ‘By all means don't say that there would 'll be no incarnationa war, no crucifixionor the Second Coming, and no redemptionthat one must prepare oneself for death.” —Jack WisdomWe must not make people alarmed!’
“A And others speak with a false interpretation of Scripture causes that the gospel of the Lord becomes the gospel of mankindness, orsaying: ‘We mustn't expose heretics and their delusions, which is worse, of the devilso as to show our love for them.’ Today's people are water-soluble.” —StThere's no leaven in them. Jerome
“How long shall we continue in this manner, our intellect reduced If I avoid upsetting myself to protect my fleshly comfort then I'm indifferent to futilityholiness! Spiritual meekness is one thing, failing and softness and indifference are quite another. Some say: ‘I'm a Christian and therefore I have to make the spirit of the Gospel our own, be joyful and calm.’ But they're not knowing what it means to live according to our conscience, making no serious effort to keep it pure?” —StChristian. They're simply indifferent. And their joy is only a worldly joy. Mark the Ascetic
“It He in whom these worldly seeds are present is self evident, however, that sincere Christians who are Roman Catholics, or Lutherans, or members no spiritual person. A spiritual person consists of nothing but pain. In other non-Orthodox confessionswords, cannot be termed renegades or heretics—i.e. those who knowingly pervert the truth… They have been born and raised and are living according to the creed which they have inheritedhe's in pain at what's going on, just as do the majority of you who are Orthodox; he's in their lives there has not been a moment of personal and conscious renunciation of Orthodoxy. The Lord, ‘Who will have all men to be saved’ (I Tim. 2:4) and ‘Who enlightens every man born into the world’ (Jnpain for people's condition. 1.43), undoubtedly And divine comfort is leading them also towards salvation in His own waybestowed upon him for his pain.” —Metropolitan Philaret —St. Paisios of New YorkMt. Athos
“You ask“In our evil time, will when the heterodox be saved… Why do you worry about them? They servants of the coming Antichrist are putting forth all their efforts so as to undermine and replace authentic Orthodoxy with a false ‘Orthodoxy’ - an Orthodoxy only in name, there have appeared not a Saviour Who desires few ‘pastors’ also who bear only the salvation name of every human being. He will take care Orthodox but deny the authentic power and spirit of themtrue Orthodoxy. You and I should not be burdened with Precisely such a concern. Study yourself false pastors filled up the ranks of the (Soviet) ‘Living Church’ and your own sins… I will tell you one thing, however: should you, being Orthodox and possessing the Truth ‘Renovationist Church’ clergy in its fullness, betray Orthodoxy, and enter a different faith, you will lose your soul forever.” —Stour Russia. Theophan the Recluse
“The Orthodox confess that SHE IS But the ‘Living Church’ and ‘Renovationalism’ were not recognized by the believing Russian people, who felt in their hearts their whole falsity; and they brilliantly collapsed on the Russian soil, ceasing their official existence. However, the spirit of the ‘Living Church’ and ‘Renovationalism’ has not died, but has continued and up until now continues to live among us also in the OneRussian homeland, Holywhich has been enslaved by the godless, Universal (katholikos) and Apostolic Ecclesia! Any other model is gnosticalso abroad among all the Orthodox Local Churches who have become infected with this pestilential spirit, not without, of course, the most strenuous cooperation of those same servants of the coming Antichrist.” —St. Irenaeus of Lyons
“Orthodoxy is what Christ taughtThese pseudo-pastors, modernists and ecumenists, in place of true Orthodoxy, preach and insistently propagandize a false Orthodoxy, flattering all the sinful passions and vices of fallen man - striving in everything to go in step with the times and to adapt the Christian to the apostles preached‘world which lies in evil, ’ under all possible cunning and well sounding pretexts. Everywhere now they are seizing the reigns of government in the Fathers keptcontemporary Orthodox Local Churches.” —StThey are striving to play everywhere the leading guiding role, and often they have success, for they skillfully and cunningly make themselves seem to be zealots of Orthodoxy. Athanasius of Alexandria
“He But their actual aim is ‘the same yesterday and today and forever’ to undermine true Orthodoxy by a false ‘Orthodoxy,’ in order to make it come about, in the expression of Christ the Savior, ‘that the salt has lost its savor’ (Hebrews Matthew 5:13:8), that it might lose its saltiness - that it might lose its spirit and power. Orthodox Christians are committed to the truth claim This is a special kind of battle against the Christian Faith not as ideology but as an expression of holiness.” —Rev. Dr. George C. Papademetriou, An Orthodox Reflection on Truth & ToleranceChurch!
“The beginning Behold of theology what a frightful undertaking (of which) we are the living and immediate witnesses! By all means there is not being conducted in the card catalogue, but doing world a frightful battle against the passions; and the end Faith of theology is not becoming a professorChrist, but becoming by a saint.” —Dr. David Fagerbergpath of falsification and imitations!
“Only the Religion of Christ unites …(this) truly most frightful and nightmarish phenomenon (is) something more frightful than open atheism and all of us must pray that they come warfare against God, (for it) threatens to this. Thus union will occur, not by believing that all of us are the same thing and that all religions are the same. They are not the same… destroy our holy Orthodoxy is not related to other religions.” —St. Porphyrios from the Kapsokalyviteroot, having corrupted it from within…” —Vladyka Averky of Jordanville
“Orthodoxy is life“The faithful remnant of Christians in the last days, one must as our Lord has told us, will be very small; the vast majority of those who call themselves Christians will welcome Antichrist as the Messiah … those who are not talk about ittrue Orthodox Christians belong the ‘new Christianity’, one must live itthe ‘Christianity’ of Antichrist.” —St. Nektary of Optina
“Orthodoxy can't be comfortable unless it The Pope of Rome and practically everyone else today speaks of ‘transforming the world’ by Christianity: priests and nuns take part in demonstrations for ‘racial equality’ and similar causes. These have nothing to do with Christianity: they do nothing but distract men from their true goal, which is fakethe Kingdom of Heaven.” —Fr. Seraphim Rose of Platina
“As for all those who pretend to confess sound Orthodox FaithThe coming age of ‘peace’, but are in communion with people who hold different opinion‘unity’, and ‘brotherhood’, if they are forewarned and still remain stubbornit comes, you must not only will be the reign of Antichrist: it will be Christian in communion with themname, but you must NOT even call them brothersSatanic in spirit.” —St. Basil the Great
“TodayΕveryone today seeks happiness on earth, while and they think this is ‘Christianity’; true Orthodox Christians know that the overall teachings age of the Fathers is persecutions, which began again under attack and the shipwrecks of Faith are numerousBolsheviks, the mouths of the faithful are silent. Anyone who is capable of speaking the truth but remains silentstill with us, will be heavily judged and that only by God, especially in this case, where the faith much sorrow and tribulation are we made fit to enter the very foundation of the entire Church Kingdom of the Orthodox is in danger. To remain silent under these circumstances is to betray these, and the appropriate witness belongs to those that reproach (stand up for the faith)Heaven.” —St—Fr. Basil the Great, ep. 92Seraphim Rose of Platina
“I beseech “It may be, brethren, that soon you will again experience a time of turmoil, and some of you will be called to do take the path of denying those sacred laws and to carry out good submit to all men with care and assiduitylaws established by mere human authority. Beware of such a path! Beware of the path taken by the thief on the left, for by the weight of blasphemy, becoming all things by the weight of reviling Christ he went to all menhis eternal perdition. Those who revile the laws of the Church revile Christ Himself, as Who is the need Head of each is shown to you; I want the Church, for the laws of the Church were given by the Holy Spirit through the Apostles. And the laws of local Churches are based on those same laws and pray you to be wholly harsh and implacable with canons of the heretics only in regard to cooperating with them or in any way whatever supporting their deranged beliefChurch. For I reckon it hatred towards man Let us not consider ourselves wiser than those saints and a departure from Divine love to lend support hierarchs who established the rules of the Church; let us not imagine ourselves to error, so that those previously seized by it might be even more greatly corruptedgreat sages.Rather, let us humbly call out together with the wise thief: Remember me, O Lord, in Thy kingdom!” —St. Maximus John (Maximovitch) of Shanghai and San Francisco, Homily on the Confessor, Patrologia Graeca, Vol. 91Sunday of Orthodoxy
“Be aware not to be corrupted from love “Brothers and sisters! Let us aspire towards ascetic labor, in which is expressed precisely the essence of our Orthodox Christian faith, which is the labor of imitating Christ in bearing the cross and self-crucifixion – a faith of labor and, laboring lawfully as the heretics; Word of God teaches, let us suffer all things for this reason the Truth, not moving away from it, as do not accept any false belief (dogma) many because of their poverty of spirit or self-interest. And let us remember well: where there is no labor, where there is no steadfastness in the name of lovefaith – there is neither Orthodoxy nor true faith in God and in His Christ. Amen.” —St. John Chrysostom—Archbishop Averky (Taushev) of Syracuse
“Genuine love is displayed“Being born, then, not by of the common tablelight of truth, nor by lofty addresses or flattering words, but by the correcting shun division and bad doctrines. Where the seeking shepherd is, there you, being sheep, must follow. For many wolves there are, apparently worthy of confidence, who with the benefit bait of onebaneful pleasure seek to capture the runners in God's neighbour and the lifting up of the one who has fallen.” race; but if you stand united they will have no success…” —St. John ChrysostomIgnatius of Antioch
“Never, never, never let anyone tell you that, in order “We all want God to be Orthodox, you must also be eastern. The West was Orthodox for a thousand years, and her venerable liturgy is far older than any give unity of her heresiesfaith to the world.” —StBut you are confusing things. John (Maximovitch) of Shanghai and San Francisco
“Where the bishop The reconciliation of people isone thing, there let while the multitude reconciliation of believers be; even as where Jesus religions isanother. Christianity requires all of us to love everyone with all our hearts, there is the Catholic Church.” —Stwhatever faith they may have. Ignatius of Antioch
“Take care to do all things in harmony with God, with At the bishop presiding in the place of God, and with the presbyters in the place of the council of the apostles, and with the deacons, who same time we are most dear ordered to me, entrusted with the business of Jesus Christ, who was with the Father from the beginning keep our faith and is at last made manifest.” —Stdoctrines intact. Ignatius of Antioch, Letter As Christians you must be merciful to the Magnesians 2whole world, 6:1to all people. Even your life you should give on their behalf.
“Moreover, in the Catholic Church itself, all possible care must be taken, that we hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all. For that is truly and in the strictest sense "Catholic," which, as the name itself and But you have no right to touch the reason truths of the thing declare, comprehends all universallyChrist. This rule we shall observe if we follow universality, antiquity, consentBecause they are not yours. We shall follow universality if we confess that one The faith of Christ is not our property to be true, which the whole Church throughout the world confesses; antiquity, if we in no wise depart from those interpretations which do with it is manifest were notoriously held by our holy ancestors and fathers; consent, in like manner, if in antiquity itself as we adhere to the consentient definitions and determinations of all, or at the least of almost all priests and doctorswish.” —St. Vincent of Lérins, Commonitory, For the Antiquity and Universality of the Catholic Faith Against the Profane Novelties of All Heresies., Chapter II (circa 434 AD)Nikolai Velimirovich
“The blood of martyrs is “We do not change the boundaries marked out by our Fathers. We keep the Tradition we have received. If we begin to lay down the seed Law of the Churcheven in the smallest things, the whole edifice will fall to the ground in no short time.” —Tertullian—St. John of Damascus
“The candles lit before icons “At this dawn of saints reflect their ardent love for God for Whose sake they gave up everything that man prizes in lifemodern history, including their very livesthe thirteenth century, as did all the holy apostles, martyrs and othersseeds of modern mentality are present. These candles also mean that And modern history follows logically from these saints are lamps burning seeds. Essentially, it is one thing – the search for us and providing light for us by their own saintly livinga new Christianity which is better than Orthodoxy, their virtues and their ardent intercession for us before God through their constant prayers by day and night. The burning candles also stand for our ardent zeal and better than the sincere sacrifice we make out Christianity of reverence and gratitude the Holy Fathers, which Christ gave to them for their solicitude on our behalf before Godus.” —St. John of Kronstadt
“The saints of God live even after their death. ThusLater on, I often hear in church the Mother of God singing her wonderful, heart-penetrating song this will take forms which she said in the house go through atheism and all kinds of her cousin Elizabethwild beliefs, after but essentially the Annunciation of search remains the Archangel. At timessame, I hear and in the song of Moses; end the song of Zacharias--the father of the Forerunner; that of Hannahworld will be Christian, because it's Antichrist who gives them a new religion, the mother which is not something foreign to Christianity. It will not be some kind of the prophet Samuel; that of the three children; and that of Miriampaganism. And how many holy singers of the New Testament delight until now the ear of the whole Church of God! And the Divine service itselfIt will be something which everyone will accept as Christianity, but will be anti--the sacraments, christian. A substitute for Christianity which denies the rites? Whose spirit is there, moving and touching our hearts? That very essence of God and of His saints.” —StChristianity. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ
“Each person And that is an icon of God, of God in heaven and of God on why the cross. Yet, each person is also an icon main history of the Mother of God, who bears rebellion against Christ through is no less than the Holy Spiritapostasy which St. Our soul, therefore, unites itself in two images; participating Paul talks about. It is not by means of persecution as it was in the principles and realities beginning, but by means of both Christ taking Christianity and his Motherchanging it so that it will no longer be Christian. These are age old archetypes, symbols by which And this is what we can call the soul orients itself on Unfolding of the journeyMystery of Iniquity in preparation for Antichrist.” —St—Fr. Maria SkobtsovaSeraphim Rose of Platina, On The Imitation of the Mother of Godexcerpt from Orthodox Survival Course
“The Christian who does not feel “Regarding the affairs of the Church, in the words of the Saviour, one of the most awesome phenomena of the last days is that at that time ‘the stars shall fall from heaven’ (Matt. 24.29). According to the Virgin Mary Saviour’s own explanation, these ‘stars’ are the Angels of the Churches, in other words, the Bishops (Rev. 1.20). The religious and moral fall of the Bishops is, therefore, one of the most characteristic signs of the last days. The fall of the Bishops is his particularly horrifying when they deviate from the doctrines of the faith, or her mother , as the Apostle put it, when they ‘would pervert the Gospel of Christ’ (Gal. 1.7). The Apostle orders that such people be pronounced ‘anathema’. He said, ‘If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that which ye have received, let him be accursed (anathema)’ (Gal. 1.9). And one must not be slow about this, for he continues, ‘A man that is an orphanheretic, after the first and second admonition reject, knowing that he that is such is subverted, being condemned of himself’ (Titus 3.10-11). Moreover, you may be subject to God’s judgement if you are indifferent to deviation from the truth: ‘So them because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold not hot, I will spew thee out of My mouth’ (Rev. 3.6).” —Pope Francis—Archbishop Theophan of Poltava
“Creating man according to his image“Brother Christians! Raise your voices in defense of the Church's Apostolic Faith, the holy things of the Church, God diffused into manthe Church's very being heritage. Defend your right to believe and confess your faith as you learned it in days of old, as you were taught it by the holy apostles, the longing for holy martyrs, the divine infinitude God-wise fathers of lifethe Church, the Christian ascetics. Take care of the holiness of knowledgeyour souls, and the freedom of perfectionyour consciences. It is precisely for this reason Say loudly that you have been accustomed to pray and save yourselves in the churches, that the immeasurable longing and thirst holy things of humanity the Church are dearer to you than life itself, that without them salvation is not able to be completely satisfied by anything or anyone except impossible. No power can demand from you that which is against your faith, your religious conscience: ‘We must obey Godrather than men’, said the holy apostles. That is what we, too, must say. Declaring divine perfection as The apostles joyfully suffered for the main purpose faith. Be you also ready for sacrifice, for humanity's existence in the world – ‘Be ye therefore perfectpodvig, even as your father and remember that physical arms are powerless against those who is arm themselves with powerful faith in heaven is perfectChrist.’ (MatthFaith moves mountains, ‘the faith of the Christians has conquered the pagan boldness’. 5: 48) – May your faith be bold and courageous! Christ, destroyed Hades. He will also destroy the Savior, answered snares of the most elemental demand and need enemies of our GodChurch. Believe -like and the enemy will flee from before your face. Stand in defense of your faith and with firm hope say: ‘Let God-longing humanity.” arise, and let His enemies be scattered!’” —St. Justin PopovichHermogenes, Orthodox Faith Hieromartyr and Life in ChristBishop of Tobolsk, Highest Value and Last Criterion response to the Bolshevik tyranny in Orthodoxy1918
“Concerning “We ourselves have a feeling–based on nothing very definite as yet–that the charge best hope for preserving true Orthodoxy in the years ahead will lie in such small gatherings of idolatry: Icons are not idols but symbolsbelievers, as much as possible ‘one in mind and soul. Therefore’ The history of the twentieth century has already shown us that we cannot expect too much from the ‘Church organization’; there, when an Orthodox venerates an iconeven apart from heresies, he is not guilty the spirit of idolatry. He is not worshiping the symbol, but merely venerating itworld has become very strong. Such veneration is not directed toward woodArchbishop Averky, or paint or stoneand our own Bishop Nektary also, but towards have warned us to prepare for catacomb times ahead, when the grace of God may even be taken away from the person depicted‘Church organization’ and only isolated groups of believers will remain. Therefore relative honor is shown to material objectsSoviet Russia already gives us an example of what we may expect–only worse, but worship is due to God alonefor the times do not get better.” —St—Fr. John Seraphim Rose of DamascusPlatina, Hope, His Life and Works
“We do not bow before “In those days the nature remnant of woodthe faithful are to experience in themselves something like that which was experienced once by the Lord Himself when He, hanging on a cross, felt Himself so forsaken by His Divinity, that He cried out ‘My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?’ The last Christians will experience in themselves a similar abandonment of humanity by the Grace of God, but we revere and bow before the one who is depictedonly for a short time.” —St. John Seraphim of DamascusSarov
“We do not make obeisance to “Finally, in the nature twilight of woodhistory, but we revere and do obeisance to Him who was crucified on the Cross… When dictator of the two beams world will come, the son of perdition… whom the Cross are joined together I adore Lord shall consume with the figure because spirit of His mouth (2 Thess. 2:8). And in all that time of Christ who peace, happiness and prosperity, there ‘will be great tribulation such as was crucified on not from the beginning of the Crossworld, but if the beams are separatednor will ever be after’ (Mat. 24:21). Because of these troubles, I throw them away many will repent and burn turn to God the Saviour. And in themthe Lord will have His last harvest.” —St. John of Damascus
“The whole earth is a living icon The countries of the face world will lead the fight against Christ and His Church… The Church of God. … I do not worship matter, but Christ will be put outside the Creator of matterlaw, who for my sake became material and deigned to dwell in matter, public commemoration of Christ's name will be proscribed with severe penalties. But only those who through matter effected my salvationcall upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Never will I cease honoring And the matter which wrought my salvation! I honor it, but not as God. Because Son of this I salute all remaining matter with reverenceMan, because God has filled it with his grace when He suddenly comes and powerdestroys the ‘son of perdition’ [i. Through it my salvation has come to mee.” —St. John of DamascusAntichrist], that last tyrant, will He find faith on the earth?
“That which It will be found, but not in public. It will be found, but not in magnificent temples, such as are present, but in the word communicates by soundcaves and deserts. It will be found, but not as approved and protected, but as something tossed to and fro. It will be found, but not in lavish liturgies and psalmody but in the painting shows silently by representationtemples of the human heart and in whispered speakings. For the Church began in Martyrdom, and in the end there She will find Martyrdom, O holy brethren.” —St. Basil the GreatNikolai Velimirovich, On The Orthodox Church in the 40 Martyrs "twilight of Sebastehistory"
“We depict Christ as our King and Lord“During the days of Antichrist, and do not deprive Him of His army. The saints constitute the Lord's army. Let strongest temptation will be the earthly king dismiss his army before he gives up his King and Lord. Let him put off anticipation of salvation coming from the purple before he takes honour away cosmos, from humanoids–that is from his most valiant men extraterrestrials, who have conquered their passionsare actually demons. For if One should rarely look up to search the saints are heirs of Godskies with the naked eye, since the signs might be deceptive and co-heirs of Christ, (Rom. 8.17) they will one might be also partakers of the divine glory of sovereigntydeceived.” —St. John of DamascusGabriel Urgebadze, Confessor and Fool for Christ
“Our afflictions are well known without my telling; the sound of them has now gone forth “So mine is a little flock? But it is not being carried over all Christendoma precipice. The doctrines of the fathers are despisedSo mine is a narrow fold? But it is unapproachable by wolves; apostolical traditions are set at nought; the speculations of innovators hold sway in the churches. Men have learned to it cannot be theorists instead of theologians. The wisdom of the world has the place of honourentered by a robber, having dispossessed the boasting of the crossnor overcome by thieves and strangers. The pastors are driven awayI shall yet see it, grievous wolves are brought in insteadI know well, and plunder grow wider… I fear not for the little flock of Christ, Houses of prayer are destitute of preachers; the deserts are full for it is seen at a glance. I know my sheep and am known of mourners: the old bewail, comparing what is with what was; more pitiable mine. Such are the young, as not knowing what they that know God and are deprived known ofGod. What has My sheep hear from my voice that which I have heard from the oracles of God, which I have been said is sufficient to kindle taught by the sympathy of those who are Holy Fathers, which I have taught in the love of Christlike manner on all occasions, not conforming myself to fashion, yet compared with the factsand which I will never cease to teach; in which I was born, it is far from reaching their seriousnessand in which I will depart.” —St. Basil Gregory the Great, ep. 90Theologian
“Let “Concerning the Patriarch I shall say this, lest it should perhaps occur to him to show me a certain respect at the burial of this my humble body, or to send to my grave any of his hierarchs or clergy or in general any of those in communion with him in order to take part in prayer or to join the priests invited to it from amongst us be firm, thinking that at some time, or perhaps secretly, I had allowed communion with him. And lest my silence give occasion to those who do not know my views well and fully to suspect some kind of conciliation, I hereby state and testify before the many worthy men here present that I do not desire, in any manner and absolutely, and do not accept communion with him or with those who are with him, not in this life nor after my brothersdeath, just as (I accept) neither the Union nor Latin dogmas, which he and his adherents have accepted, on and for the rock enforcement of faithwhich he has occupied this presiding place, in with the aim of overturning the tradition true dogmas of the Church. I am absolutely convinced that the farther I stand from him and those like him, the nearer I am to God and all the saints, and not remove or change to the degree that I separate myself from them am in union with the Truth and with the boundaries established by our Holy Fathers. Let us close , the Theologians of the road to innovators Church; and not permit I am likewise convinced that those who count themselves with them to demolish stand far away from the Truth and from the structure blessed Teachers of the holy, catholic, and apostolic Church of God. If we allow, however, And for this reason I say: just as in the introduction course of any innovationmy whole life I was separated from them, we unconsciously support so at the collapse time of the Church. Nomy departure, yea and after my brothersdeath, you who love ChristI turn away from intercourse and communion with them and vow and command that none (of them) shall approach either my burial or my grave, noand likewise anyone else from our side, you children with the aim of the Church, you will never want attempting to join and concelebrate in our Divine services; for this would be to mix what cannot be mixed. But it befits them to be absolutely separated from us until such time as God shall grant correction and peace to surround your Mother His Church with confusion.” —St. John Mark of DamascusEphesus, Concerning ImagesThe Example of, III[as quoted in The Orthodox Word, June-July, 1967, pp. 103ff.41]
“Therefore, brethren, “With all our strength let us stand on the rock of faith and on the tradition of the Church, and not remove the boundaries which our Holy Fathers have set. Thus, beware lest we will not receive Communion from or give the opportunity it to those who wish heretics. ‘Give not what is holy to innovate and destroy the edifice of dogs,’ says the holyLord. ‘Neither cast ye your pearls before swine’, catholic lest we become partakers in their dishonour and apostolic Church condemnation.” —St. John of God. For if permission is granted to everyone who wants itDamascus, little by little the whole body Exposition of the Church will be destroyed. Do not, brethrenOrthodox Faith, do notIV, oh Christ-loving children of the Church of God …” —Patriarch Jeremias II, prophetic warning of to the Lutheran scholars13
“Unbelief is an evil offspring “And, you see, people are not at all aware that we are living during the signs of an evil heart; for the guileless and pure of heart discovers God everywheretimes, everywhere discerns Him, and always unhesitatingly believes in His existencethat the sealing is already advancing. This is why the Sacred Scripture says that even the elect will be deceived.” —St. Nectarios Paisios of AeginaMt. Athos, Spiritual Counsels, Vol. II, Spiritual Awakening, p. 198
“He who learns must sufferAnd even “In sum, the Ecumenical Patriarchate, in our sleep pain that cannot forgetFalls drop by drop upon theory embracing almost the heartwhole universe and in fact extending its authority only over several dioceses,And and in our own despiteother places having only a higher superficial supervision and receiving certain revenues for this, against our willpersecuted by the government at home and not supported by any governmental authority abroad: having lost its significance as a pillar of truth and having itself become a source of division,Comes wisdom to us and at the same time being possessed by an exorbitant love of power--represents a pitiful spectacle which recalls the worst periods in the history of the awful grace See of GodConstantinople.” —Aeschylus—St. John (Maximovitch) of Shanghai and San Francisco, from Orthodox Word, vol. 8, no. 4 (45), July-August 1972, pp. 166-168, 174-175.
“The greatest wisdom often emerges Lord of all gave to His apostles the power of the gospel, and by them we also have learned the truth, that is, the teaching of the Son of God—as the Lord said to them, ‘He who hears you hears Me, and he who despises you despises Me, and Him Who sent Me’ [Lk.10:16]. For we learned the plan of our salvation from no other than from those through whom the gospel came to us. The first preached it abroad, and then later by the will of God handed it down to us in Scriptures, to be the foundation and pillar of our faith. For it is not right to say that they preached before they had come to perfect knowledge, as some dare to say, boasting that they are the correctors of the apostles. For after our Lord had risen from the dead, and they were clothed with the power from on high when the deepest woundsHoly Spirit came upon them, they were filled with all things and had perfect knowledge. They went out to the ends of the earth, preaching the good things that come to us from God, and proclaiming peace from heaven to all men, all and each of them equally being in possession of the gospel of God.” —Jane Lee Logan—St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies, III
“Monarchy “Those that wish to discern the truth may observe the apostolic tradition made manifest in every church throughout the world. We can easily be debunkedenumerate those who were appointed bishops in the churches by the apostles, and their successors (or successions) down to our own day, who never taught, and never knew, but watch absurdities such as these men produce. For if the apostles had known hidden mysteries which they taught the facesperfect in private and in secret, mark well they would rather have committed them to those to whom they entrusted the debunkerschurches. These are the For they wished those men whose taproot to be perfect and unbelievable whom they laughed as their successors and to whom they handed over their own office of authority. But as it would be very tedious, in Eden has been cut: whom no rumour a book of this sort, to enumerate the polyphony, successions in all the dancechurches, we can reach found all those who in any way, whether for self- pleasing, or vainglory, or blindness, or evil mindedness, hold on authorized meetings. This we do by pointing to the apostolic tradition and the faith that is preached to men , which has come down to whom pebbles laid in a row are more beautiful than an arch. … Where us through the successions of bishops; the tradition and creed of the greatest, and most ancient church, the church known to all men, which was founded and set up at Rome by the two men are forbidden to honour a king they honour millionairesmost glorious apostles, athletes or film stars instead: … Peter and Paul. For spiritual naturewith this church, like bodily naturebecause of its position of leadership and authority, will be servedmust needs agree every church, that is, the faithful everywhere; deny it food and it will gobble poisonfor in her the apostolic tradition has always been preserved by the faithful from all parts.” —C—St. S. LewisIrenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies, III
“There "True Christianity is nothing impossible unto those who believe; lively and unshaken faith can accomplish great miracles in the twinkling of an eyeglorifying God with our own lives. Besides, even without To glorify God with our sincere own life is possible only when we have true faith and firm when that faithindeed exists, miracles are accomplished, such as the miracles of the sacraments; for God's Mystery is always accomplished, even though we were incredulous or unbelieving at the time of its celebration. 'Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?' (Rom. 3:3). Our wickedness shall not overpower the unspeakable goodness express it in words and mercy of God; our dullness shall not overpower God's wisdom, nor our infirmity God's omnipotencein deeds.” —St. John (Maximovitch) of Kronstadt, My Life in ChristShanghai and San Francisco
“The human spirit needs places where nature has not “When I, while still in Australia, began to receive information from America already post factum that here [in New York City] there had been rearranged by protests, demonstrations, and even molebens in front of the hand Soviet consulate, I became quite alarmed and regretted that I was not here, since I would have decisively opposed much of manwhat took place.” —unknownIn particular, holding a moleben in such a place. Did they not sing the Lord's song in a strange land? What cause was there to display the holy things of the Church's services before the gaze of the frenzied servants of Antichrist? Was it really not possible to pray in church?
“People were created I must say frankly that I am always seized by dismay when I hear of protests, demonstrations, and the like. In the USSR, life is governed by him (the one with horns) who fears only Christ and His Cross; and who fears nothing else in the world. And he merely chortles over protests and demonstrations. Public opinion? Why, the antichrist regime has nothing but the uttermost contempt for it! They wanted to seize Czechoslovakia and they seized it, paying no heed to be lovedthe commotion that was raised. Things were created They wanted to be usedinvade Afghanistan and they invaded it, again paying no attention to the protests and threats of the various Carters & Co. The reason why All attempts to shape public opinion in the world is so-called Free World in chaos is because things favor of those suffering from Communism are being loved powerless and fruitless, since the Free World stubbornly closes its eyes and imitates the ostrich, which hides its head under its wing and imagines that it cannot be seen…” —Metropolitan Philaret of New York, A letter from Metropolitan Philaret (Voznesensky) to ROCOR Priest Victor Potapov concerning Father Dimitry Dudko and people are being used.” —unknownthe Moscow Patriarchate
“If we could look into each others hearts, “I will tell you my opinion briefly and understand without reserve. We ought to remain in that Church which was founded by the unique challenges each Apostles and continues to this day. If ever you hear of us facesany that are called Christians taking their name not from the Lord Jesus Christ, I think we would treat each but from some other much more gently, with more lovefor instance, Marcionites, patienceValentinians, Men of the mountain or the plain, toleranceyou may be sure that you have there not the Church of Christ, and carebut the synagogue of Antichrist.” —Marvin JFor the fact that they took their rise after the foundation of the Church is proof that they are those whose coming the Apostle foretold. Ashton
“Teach me to feel another's woeAnd let them not flatter themselves if they think they have Scripture authority for their assertions, to hide since the fault I see; that mercy I to others showdevil himself quoted Scripture, and the essence of the Scriptures is not the letter, but the meaning. Otherwise, if we follow the letter, we too can concoct a new dogma and assert that mercy show to mesuch persons as wear shoes and have two coats must not be received into the Church.” —Alexander Pope—St. Jerome
“The human heart can see what is hidden “Sometimes Japanese protestants come to the eyes, me and ask me to clarify some place in the heart knows things that the mind does not begin to understandHoly Scriptures.” —They Might Be Giants (1971)
“The greatest thing a man can "You have your own missionary teachers," I tell them, "Go ask them. What do they say?" "We have asked them. They say: understand as you know how. But I need to a woman is to lead her closer to know the real thought of God than to himself, not my own personal opinion.” —unknown"
“God cannot give …It's not like that with us happiness . Everything is clear, trustworthy and peace apart simple, since we accept Holy Tradition in addition to the Holy Scriptures. And Holy Tradition is a living, unbroken voice of our Church from Himself because the time of Christ and His Apostles until now, and which will exist until the end of the world. In it is not there. There is no such thingall the meaning of the Holy Scriptures are preserved.” —C. S—St. LewisNicholas of Japan
“The supreme happiness of life “It is Christ Himself, not the Bible, Who is the conviction true word of being loved for yourselfGod. The Bible, or more correctlyread in the right spirit and with the guidance of good teachers, being loved in spite will bring us to Him. We must not use the Bible as a sort of encyclopedia out of yourselfwhich texts can be taken for use as weapons.” —C. S.”—Victor HugoLewis
“It “The humility of Jesus is hardly complimentary not a superfluous detail in the gospel narrative. The humility of Jesus is essential to God that we should choose him as an alternative to hellthe gospel. If Jesus lacked humility, there would be no incarnation, no crucifixion, and no redemption.” —C. S. Lewis—Jack Wisdom
“If you die before you die“When they are refuted by the Scriptures, than they take to maligning the Scriptures themselves. … But when you diewe refer them to that tradition which originates with the apostles and which is preserved in the churches through the succession of the presbyters, you will they attack the tradition, claiming that they themselves are wiser not diemerely than the presbyters but even than the apostles.” —written on a cell wall[However] anyone who wants to see the truth can look to the tradition of the Apostles which is clearly manifested throughout the whole world; and we can list those who were set up as bishops in the different churches as well as their successors right down to our own time, Stmen who neither taught nor knew anything like what these [Gnostics] are raving about. Paul's MonasteryFor if the apostles had known secret doctrines which they were in the habit of teaching to the “perfect” clandestinely and apart from the rest, Mtthey would most certainly have communicated these things to those to whom they were entrusting the churches themselves. Athos
“War And if a dispute should arise over some point or other, should we not have recourse to the most ancient churches, in which the name of religion apostles were actively interested, and find out from them what is war against religioncertain and clear with regard to the point at issue? What if, in fact, the apostles had left us no Writings? Would it not be necessary to follow the line indicated by the tradition which they handed down to those to whom they entrusted the churches?” —St.” —His All Holyness Ecumenical Patriarch BartholomewIrenaeus of Lyons
“Believe me, if God revealed “[Heretics] should not be admitted to us any discussion of the disasters to which we were exposed and from which He protected us, our whole lives would not suffice to offer Him thanks.” —H.H. Pope ShenoudaScriptures…
“In heavenThe Lord Jesus sent the apostles to preach. … Now what they actually preached can, as I must here likewise prescribe, be proved only by those very same churches which the apostles themselves founded by preaching to them both viva voce, as they say, and later by letters. Such being the case, it is consequently certain that any doctrine which agrees with [what is held by] these apostolic churches, moulds and original sources of the faith, must be considered the truth, undoubtedly containing that which these churches received from the apostles, the apostles from Christ, and Christ from God will not ask us why we have sinned; He will ask us why we did not repent.” —H.Hbut any other doctrine must be presumed false, since it smacks of opposition to the truth of the churches, of the apostles, of Christ, of God. Pope Shenouda III
“Even if Come now! Would they all spiritual fathers, patriarchs, hierarchshave fallen into error? Would the steward of God, the Vicar of Christ [the Holy Spirit] have neglected His duty by allowing the churches to understand and believe otherwise than what He Himself taught the apostles? Is it likely that so many and such outstanding churches would all have strayed into the people forgive you, you are unforgiven if you don’t repent one [false] faith? No chance happening ever has the same outcome in the case of many different individuals. A doctrinal error in actionso many different churches would of necessity have taken different forms.” —StBut when unity exists amid diversity, this can be the result, not of error, but only of Tradition. Kosmas Aitolos
“Nobody is as gracious and mercifulLet us inquire, therefore, whether tradition, unless it be written, should be accepted. Certainly we shall say that it ought not to be accepted if we can allege as the Lord isprecedent no cases of other practices which we justify without any written document, but even He does not forgive solely on the sins grounds of the man who does not repent; … we are being condemned not tradition and because of the multitude approval of our evilssubsequent custom… If you demand scriptural justification for these and other such practices, but because we do not want you will find none. Tradition will be held out to repentyou as their author, custom as their consolidator, and faith as their observer.” —St. Mark the Ascetic—Tertullian
“As a handful “Since there are many who think they share the mind of Christ and yet some of sand thrown into them think differently from their predecessors, let the oceanpreaching of the Church be held fast, so are that preaching which has been handed down from the apostles through the sins ranks of all flesh succession and perdures in the churches to the present day. That alone is to be believed as compared with the mercy of Godtruth which varies in no wise from ecclesiastical and apostolic tradition.” —St. Isaac the Syrian—Origen
“Just “It suffices as proof of our thesis that we have a strongly flowing fountain is not blocked up by tradition coming to us from the fathers, like a handful of earth, so the compassion of legacy handed down from the Creator is not overcome by apostles through the wickedness of his creaturessaints who followed them in succession.” —St. Isaac the SyrianGregory of Nyssa
“God is loving to man, “Of the beliefs and loving practices [disciplinary regulations] preserved in no small measure. For say notthe Church, I some we possess from teaching handed down in written form; others we have committed fornication and adultery: I have done dreadful things, and not once only, but often: will He forgive? Will He grant pardon? Hear what the Psalmist says: ‘How great is received as delivered to us in a mystery from the multitude tradition of Your goodness, O Lord!’ Your accumulated offenses surpass not the multitude of God's mercies: your wounds surpass not the great Physician's skill. Only give yourself up in faith: tell the Physician your ailment: say thou alsoApostles, like David: ‘I said, I will confess me my sin unto the Lord’: and both of these have the same shall be done in your case, which he says immediately: ‘And you forgave the wickedness of my heartforce as far as religion is concerned.’” ” —St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 2, On Repentance and Remission of Sins and Concerning Basil the Adversary, Ezekiel xviii. 20-23Great
“Years are “There is need of tradition also; for not needed for true repentance, everything can be found in Scripture. That is why the most holy apostles left some things in writing and others in tradition. Paul affirms this very fact as follows: ‘as I handed it on to you.’ Likewise in another passage: ‘This is my teaching and not daysthus have I handed it on to the churches.’ Similarly: ‘If you continue to cling firmly to it, but only an instantas I preached it to you—unless your faith has all been for nothing.” ’” —St. Ambrose of OptinaEpiphanius
“There “It is no sin which cannot be pardoned except therefore clear that [the apostles] did not teach everything in epistolary form, but that one which lacks repentancethey taught many things besides in unwritten form, and there is no gift which is not augmented save that which remains without acknowledgementthese things, too, are worthy of acceptance. For Wherefore we should consider the portion tradition of the fool Church also as worthy of belief. If there is small in his eyesa tradition, look no further.” —St. Isaac the SyrianJohn Chrysostom
“When a “A false interpretation of Scripture causes that the gospel of the Lord becomes the gospel of man abandons his sins and returns to God, his repentance regenerates him and renews him entirelyor, which is worse, of the devil.” —St. Isaiah the SolitaryJerome
“And so it is incumbent upon us “How long shall we continue in this manner, our intellect reduced to strivefutility, ratherfailing to make the spirit of the Gospel our own, not knowing what it means to live according to correct our faults and conscience, making no serious effort to improve our behavior.keep it pure?” —St. John CassianMark the Ascetic
“Let us strive to purify ourselves through repentance and humility“It is self evident, however, and to unite all our senses as one to the God that sincere Christians who is goodare Roman Catholics, and transcends the good. Thenor Lutherans, trulyor members of other non-Orthodox confessions, everything which I cannot be termed renegades or heretics—i.e. those who knowingly pervert the truth… They have not quite been able born and raised and are living according to say or to demonstrate with my many wordsthe creed which they have inherited, just as do the majority of you will be taught who are Orthodox; in an instanttheir lives there has not been a moment of personal and conscious renunciation of Orthodoxy. The Lord, ‘Who will have all at oncemen to be saved’ (I Tim. You will hear with your sight, 2:4) and see with your hearing‘Who enlightens every man born into the world’ (Jn. 1. You will be taught while seeing and43), again, hear what undoubtedly is unveiledleading them also towards salvation in His own way.” —St. Symeon the —Metropolitan Philaret of New TheologianYork
“Where there is God“You ask, there is no evilwill the heterodox be saved… Why do you worry about them? They have a Saviour Who desires the salvation of every human being. Everything coming from God is peacefulHe will take care of them. You and I should not be burdened with such a concern. Study yourself and your own sins… I will tell you one thing, healthy however: should you, being Orthodox and leads a person to possessing the judgment of his own imperfections Truth in its fullness, betray Orthodoxy, and humilityenter a different faith, you will lose your soul forever.” —St. Theophan the Recluse
When a person accepts anything Godly“The Orthodox confess that SHE IS the One, then he rejoices in his heartHoly, but when he has accepted anything devilish, then he becomes tormentedUniversal (katholikos) and Apostolic Ecclesia! Any other model is gnostic.” —St.Irenaeus of Lyons
The devil “Orthodoxy is like a lionwhat Christ taught, hiding in ambush (Ps 10:19the apostles preached, 1Pe 5:8)and the Fathers kept. He secretly sets out nets of unclean and unholy thoughts” —St. So, it is necessary to break them off as soon as we notice them, by means Athanasius of pious reflection and prayer.Alexandria
It “He is necessary that the Holy Spirit enter our heart‘the same yesterday and today and forever’ (Hebrews 13:8). Everything good that we do, that we do for Christ, is given Orthodox Christians are committed to us by the Holy Spirit, truth claim of the Christian Faith not as ideology but prayer most as an expression of allholiness.” —Rev. Dr. George C. Papademetriou, which is always available to us.An Orthodox Reflection on Truth & Tolerance
A sign “The beginning of spiritual life theology is not the immersion card catalogue, but doing battle against the passions; and the end of theology is not becoming a professor, but becoming a person within himself and the hidden workings within his heartsaint.” —St—Dr. Seraphim of SarovDavid Fagerberg
“The Spirit offers its own “Men are converted to God not because someone was able to give brilliant explanations, but because they saw in him that light to every mind, to help it joy, depth, seriousness, and love which alone reveal the presence and power of God in its search for truththe world.” —St—Fr. Basil the GreatAlexander Schmemann
“Sometimes a man's happiness “Men are often called intelligent wrongly. Intelligent men are not those who are erudite in the sayings and books of the wise men of old, but those who have an intelligent soul and can discriminate between good and evil. They avoid what is so sinful and harms the soul; and with deep inside him that he may forget it's there gratitude to God they resolutely adhere by dint of practice to what is good and start looking elsewhere hunting a fantasy, an illusionbenefits the soul. These men alone should truly be called intelligent.” —Mr—St. Roarke (Fantasy IslandAnthony the Great, s2e14)On the Character of Men and on the Virtuous Life: One Hundred and Seventy Texts, Text 1, The Philokalia: The Complete Text, Vol. 1
“If he seeks answers “Only the Religion of Christ unites and all of us must pray that they come to questions this. Thus union will occur, not by believing that all of us are the same thing and that all religions are the same. They are not the same… our Orthodoxy is not related to his faith, his purpose in life, he will find happinessother religions.” —Elder Justin (Pârvu) of Romania—St. Porphyrios the Kapsokalyvite
“The person who loves God values knowledge of God more than anything created by God“Orthodoxy is life, one must not talk about it, and pursues such knowledge ardently and ceaselesslyone must live it.” —St. Maximus the ConfessorNektary of Optina
“A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who “Orthodoxy can't be comfortable unless it is not mad, they will attack him, saying, 'You are mad; you are not like usfake.'” —St—Fr. Anthony the GreatSeraphim Rose of Platina
“Adorn yourself “As for all those who pretend to confess sound Orthodox Faith, but are in communion with truthpeople who hold different opinion, try to speak truth in all things; if they are forewarned and do not support a liestill remain stubborn, no matter who asks you.If you speak the truth and someone gets mad at you, don’t must not only be upsetin communion with them, but take comfort in the words of the Lord:Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of truth, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven (Matt. 5:10)you must NOT even call them brothers.” —St. Gennadius of Constantinople, The Golden Chain, 26,2Basil the Great
“You that are strong with all might in the inner man ought by rights to carry on the struggle against “Today, while the enemies overall teachings of the truth, Fathers is under attack and not to shrink from the taskshipwrecks of Faith are numerous, that we fathers may be gladdened by the noble toil mouths of our sons; for this the faithful are silent. Anyone who is the prompting capable of speaking the law of nature: truth but as you turn your ranksremains silent, will be heavily judged by God, especially in this case, where the faith and send against us the assaults very foundation of those darts which are hurled by the opponents entire Church of the truthOrthodox is in danger. To remain silent under these circumstances is to betray these, and demand the appropriate witness belongs to those that their hot burning coals and their shafts sharpened by knowledge falsely so called should be quenched with reproach (stand up for the shield of faith by us old men).” —St. Gregory of NyssaBasil the Great, ep. 92
“I shall set forth the best contributions of the philosophers of the Greeks, because whatever there is of beseech you to do and to carry out good has been given to all men from above by God, since ‘every best gift with care and every perfect gift is from aboveassiduity, coming down from the Father of lights’ (Js. 1.17). If, however, there is anything that is contrary becoming all things to the truth, then it is a dark invention of the deceit of Satan and a fiction of the mind of an evil spiritall men, as that eminent theologian Gregory once said (Homily 39.3). In imitation of the method of the bee, I shall make my composition from those things which are conformable with the truth and from our enemies themselves gather the fruit need of salvation. But all that each is worthless and falsely labeled as knowledge I shall reject. Then, next, after this, I shall set forth in order the absurdities of the heresies hated of God, so that by recognizing the lie we may more closely follow the truth. Then, with God’s help and by His grace shown to you; I shall expose the truth–that truth which destroys deceit want and puts falsehood pray you to flight be wholly harsh and which, as implacable with golden fringes, has been embellished and adorned by the sayings of the divinely inspired prophets, the divinely taught fishermen, and the God-bearing shepherds and teachers–that truth, the glory of which flashes out from within heretics only in regard to brighten cooperating with its radiance, when they encounter it, them that are duly purified and rid of troublesome speculationsor in any way whatever supporting their deranged belief. However, as For I have saidreckon it hatred towards man and a departure from Divine love to lend support to error, I shall add nothing of my own, but shall gather together into one so that those things which have been worked out previously seized by the most eminent of teachers and make a compendium of them, being in all things obedient to your commandit might be even more greatly corrupted.” —St. John of DamascusMaximus the Confessor, Patrologia Graeca, The Fount of KnowledgeVol. 91
“If we have obtained “Be aware not to be corrupted from love of the heretics; for this reason do not accept any false belief (dogma) in the grace name of God, none shall prevail against us, but we shall be stronger than all who oppose uslove.” —St. John Chrysostom
“But our opinion is in accordance “If anyone prays with the Eucharistheretics, and the Eucharist in turn establishes our opinionhe is a heretic.” —St— Pope St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies, 4:18:5Agatho I
“If the poison of pride “Genuine love is swelling up in youdisplayed, turn to not by the Eucharist; and that Breadcommon table, Which is your God humbling and disguising Himselfnor by lofty addresses or flattering words, will teach you humility. If but by the fever of selfish greed rages in you, feed on this Bread; correcting and you will learn generosity. If the cold wind seeking of coveting withers you, hasten to the Bread benefit of Angels; one's neighbour and charity will come to blossom in your heart. If you feel the itch lifting up of intemperance, nourish yourself with the Flesh and Blood of Christ, Who practiced heroic self-control during His earthly life; and you will become temperate. If you are lazy and sluggish about spiritual things, strengthen yourself with this heavenly Food; and you will grow fervent. Lastly, if you feel scorched by the fever of impurity, go to the banquet of the Angels; and the spotless Flesh of Christ will make you pure and chasteone who has fallen.” —St. Cyril of AlexandriaJohn Chrysostom
“Don't “Never, never, never let anyone tell you that, in order to be anxious about what Orthodox, you havemust also be eastern. The West was Orthodox for a thousand years, but about what you areand her venerable liturgy is far older than any of her heresies.” —St. Gregory the GreatJohn (Maximovitch) of Shanghai and San Francisco
“The soul that “Where the bishop is in all things devoted to the will of God rests quiet in Him, for she knows of experience and from the Holy Scriptures that the Lord loves us much and watches over our souls, quickening all things by His grace in peace and love. Nothing troubles the man who is given over to there let the will multitude of God, believers be it illness, poverty or persecution. He knows that the Lord in His mercy is solicitous for us. The Holy Spirit, whom the soul knows, ; even as where Jesus is witness therefore. But the proud and the self-willed do not want to surrender to God's will because they like their own way, and that there is harmful for the soulCatholic Church.” —St. Silouan the Athonite (From the Life and Teachings Ignatius of Elder Siluan by Bishop Alexander and Natalia Bufius translated by Anatoly Shmelev)Antioch
“The man “Take care to do all things in harmony with God, with the bishop presiding in the place of God, and with the presbyters in the place of the council of the apostles, and with the deacons, who cries out against evil menare most dear to me, but does not pray for them will never know entrusted with the grace business of GodJesus Christ, who was with the Father from the beginning and is at last made manifest.” —St. Silouan Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the AthoniteMagnesians 2, 6:1
“Those who dislike “Moreover, in the Catholic Church itself, all possible care must be taken, that we hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all. For that is truly and reject their fellow-man are impoverished in their beingthe strictest sense ‘Catholic,’ which, as the name itself and the reason of the thing declare, comprehends all universally. This rule we shall observe if we follow universality, antiquity, consent. They do not know We shall follow universality if we confess that one faith to be true, which the whole Church throughout the true Godworld confesses; antiquity, who if we in no wise depart from those interpretations which it is manifest were notoriously held by our holy ancestors and fathers; consent, in like manner, if in antiquity itself we adhere to the consentient definitions and determinations of all-embracing love, or at the least of almost all priests and doctors.” —St. Silouan Vincent of Lérins, Commonitory, For the AthoniteAntiquity and Universality of the Catholic Faith Against the Profane Novelties of All Heresies., Chapter II (circa 434 AD)
“If we detect hatred “Roman Catholics teach that original sin robbed Adam of the original righteousness, grace-filled perfection, but did not harm his very nature. And the original righteousness, according to their teachings, was not an organic part of the spiritual and moral nature of man, but an external gift of grace, a special addition to the natural forces of man. Hence the sin of the first man, which consists in our hearts against any rejecting this purely external, supernatural grace, separating man whatsoever for committing any fault, we are utterly estranged from love for God, since love for God absolutely precludes us from hating any is nothing more than depriving a person of this grace, depriving a person of primitive righteousness and returning manto a purely natural state, a state of grace.” —StThe very same human nature remained after the fall as it was before the fall. Maximus Before sin, Adam was like a royal courtier, from whom external glory was taken away because of a crime, and he returned to the Confessororiginal state in which he had been before.
“One must The decrees of the Council of Trent concerning original sin state that the progenitor sin consisted in the loss of the holiness and righteousness granted to them, but it did not harbour anger nor hatred towards define exactly what kind of holiness and righteousness they were. There it is stated that there is absolutely no trace of sin or anything in a regenerated person that would be unpleasant to God. Only lust remains, which, due to its motivation of a person to fight, is hostile towards usmore useful than harmful to people. On the contraryIn any case, it is not sin, although it itself from sin and entails sin. You must love him The fifth decree says: ‘The Holy Council confesses and do knows that lust remains among baptized persons; but she, as much good as possible towards him. Following left to fight, cannot bring harm to those who disagree with her, and those who bravely fight by the teaching grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, but, on the contrary, crowns the one who will gloriously struggle.” —StThe Holy Council declares that this lust, which the Apostle sometimes calls sin, the Universal Church never called sin in the sense that it is true and proper to the regenerated, but that it is from sin and entails sin. Seraphim of Sarov’
“Do This Roman Catholic teaching is unfounded, since it represents the original righteousness and perfection of Adam as an external gift, as an advantage, which is added to nature from the outside and from nature separable. Meanwhile, it is clear from the ancient apostolic-church doctrine that this primitive righteousness of Adam was not ask for love from your neighboran external gift and advantage, but an integral part of his divinely-created nature. The Holy Scripture claims that sin has shaken and upset human nature so deeply that a person is weak for if you ask good and when he wants, he cannot do good ( Romans 7: 18-19 ), but he does cannot commit it just because sin has a strong influence on the nature of man. In addition, if sin did not responddamage human nature so much, you will there would be troubled. Instead show your love no need for your neighbour the Only Begotten Son of God to incarnate, come into the world as the Savior and you will be at restdemand from us a complete bodily and spiritual rebirth ( John 3: 3, 3: 5-6 ). In addition, Roman Catholics can not give the correct answer to the question: how can the intact nature carry lust in itself? What is the relation between this lust and so will bring your neighbour to love.” —St. Dorotheos of Gazathe healthy nature?
“Love should never be sacrificed for In the sake same way, there is an inaccurate Roman Catholic statement that in a regenerated person nothing remains sinful and unpleasant to God and that all this gives way to that which is immaculate, holy and pleasing to God. For we know from Holy Revelation and the teachings of the ancient Church that the grace given to a fallen man through Jesus Christ does not act mechanically, does not give sanctification and salvation immediately, in the blink of an eye, but gradually penetrates all the psychophysical powers of some dogmatic differenceman, in proportion to his personal feat in the new thus he simultaneously heals from all sinful ailments, and sanctifies in all thoughts, feelings, desires and deeds. It is an unreasonable exaggeration to think and argue that the regenerated have absolutely no remnants of sinful ailments when the mystery beloved by Christ clearly teaches: ‘If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us’ ( 1 John 1: 8 ); and the great Apostle of the Nations writes: ‘I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil that I do not want. But if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but the sin that lives in me’ ( Romans 7: 19-20, Romans 8: 23-24 ).” —St. Nektarios Justin Popovich, Orthodox philosophy of Aeginatruth (Dogma of the Orthodox Church)
“No term “In all the Eastern Churches, candles are lit even in the daytime when one is used–and misused–among to read the Gospels, in truth not to dispel the Orthodox people darkness, but as a sign of joy…in order under that factual light to feel that Light of which we read in America more often than the term canonicalPsalms (119:105): Thy word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path.” —Fr—St. Jerome, Works, part IV, 2nd ed. Alexander Schmemann, The Problems of Orthodoxy in AmericaKiev, 1900, The Canonical Problempp.301-302
“Men are converted to “The candles lit before icons of saints reflect their ardent love for God not because someone was able to give brilliant explanations, but because for Whose sake they saw gave up everything that man prizes in him that lightlife, joyincluding their very lives, depthas did the holy apostles, seriousnessmartyrs and others. These candles also mean that these saints are lamps burning for us and providing light for us by their own saintly living, their virtues and their ardent intercession for us before God through their constant prayers by day and night. The burning candles also stand for our ardent zeal and love which alone reveal the presence sincere sacrifice we make out of reverence and power of gratitude to them for their solicitude on our behalf before God in the world.” —Fr—St. Alexander SchmemannJohn of Kronstadt
“Even “The saints of God live even after their death. Thus, I often hear in church the Mother of God singing her wonderful, heart-penetrating song which she said in the house of her cousin Elizabeth, after the Annunciation of the Archangel. At times, I hear the song of Moses; the song of Zacharias--the father of the Forerunner; that of Hannah, the mother of the prophet Samuel; that of the slightest thought three children; and that of Miriam. And how many holy singers of the New Testament delight until now the ear of the whole Church of God! And the Divine service itself--the sacraments, the rites? Whose spirit is not founded on love destroys peacethere, moving and touching our hearts? That of God and of His saints.” —Archimandrite Thaddeus Strabulovich—St. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ
“What does love look like? It has “Each person is an icon of God, of God in heaven and of God on the hands to help otherscross. It has Yet, each person is also an icon of the feet to hasten to Mother of God, who bears Christ through the poor and needyHoly Spirit. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has ears to hear Our soul, therefore, unites itself in two images; participating in the sighs principles and sorrows realities of menboth Christ and his Mother. That is what love looks likeThese are age old archetypes, symbols by which the soul orients itself on the journey.” —St. Augustine Maria Skobtsova, On The Imitation of the Mother of HippoGod
“Your Lord is love: love Him and in Him all men, as His Children in Christ. Your Lord is fire: do “The Christian who does not let your heart be cold, but burn with faith and love. Your Lord feel that the Virgin Mary is light: do not walk in darkness of mind, without reasoning his or understanding, or without faith. Your Lord her mother is a God of mercy and bountifulness: be also a source of mercy and bountifulness to your neighbors. If you will be such, you will find salvation yourself with everlasting gloryan orphan.” —St. John of Kronstadt—Pope Francis
“I guard you in advance against beasts in “Creating man according to his image, God diffused into man's very being the longing for the form divine infinitude of menlife, whom you must not only not receiveof knowledge, but if it and of perfection. It is precisely for this reason that the immeasurable longing and thirst of humanity is possible not even meet, but only pray able to be completely satisfied by anything or anyone except God. Declaring divine perfection as the main purpose for themhumanity's existence in the world – ‘Be ye therefore perfect, if perchance they may repent…” —Steven as your father who is in heaven is perfect.’ (Matth. Ignatius of Antioch5: 48) – Christ, Letter to the SmyrnaeansSavior, Aanswered the most elemental demand and need of our God-like and God-longing humanity.D” —St. 117Justin Popovich, Orthodox Faith and Life in Christ, Highest Value and Last Criterion in Orthodoxy
“Until you have eradicated evil, do not obey your heart; for it will seek more of what it already contains within itself“He who refuses to give in to his passions does the same as he who refuses to bow down and worship idols.” —St. Mark Theophan the AsceticRecluse
“Whatever “Concerning the charge of idolatry: Icons are not idols but symbols. Therefore, when an Orthodox venerates an icon, he is not guilty of that which idolatry. He is best has flowed into not worshiping the heartsymbol, we should not pour out without need; for that which has been gathered can be free of danger from visible and invisible enemies only when but merely venerating it . Such veneration is guarded in not directed toward wood, or paint or stone, but towards the interior of the heartperson depicted. Therefore relative honor is shown to material objects, but worship is due to God alone.” —St. Seraphim John of SarovDamascus
“No one professing faith sins, nor does does anyone possessing love hate. The tree is known by its fruit; thus those who profess to be Christ's will be recognized by their actions. For “We do not bow before the work is a matter not nature of what one promises nowwood, but of persevering to we revere and bow before the end in the power of faithone who is depicted.” —St. Ignatius John of Antioch (to the Ephesians)Damascus
“Indeed“We do not make obeisance to the nature of wood, man wishes but we revere and do obeisance to be happy even when he so lives as to make happiness impossibleHim who was crucified on the Cross… When the two beams of the Cross are joined together I adore the figure because of Christ who was crucified on the Cross, but if the beams are separated, I throw them away and burn them.” —St. AugustineJohn of Damascus
“The confession whole earth is a living icon of the face of evil works is God. … I do not worship matter, but the Creator of matter, who for my sake became material and deigned to dwell in matter, who through matter effected my salvation. Never will I cease honoring the first beginning matter which wrought my salvation! I honor it, but not as God. Because of good worksthis I salute all remaining matter with reverence, because God has filled it with his grace and power. Through it my salvation has come to me.” —St. AugustineJohn of Damascus
“The evil powers love “That which the darkness and tremble at every lightword communicates by sound, especially at that which belongs to God and to those who please Himthe painting shows silently by representation.” —St. Nikolai VelimirovichBasil the Great, On the 40 Martyrs of Sebaste
“The one who has “We depict Christ as our King and Lord, and do not yet obtained divine knowledge activated by love makes a lot deprive Him of His army. The saints constitute the religious works Lord's army. Let the earthly king dismiss his army before he performsgives up his King and Lord. But Let him put off the one purple before he takes honour away from his most valiant men who has been deemed worthy to obtain this says with conviction have conquered their passions. For if the words which the patriarch Abraham spoke when he was graced with saints are heirs of God, and co-heirs of Christ, (Rom. 8.17) they will be also partakers of the divine appearance, ‘I am but earth and ashesglory of sovereignty.’” ” —St. Maximus the ConfessorJohn of Damascus
“Do “One who has the judgment of Christ before his eyes, who has seen the great danger that threatens those who dare to subtract from or add to those things which have been handed down by the Spirit, must not say that ‘mere faith in our Lord Jesus Christ can save me.’ For this is impossible unless you acquire love for him through works. For in what concerns mere believingbe ambitious to innovate, ‘even but must content himself with those things which have been proclaimed by the devils believe and tremblesaints.’” ” —St. Maximus Basil the ConfessorGreat, Against Eunomius 2, PG 29.573-652
“We see “Our afflictions are well known without my telling; the water sound of a river flowing uninterruptedly and passing away, and them has now gone forth over all that floats on its surface, rubbish or beams Christendom. The doctrines of the fathers are despised; apostolical traditions are set at nought; the speculations of trees, all pass byinnovators hold sway in the churches. So does our lifeMen have learned to be theorists instead of theologians. I was an infantThe wisdom of the world has the place of honour, and that time has gonehaving dispossessed the boasting of the cross. I was an adolescentThe pastors are driven away, grievous wolves are brought in instead, and that too has passed. I plunder the flock of Christ, Houses of prayer are destitute of preachers; the deserts are full of mourners: the old bewail, comparing what is with what was a ; more pitiable are the young man, and that too is far behind meas not knowing what they are deprived of. The strong and mature man that I was What has been said is no more. My hair turns white, I succumb sufficient to age, but that too passes; I approach kindle the end and will go sympathy of those who are taught in the way love of all flesh. I was born in order to die. I die that I may live. Remember meChrist, O Lordyet compared with the facts, in Thy Kingdom!it is far from reaching their seriousness.” —St. Tikhon of VoronezhBasil the Great, ep. 90
“You should look downward. Remember: “I urge you are earth not to faint in your afflictions, but to be risen by the love of God and to increase every day to your zeal, knowing that it is necessary to preserve in you this relic of the true religion that the Lord will return find when He comes to the earth. Even if the bishops are trained out of their churches, don't be dismayed. If traitors have appeared among the clergy, do not betray your trust in God. We are saved not by names, but by our mind and by our purpose, and by a true love to our Creator. Think that in the attack of our Lord, the great priests and the scribes and the elders have designed the conspiracy, and that few people have been found getting the Word. Remember that it is not the multitude that is being saved, but the elected ones of God. So don't be scared by the multitude of people who are swept away by the winds like the waters of the sea. If one is saved, as a Lot in Sodom, he must remain in a fair judgment, keeping his hope in Christ steadfast, for the Lord will not abandon His saints. Say hello to all the brothers in Christ from me. Pray with fervor for my miserable soul.” —St. Ambrose of OptinaBasil the Great
“Just as a pauper“So, seeing to the royal treasuresquestion, all the more acknowledges his own poverty; so also the spirit‘Do we believe in conspiracy theories?’, reading the accounts of the great deeds of the Holy Fathersanswer is, involuntarily is all the more humbled ‘We don't believe in its way them, we have long experience of thoughtthem.” —St’” —Fr. John ClimacusPeter Heers, On Demonic Methodology, Part II: Q & A, May 6, 2020
“Do “Let us be firm, my brothers, on the rock of faith, in the tradition of the Church, and not remove or change the boundaries established by our Holy Fathers. Let us close the road to innovators and not shun poverty permit them to demolish the structure of the holy, catholic, and afflictionapostolic Church of God. If we allow, however, the introduction of any innovation, we unconsciously support the collapse of the Church. No, my brothers, you who love Christ, no, you children of the fuel that gives wings Church, you will never want to prayersurround your Mother Church with confusion.” —Evagrios the Solitary—St. John of Damascus, Concerning Images, III.41
“We suffer because we have no humility “Therefore, brethren, let us stand on the rock of faith and on the tradition of the Church, and we do not love remove the boundaries which our brotherHoly Fathers have set. From love Thus, we will not give the opportunity to those who wish to innovate and destroy the edifice of our brother comes the love holy, catholic and apostolic Church of God. People For if permission is granted to everyone who wants it, little by little the whole body of the Church will be destroyed. Do not, brethren, do not learn humility, oh Christ-loving children of the Church of God …” —Jeremiah II (Jeremias II) Tranos, Ecumenical Patriarch and because Archbishop of their pride cannot receive Constantinople, letter to the grace Most Wise Theologians, Residents of the Holy SpiritFamous City of Tübingen, and therefor in the whole world suffersmonth of May, 1579, Indiction 7, pp.” —St. Silouan 197-8 (prophetic warning of to the AthoniteLutheran scholars)
“Some suffer much from poverty and sickness“For to err is human, but are not humbledthe correction is angelic and salvific.” —Jeremiah II (Jeremias II) Tranos, Ecumenical Patriarch and so they suffer without profit. But one who is humbled will be happy in all circumstancesArchbishop of Constantinople, because letter to the Lord is his riches and joyMost Wise Theologians, Residents of the Famous City of Tübingen, and all people will wonder at in the beauty month of his soul.” —StMay, 1579, Indiction 7, p. Silouan the Athonite210
“My joy, I beg you, acquire the Spirit “Unbelief is an evil offspring of Peace. That means to bring oneself to such a state that our spirit will not be disturbed by anything. For one must go through many sorrows to enter an evil heart; for the Kingdom guileless and pure of Heavenheart discovers God everywhere, everywhere discerns Him, and always unhesitatingly believes in His existence. This is the way all righteous men were saved and inherited the Heavenly Kingdom…” ” —St. Seraphim Nectarios of SarovAegina
“Peace is not absence of struggle“He who learns must sufferAnd even in our sleep pain that cannot forgetFalls drop by drop upon the heart,And in our own despite, against our will, but absence Comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of uncertainty and confusionGod.” —Metropolitan Anthony (Bloom) of Sourozh—Aeschylus
“Humility is perfect quietness of heart, it is to expect nothing, to wonder at nothing that is done to me, to feel nothing done against me. It is to be at rest when nobody praises me, and when I am blamed or despised. It is to have a blessed home in the Lord, where I can go in and shut “The greatest wisdom often emerges from the door, and kneel to my Father in secret, and am at peace as in a deep sea of calmness, when all around and above is troubledeepest wounds.” —Andrew Murray—Jane Lee Logan
“However great “Monarchy can easily be debunked, but watch the afflictions we sufferfaces, what mark well the debunkers. These are the men whose taproot in Eden has been cut: whom no rumour of the polyphony, the dance, can reach - men to whom pebbles laid in a row are more beautiful than an arch. … Where men are forbidden to honour a king they compared with the promised future rewardhonour millionaires, athletes or film stars instead: … For spiritual nature, like bodily nature, will be served; deny it food and it will gobble poison.” —St—C. S. Macarius the GreatLewis
“Shun “There is nothing impossible unto those who believe; lively and unshaken faith can accomplish great miracles in the praise twinkling of men an eye. Besides, even without our sincere and love firm faith, miracles are accomplished, such as the one whomiracles of the sacraments; for God's Mystery is always accomplished, in even though we were incredulous or unbelieving at the time of its celebration. 'Shall their unbelief make the fear faith of God without effect?' (Rom. 3:3). Our wickedness shall not overpower the Lordunspeakable goodness and mercy of God; our dullness shall not overpower God's wisdom, reprimands younor our infirmity God's omnipotence.” —St. PachomiusJohn of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ
“When people begin “The quality of mercy is not strained.It droppeth as the gentle rain from heavenUpon the place beneath. It is twice blest:It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomesThe thronèd monarch better than his crown.His scepter shows the force of temporal power,The attribute to praise awe and majestyWherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;But mercy is above this sceptered sway.It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings;It is an attribute to God Himself;And earthly power doth then show likest God'sWhen mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,Though justice be thy plea, consider this:That in the course of justice none of usShould see salvation. We do pray for mercy, let And that same prayer doth teach us hurry all to remember renderThe deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus muchTo mitigate the multitude justice of ours transgressionsthy plea, and we will see that we are truly unworthy Which, if thou follow, this strict court of that which they say and do in our honorVeniceMust needs give sentence 'gainst the merchantthere.” —St. John Climacus—William Shakespeare, Portia, The Merchant of Venice, Act 4, Scene 1
“…Don't be frightened at your burden; our Lord will help you to carry it“The human spirit needs places where nature has not been rearranged by the hand of man.” —St. John Vianney—unknown
“Every tribulation reveals “People were created to be loved. Things were created to be used. The reason why the state of our willworld is in chaos is because things are being loved and people are being used.” —St. Mark the Ascetic—unknown
“Every affliction tests our will, showing whether it is inclined “No man stands so tall as when he stoops to good or evil. That is why an unforeseen affliction is called a test, because it enables help a man to test his hidden desireschild.” —St. Mark the Ascetic—unknown
“Many are “If we could look into each others hearts, and understand the wiles unique challenges each of the enemy to despoil us of inner peacefaces, I think we would treat each other much more gently, with more love, patience, tolerance, so watch!and care.” —St—Marvin J. Theophan the RecluseAshton
“In every situation confusion is from “Teach me to feel another's woe, to hide the devilfault I see; that mercy I to others show, from whom may the Lord shield and protect usthat mercy show to me.” —St. Leo of Optina—Alexander Pope
“It should be noted “Tolerance is the last virtue of a depraved society. When you have an immoral society that when the fallen spirit wants to get dominion over Christ's asceticshas blatantly, he does not act imperiously or domineeringlyproudly, but tries to draw a man to consent to violated all of the proposed delusion, and after getting his consent he takes possession commandments of the person who has given his consent. Holy David, in describing his the fallen angel attacks manGod, has very rightly saidthere is one last virtue they insist upon: "He lurketh in secret as a lion in his den, that he may ravish the poor; to ravish the poor, when he getteth him into his nettolerance for their immorality."” —St. Ignaty Bryanchaninov, The Arena, chapter 11, On the Solitary Life—Dennis James Kennedy
“The devil presents minor sins as insignificant in our eyes, because otherwise he would not be able greatest thing a man can do to a woman is to lead us into major onesher closer to God than to himself.” —St. Mark the Ascetic—unknown
“Do not leave unobliterated any fault“A snowflake is one of God's most fragile creations, however small, for it may lead you on to greater sins.but look what they can do when they stick together!” —St. Mark the Ascetic—unknown
“He who honours the Lord does what the Lord bids“God cannot give us happiness and peace apart from Himself because it is not there. When he sins or There is disobedient, he patiently accepts what comes as something he deservesno such thing.” —St—C. S. Mark the AsceticLewis
“It “The supreme happiness of life is a great error to think that you must undertake important and great labors, whether the conviction of being loved for heavenyourself, ormore correctly, as the 'progressives' think, in order to make one's contribution to humanity. That is not necessary at all. It is necessary only to do everything being loved in accordance with the Lord's commandmentsspite of yourself.” —St. Theophan the Recluse—Victor Hugo
“When we are immersed in sins, and our mind “It is occupied solely with worldly cares, hardly complimentary to God that we do not notice the state of our soulshould choose him as an alternative to hell.” —St—C. S. John MaximovitchLewis
“We have to “Hell can't be aware that what is being pounded in upon us is all of one piece; it has a certain rhythmmade attractive, a certain message to give us, this message of self-worship, of relaxing, of letting go, of enjoying yourself, of giving up any thought of so the devil makes attractive the other world … It is actually an education in atheismroad that leads there. We have to fight back by knowing just what ” —St. Basil the world is trying to do to us…” —Fr. Seraphim Rose of PlatinaGreat
“I saw the snares that the enemy spreads out over the world and I said groaning“If you die before you die, "What can get through from such snares?" Then I heard than when you die, you will not die.” —written on a voice saying to mecell wall, "HumilitySt."” —StPaul's Monastery, Mt. Anthony the GreatAthos
“Wouldst thou comprehend “War in the height name of God? First comprehend the lowliness of God. Condescend to be humble for thine own sake, seeing that God condescended to be humble for thy sake too, for it was not for his ownreligion is war against religion.” —St. Augustine—His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew
“The greatness of a man consisteth of humility“Believe me, for in proportion as a man descendeth if God revealed to humilityus the disasters to which we were exposed and from which He protected us, he becometh exalted our whole lives would not suffice to greatnessoffer Him thanks.” —Paradise of the Holy Fathers, Vol—H.H. 2Pope Shenouda
“It is easier to measure the entire sea with a tiny cup than to grasp “In heaven, God's ineffable greatness with the human mindwill not ask us why we have sinned; He will ask us why we did not repent.” —St—H. Basil the GreatH. Pope Shenouda III
“You don't have a soul. You “Even if all spiritual fathers, patriarchs, hierarchs, and all the people forgive you, you are a Soul. You have a bodyunforgiven if you don’t repent in action.” —C. S—St. LewisKosmas Aitolos
“Learn to love humility“Nobody is as gracious and merciful, as the Lord is, for it will cover all your sins. All sins are repugnant before God but even He does not forgive the most repugnant sins of all is pride the man who does not repent; … we are being condemned not because of the heartmultitude of our evils, but because we do not want to repent.” —St.Mark the Ascetic
Do not consider yourself learned and wise; otherwise“As a handful of sand thrown into the ocean, so are the sins of all your effort will be destroyed and your boat will reach flesh as compared with the harbor emptymercy of God.” —St.Isaac the Syrian
If you have great authority“Just as a strongly flowing fountain is not blocked up by a handful of earth, do so the compassion of the Creator is not threaten anyone with deathovercome by the wickedness of his creatures.” —St. Know, that according to nature, you too are susceptible to death and that every soul sheds its body from itself as Isaac the final garment.Syrian
In Byzantium there existed an unusual “God is loving to man, and loving in no small measure. For say not, I have committed fornication and adultery: I have done dreadful things, and instructive custom during not once only, but often: will He forgive? Will He grant pardon? Hear what the crowning Psalmist says: ‘How great is the multitude of Your goodness, O Lord!’ Your accumulated offenses surpass not the emperors in the Church multitude of God's mercies: your wounds surpass not the Divine Wisdom [Stgreat Physician's skill. Sophia]. The custom was that when Only give yourself up in faith: tell the patriarch placed Physician your ailment: say thou also, like David: ‘I said, I will confess me my sin unto the crown on Lord’: and the emperor's headsame shall be done in your case, at which he says immediately: ‘And you forgave the same timewickedness of my heart.’” —St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 2, he handed him a silk purse filled with dirt from On Repentance and Remission of Sins and Concerning the graveAdversary, Ezekiel xviii.20-23
Then“Years are not needed for true repentance, even the emperor would recall death and to avoid all pride and become humblenot days, but only an instant.” —St. Anthony the GreatAmbrose of Optina
“Pride more than anything else“There is no sin which cannot be pardoned except that one which lacks repentance, deprives people of both their good deeds and help from God. Where there is no humility, pride takes its placegift which is not augmented save that which remains without acknowledgement. For the portion of the fool is small in his eyes.” —St. Macarius of OptinaIsaac the Syrian
“This is the wisdom “When a man abandons his sins and power of returns to God: to be victorious through weakness, exalted through humility, rich through povertyhis repentance regenerates him and renews him entirely.” —St. Gregory PalamasIsaiah the Solitary
“You will lose nothing “Through repentance the filth of what you have renounced for our foul actions is washed away. After this, we participate in the Holy Spirit, not automatically, but according to the Lord’s sakefaith, humility and inner disposition of the repentance in which our soul is engaged. For in its own time this reason it will return is good to you greatly multipliedrepent each day as the act of repentance is unending.” —St. Mark Symeon the AsceticNew Theologian, The Philokalia
“Where can I flee? A place cannot save you because there “And so it is no place you can flee from yourselfincumbent upon us to strive, rather, to correct our faults and to improve our behavior.” —St. Nikon of OptinaJohn Cassian
“If our purpose is “Let us strive to fight the spiritual fight purify ourselves through repentance and to defeathumility, with God’s help, the demons of malice, we should take every care and to guard unite all our heart from senses as one to the demon of dejectionGod who is good, just as a moth devours clothing and a worm devours woodtranscends the good. Then, so dejection devours a man’s soul. It persuades him truly, everything which I have not quite been able to shun every helpful encounter and stops him accepting advice from his true friends say or giving them a courteous and peaceful replyto demonstrate with my many words, you will be taught in an instant, all at once. Seizing the entire soulYou will hear with your sight, it fills it and see with bitterness your hearing. You will be taught while seeing and listlessness, again, hear what is unveiled. Then it suggests to the soul that we should go away from other people, since they are the cause of its agitation” —St. It does not allow Symeon the soul to understand that its sickness does not come from without, but lies hidden within, only manifesting itself when temptations attack the soul because of our ascetic efforts.New Theologian
A man can be harmed by another only through the causes of the passions which lie within himself“Where there is God, there is no evil. It Everything coming from God is for this reason that Godpeaceful, the Creator of all healthy and the Doctor of men’s souls, who alone has accurate knowledge of the soul’s wounds, does not tell us leads a person to forsake the company judgment of men; He tells us to root out the causes of evil within us his own imperfections and to recognize that the soul’s health is achieved not by a man’s separating himself from his fellows, but by his living the ascetic life in the company of holy men. When we abandon our brothers for some apparently good reason, we do not eradicate the motives for dejection but merely exchange them, since the sickness which lies hidden within us will show itself again in other circumstances.” —Sthumility. John Cassian
“A life lived in the world can be as good, in the eyes of GodWhen a person accepts anything Godly, as one spent then he rejoices in a monastery. It is indeed only the keeping of God's commandments, love of allhis heart, and a true sense of humility that matterbut when he has accepted anything devilish, wherever we arethen he becomes tormented.” —Elder Macarius of Optina
“Those whoThe devil is like a lion, because hiding in ambush (Ps 10:19, 1Pe 5:8). He secretly sets out nets of the rigor of their own ascetic practiceunclean and unholy thoughts. So, despise the less zealousit is necessary to break them off as soon as we notice them, think that they are made righteous by physical works. But we are even more foolish if we rely on theoretical knowledge means of pious reflection and disparage the ignorant.” —Stprayer. Mark the Ascetic
“A remedy against straying thoughts It is mental attentionnecessary that the Holy Spirit enter our heart. Everything good that we do, attention that we do for Christ, is given to us by the fact that the Lord Holy Spirit, but prayer most of all, which is before always available to us and we are before Him.” —St. Theophan the Recluse
“The roots A sign of evil thoughts are spiritual life is the obvious vices, which we keep trying to justify in our words immersion of a person within himself and actionsthe hidden workings within his heart.” —St. Mark the AsceticSeraphim of Sarov
“Guard your speech “There is nothing better than peace in Christ, for it brings victory over all the evil spirits on earth and in the air. When peace dwells in a man's heart it enables him to contemplate the grace of the Holy Spirit from boasting within. He who dwells in peace collects spiritual gifts as it were with a scoop, and your he sheds the light of knowledge on others. All our thoughts from presumption; otherwise you may be abandoned by God , all our desires, all our efforts, and fall into sin. For all our actions should make us say constantly with the Church: ‘O Lord, give us peace!’ When a man cannot do anything good without the help of lives in peace, God, who sees everythingreveals mysteries to him.” —St. Mark the AsceticSeraphim of Sarov
"The higher a person’s position “The Spirit offers its own light to every mind, to help it in society the more he should help others without ever reminding them of his positionits search for truth.” —Tsar St—St. Nicholas IIBasil the Great
“If you want your sins to be absolved by Christ, then don“Sometimes a man't speak to others about any virtue s happiness is so deep inside him that you he may haveforget it's there and start looking elsewhere hunting a fantasy, because God will treat our sins the same way we treat our virtuesan illusion.” —St—Mr. Mark the AsceticRoarke (Fantasy Island, s2e14)
“If any man is able in power he seeks answers to continue in purity, questions related to the honour of the flesh of our Lordhis faith, let him continue so without boasting; if he boasts, he is undone; if he become known apart from the bishophis purpose in life, he has destroyed himselfwill find happiness.” —St. Ignatius —Elder Justin (Pârvu) of AntiochRomania
“Guarding the mouth wakes up the conscience to “The person who loves God values knowledge of God more than anything created by God, if it is with and pursues such knowledge that a man keeps silenceardently and ceaselessly.” —St. Isaac Maximus the SyrianConfessor
“Silence “A time is more profitable than speechcoming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him, for as it has been saidsaying, "The words of wise men ‘You are mad; you are heard even in quietnot like us."” ’” —St. Basil Anthony the Great
“Never give your opinion if “Adorn yourself with truth, try to speak truth in all things; and do not support a lie, no matter who asks you.If you speak the truth and someone gets mad at you , don’t be upset, but take comfort in the words of the Lord:Blessed are those who are not asked persecuted for itthe sake of truth, even if you think that your view for theirs is the bestKingdom of Heaven (Matt. 5:10).” —St. Josemaria Escriva “Somewhere we know that without silence words lose their meaningGennadius of Constantinople, The Golden Chain, that without listening speaking no longer heals26, that without distance closeness cannot cure.” —Henri Nouwen2
“Let your mouth continually administer blessing“You that are strong with all might in the inner man ought by rights to carry on the struggle against the enemies of the truth, and not to shrink from the task, that we fathers may be gladdened by the noble toil of our sons; then for this is the scorn prompting of anyone will never hurt the law of nature: but as youturn your ranks, and send against us the assaults of those darts which are hurled by the opponents of the truth, and demand that their hot burning coals and their shafts sharpened by knowledge falsely so called should be quenched with the shield of faith by us old men.” —St. Isaac the SyrianGregory of Nyssa
“Just as swine run to a place where “I shall set forth the best contributions of the philosophers of the Greeks, because whatever there is mireof good has been given to men from above by God, since ‘every best gift and bees dwell where every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights’ (Js. 1.17). If, however, there are fragrances is anything that is contrary to the truth, then it is a dark invention of the deceit of Satan and incensea fiction of the mind of an evil spirit, as that eminent theologian Gregory once said (Homily 39.3). In imitation of the method of the bee, likewise demons gather where there I shall make my composition from those things which are carnal songs conformable with the truth and from our enemies themselves gather the fruit of salvation. But all that is worthless and falsely labeled as knowledge I shall reject. Then, next, after this, I shall set forth in order the absurdities of the heresies hated of God, so that by recognizing the lie we may more closely follow the truth. Then, with God's help and by His grace I shall expose the truth–that truth which destroys deceit and puts falsehood to flight and which, as with golden fringes, has been embellished and adorned by the sayings of the Holy Spirit settles where there divinely inspired prophets, the divinely taught fishermen, and the God-bearing shepherds and teachers–that truth, the glory of which flashes out from within to brighten with its radiance, when they encounter it, them that are spiritual melodiesduly purified and rid of troublesome speculations. However, as I have said, I shall add nothing of my own, sanctifying both mouth but shall gather together into one those things which have been worked out by the most eminent of teachers and soulmake a compendium of them, being in all things obedient to your command.” —St. John Chrysostomof Damascus, The Fount of Knowledge
“A psalm implies serenity of soul; it is “If we have obtained the author grace of peaceGod, which calms bewildering and seething thoughts. Fornone shall prevail against us, it softens the wrath of the soul, and what is unbridled it chastensbut we shall be stronger than all who oppose us. A psalm forms friendships, unites those separated, conciliates those at enmity” —St. Who, indeed, can still consider as an enemy him with whom he has uttered the same prayer to God?John Chrysostom
So that psalmody, bringing about choral singing, a bond, as it were, toward unity, and joining the people into a harmonious union of one choir, produces also the greatest of blessings, charity. A psalm “But our opinion is a city of refuge from in accordance with the demonsEucharist, a means of inducing help from and the angels, a weapon Eucharist in fears by night, a rest from toils by day, a safeguard for infants, an adornment for those at the height turn establishes our opinion.” —St. Irenaeus of their vigorLyons, a consolation for the eldersAgainst Heresies, a most fitting ornament for women.4:18:5
It peoples “If the solitudespoison of pride is swelling up in you, turn to the Eucharist; it rids and that Bread, Which is your God humbling and disguising Himself, will teach you humility. If the market place fever of excessesselfish greed rages in you, feed on this Bread; it is and you will learn generosity. If the elementary exposition cold wind of beginnerscoveting withers you, hasten to the Bread of Angels; and charity will come to blossom in your heart. If you feel the improvement itch of those advancingintemperance, nourish yourself with the solid support Flesh and Blood of Christ, Who practiced heroic self-control during His earthly life; and you will become temperate. If you are lazy and sluggish about spiritual things, strengthen yourself with this heavenly Food; and you will grow fervent. Lastly, if you feel scorched by the perfectfever of impurity, go to the voice banquet of the ChurchAngels; and the spotless Flesh of Christ will make you pure and chaste. It brightens the feast days; it creates a sorrow which is in accordance with God” —St.Cyril of Alexandria
For“Don't be anxious about what you have, a psalm is the work of angels, a heavenly institution, the spiritual incensebut about what you are.” —St. Basil Gregory the Great
“Through the Holy Spirit comes our restoration “Let everything take second place to paradise, our ascension into the kingdom care of heavenour children, our return bringing them up to the adoption discipline and instruction of sons, our liberty the Lord. If from the beginning we teach them to call God our Fatherlove true wisdom, our being made partakers of the grace of Christ, our being called children of light, our sharing in eternal they will have greater wealth and glorythan riches can provide. If a child learns a trade, and, in or is highly educated for a wordlucrative profession, our being brought into a state of all "fulness this is nothing compared to the art of blessingdetachment from riches; if you want to make your child rich," both in teach him this world and in . He is truly rich who does not desire great possessions, or surrounds himself with wealth, but who requires nothing…Don’t think that only monks need to learn the world Bible; Children about to come, of all go out into the good gifts that are world stand in store for us, by promise hereof, through faith, beholding the reflection greater need of their grace as though they were already present, we await the full enjoymentScriptural knowledge.” —St. Basil the GreatJohn Chrysostom, Homilies on Ephesians, Homily 21
“Humility consists“If a man really sets his heart upon the will of God, God will enlighten a little child to tell that man what is His will. But if a man does not truly desire the will of God, even if he goes in condemning our consciencesearch of a prophet, but God will put into the heart of the prophet a reply like the deception in recognizing God's grace and compassionhis own heart.” —St. Mark the Ascetic—Abba Dorotheos of Gaza
“Children“Learn from small children: if a child is attacked by someone in the presence of his parent, I beseech you he does not respond to correct your hearts the attacker himself, but looks at the parent and thoughts, so cries. He knows that the parent will protect him. And how can you not know what the little child knows? Your heavenly Parent is continually beside you may be pleasing to God. Consider that although we may reckon ourselves to be righteous and frequently succeed in deceiving menTherefore do not revenge, do not repay evil for evil, we can conceal nothing from God. Let us therefore strive to preserve but look at the holiness of our souls Parent and to guard the purity of our bodies cry. Only in this way will you secure your victory in a clash with all fervor. Ye are the temple of God, says the divine Apostle Paul; If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroyevil people.” —St. Nicholas of MyraNikolai Velimirovich
“Those “The soul that is in all things devoted to the will of God rests quiet in Him, for she knows of experience and from the Holy Scriptures that the Lord loves us much and watches over our souls, quickening all things by His grace in peace and love. Nothing troubles the man who suffer is given over to the will of God, be it illness, poverty or persecution. He knows that the Lord in His mercy is solicitous for us. The Holy Spirit, whom the sake of true devotion receive helpsoul knows, is witness therefore. This must be learnt through obeying But the proud and the self-willed do not want to surrender to God's law will because they like their own way, and our own consciencethat is harmful for the soul.” —St. Mark Silouan the Athonite (From the AsceticLife and Teachings of Elder Siluan by Bishop Alexander and Natalia Bufius translated by Anatoly Shmelev)
“When you are wronged and your heart and feelings are hardened“The man who cries out against evil men, do but does not be distressed, pray for this has happened providentially; but be glad and reject the thoughts that arise within you, knowing that if they are destroyed at the stage when they are only provocations, their evil consequences them will be cut off, whereas if never know the thoughts persist the evil may be expected to developgrace of God.” —St. Mark Silouan the AsceticAthonite
“Struggle to become immortal from now, by dying here on “Those who dislike and reject their fellow-man are impoverished in their being. They do not know the earth to your bad self. In this waytrue God, you won't be sad, but you'll be very glad, living together with Christwho is all-embracing love.” —Elder Porphyrios—St. Silouan the Athonite
“I saw that there was no tragedy “If we detect hatred in our hearts against any man whatsoever for committing any fault, we are utterly estranged from love for God. Tragedy is to be found solely in the fortunes of the , since love for God absolutely precludes us from hating any man whose gaze has not gone beyond the confines of this earth.” —Archimandrite Sophrony—St. Maximus the Confessor
“In advising against being carried away by artificial practices such as Transcendental Meditation I am but repeating the age-old message of the Church … The way of the Fathers requires firm faith and long patience, whereas our contemporaries want to seize every spiritual gift, including even direct contemplation of the Absolute God, by force and speedily, and will often draw “One must not harbour anger nor hatred towards a parallel between prayer in the Name of Jesus and yoga or Transcendental Meditation and person that is hostile towards us. On the likecontrary. I You must stress the danger of such errors … He is deluded who endeavors to divest himself mentally of all that is transitory love him and relative in order to cross some invisible threshold, to realize his eternal origin, his identity with the Source of all that exists, in order to return and merge with do as much good as possible towards him, the nameless transpersonal Absolute. Such exercises have enabled many to rise to suprarational contemplation of being, to experience a certain mystical trepidation, to know Following the state teaching of silence of mind, when mind goes beyond the boundaries of time and spaceour Lord Jesus Christ. In such like states man may feel the peacefulness of being withdrawn from the continually changing phenomena of the visible world, may even have a certain experience of eternity” —St. But the God Seraphim of Truth, the Living God, is not in all this.Sarov
It is man’s own beauty“Do not ask for love from your neighbor, created in the image of God, that is contemplated for if you ask and seen as divinityhe does not respond, whereas he himself still continues within the confines of his creatureliness. This is a vastly important concernyou will be troubled. The tragedy of the matter lies in the fact that man sees a mirage which, in his longing Instead show your love for eternal lifeyour neighbour and you will be at rest, he mistakes for a genuine oasis. This impersonal form of ascetics leads finally and so will bring your neighbour to an assertion of the divine principle in the very nature of manlove. Man is then drawn to the idea of self-deification—the cause of the original Fall” —St. The man who is blinded by the imaginary majesty Dorotheos of what he contemplates has in fact set his foot on the path to self-destruction. He has discarded the revelation of a personal God … The movement into the depths of his own being is nothing else but attraction towards the non-being from which we were called by the will of the Creator.” —Archimandrite Sophrony of Mount Athos, His Life is Mine, 115-116Gaza
“Christ said, 'I came not to send peace, but a sword' and 'division'. Christ summoned us to war on the plane of the spirit, and our weapon is 'the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.' Our battle is waged in extraordinarily unequal conditions. We are tied hand and foot. We dare not strike with fire or sword: our sole armament is love, even “Love should never be sacrificed for enemies. This unique war in which we are engaged is indeed a holy war. We wrestle with the last and only enemy sake of mankind deathsome dogmatic difference. Our fight is the fight for universal resurrection” —St.” —Archimandrite Sophrony Nektarios of Mount Athos, His Life is MineAegina
“I ask you to try something. If someone grieves you, or dishonors you, or takes something of yours, then pray like this: ‘Lord, we are all your creatures. Pity your servants, and turn them to repentance,’ and then you will perceptibly bear grace “No term is used–and misused–among the Orthodox people in your soul. Induce your heart to love your enemies, and America more often than the Lord, seeing your good will, shall help you in all things, and will Himself show you experience. But whoever thinks evil of his enemies does not have love for God and has not known Godterm canonical.” —St—Fr. Silouan the AthoniteAlexander Schmemann, WritingThe Problems of Orthodoxy in America, IX.21The Canonical Problem
“The whole therapeutic method of “Even the Orthodox Church slightest thought that is not aimed simply at making human beings morally and socially balanced, but at re-establishing their relationship with God and one another. This comes about through the healing of the soul's wounds and the cure of the passions through the Sacraments and the Church's ascetic practicefounded on love destroys peace.” —Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos, The Science of Spiritual Medicine: Orthodox Psychotherapy in Action—Archimandrite Thaddeus Strabulovich
“A wise heart can transfer an affliction into a blessing, even sin!! He benefits from it: contrition, humility, keenness “What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and sympathy for sinnerswant. It has ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like.” —H.H—St. Pope Shenouda IIIAugustine of Hippo
“Humility “Your Lord is love: love Him and suffering free a man from in Him all sin; for the first cuts out spiritual passionsmen, as His Children in Christ. Your Lord is fire: do not let your heart be cold, but burn with faith and the latter bodilylove. Your Lord is light: do not walk in darkness of mind, without reasoning or understanding, or without faith. Your Lord is a God of mercy and bountifulness: be also a source of mercy and bountifulness to your neighbors. If you will be such, you will find salvation yourself with everlasting glory.” —St. Maximus the ConfessorJohn of Kronstadt
“Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny“To love our brothers is a need that is endemic to our nature. Contemporary man does not recognize this need, because it is suppressed and suffocated by egoism.” —C. S—Archbishop Averky (Taushev), The Struggle for Virtue: Asceticism in a Modern Secular Society, p. Lewis54
“The heart of “Many think that love is a perfectly healthy man becomes weakened for faith and love to God and his neighborfeeling, and easily gives itself up to carnal desires: to slothfulness, negligence, coldness, gluttony, avarice, fornication, pridebut this is not the case. Whilst It is a state of the heart of will. If love were a sick man, or feeling it would not be a woundedcommandment. Naturally, oppressed, weary heartlove is accompanied by certain feelings, is strengthened but in faith, hope, and love, and essence it is far removed from carnal passions. This is why a state of the Heavenly Father, Who careth for our salvation, chastises us by various sicknesses. The oppression and afflictions of sickness make us turn again to Godwill.” —St—Fr. John of KronstadtDaniel Sysoev, How Can I Learn God's Will?
“Suffering reminds “I guard you in advance against beasts in the wise man form of Godmen, whom you must not only not receive, but crushes those who forget Him.” if it is possible not even meet, but only pray for them, if perchance they may repent…” —St. Mark Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the AsceticSmyrnaeans, A.D. 117
“God permits tribulations and adversities to befall people – even the saintly – so that they may persist in humility. But if we harden our hearts against adversities and tribulations“Until you have eradicated evil, he also hardens these tribulations against us. On the other hand if we accept them in humility and with a contrite do not obey your heart, God ; for it will mingle tribulation with mercyseek more of what it already contains within itself.” —St. Isaac Mark the SyrianAscetic
“We must be prepared to accept “Whatever of that which is best has flowed into the will of God. The Lord permits all sorts of things to happen to us contrary to our will, for if we always have it our wayheart, we will should not pour out without need; for that which has been gathered can be prepared for free of danger from visible and invisible enemies only when it is guarded in the Kingdom interior of Heaventhe heart.” —Elder Thaddeus —St. Seraphim of Vitovnica, "Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives"Sarov
“What should not “No one professing faith sins, nor does does anyone possessing love hate. The tree is known by its fruit; thus those who profess to be Christ's will be heard recognized by little earstheir actions. For the work is a matter not of what one promises now, should not be said by big mouthsbut of persevering to the end in the power of faith.” —unknown—St. Ignatius of Antioch (to the Ephesians)
“I am incurably convinced that the object of opening the mind“Indeed, man wishes to be happy even when he so lives as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solidmake happiness impossible.” —G. K—St. ChestertonAugustine
“What “The confession of evil works is slander? It is every sort of wicked word we would dare not speak in front the first beginning of the person whom we are complaining aboutgood works.” —St. Anthony the GreatAugustine
“If you want to overcome the spirit of slander, blame not “The evil powers love the person who fallsdarkness and tremble at every light, but the demon especially at that prompted them which belongs to sinGod and to those who please Him.” —St. John ClimacusNikolai Velimirovich
“You cannot be too gentle, too kind. Shun even to appear harsh in your treatment “The one who has not yet obtained divine knowledge activated by love makes a lot of each otherthe religious works he performs. Joy, radiant joy, streams from the face of him who gives and kindles joy in But the heart of him one who receives. All condemnation is from has been deemed worthy to obtain this says with conviction the devil. Never condemn each other. We condemn others only because we shun knowing ourselves. When we gaze at our own failings, we see such a swamp that nothing in another can equal it. That is why we turn away, and make much of words which the faults of others. Instead of condemning others, strive to reach inner peace. Keep silent, refrain from judgment. This will raise you above patriarch Abraham spoke when he was graced with the deadly arrows of slanderdivine appearance, insult and outrage ‘I am but earth and will shield your glowing hearts against all evilashes.” ’” —St. Seraphim of SarovMaximus the Confessor
“A man may seem to be silent, but if his heart “Do not say that ‘mere faith in our Lord Jesus Christ can save me.’ For this is condemning othersimpossible unless you acquire love for him through works. For in what concerns mere believing, he is babbling ceaselessly‘even the devils believe and tremble. But there may be another who talks from morning till night and yet he is truly silent, that is, he says nothing that is not profitable’” —St.” —Abba PoemenMaximus the Confessor
“If your tongue “Our faith then must be different from the faith of devils. For our faith purifies the heart; but their faith makes them guilty. For they do wickedly, and therefore say they to the Lord, ‘What have we to do with You?’ When you hear the devils say this, do you think that they do not acknowledge Him? ‘We know,’ they say, ‘who You are: You are the Son of God.’ This Peter says, and is commended; the devil says it, and is condemned. Whence comes this, but that though the words be the same, the heart is different? Let us then make a distinction in our faith, and not be content to believe. This is no such faith as purifies the heart. ‘Purifying their hearts,’ it is said, ‘by faith.’ But by what, and what kind of faith, save that which the Apostle Paul defines when he says, ‘Faith which works by love.’ That faith distinguishes us from the faith of devils, and from the infamous and abandoned conduct of men. ‘Faith,’ he says. What faith? ‘That which works by love,’ and which hopes for what God does promise. Nothing is more exact or perfect than this definition. There are then in faith these three things. He in whom that faith is used which works by love, must necessarily hope for that which God does promise. Hope therefore is the associate of faith. For hope is necessary as long as we see not what we believe, lest perhaps through not seeing, and by despairing to chatteringsee, your heart we fail. That we see not, does make us sad; but that we hope we shall see, comforts us. Hope then is here, and she is the associate of faith. And then charity also, by which we long, and strive to attain, and glow with desire, and hunger and thirst. This then is taken in also; and so there will remain dim be faith, hope, and foreign charity. For how shall there not be charity there, since charity is nothing else but love? And this faith is itself defined as that ‘which works by love.’ Take away faith, and all you believe perishes; take away charity, and all that you do perishes. For it is the province of faith to believe, of charity to the luminous intuitions do. For if you believe without love, you do not apply yourself to good works; or if you do, it is as a servant, not as a son, through fear of punishment, not through love of righteousness. Therefore I say, that faith purifies the Holy Spiritheart, which works by love.” —St. John Augustine of DalyathaHippo, Sermon III on the New Testament, Section XI
“He who does not control his tongue when he “Human life is angrybut of brief duration. ‘All flesh is grass, will not control his passions eitherand all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God shall stand forever’ (Isa. 40:6). Let us hold fast to the commandment that abides, and despise the unreality that passes away.” —Abba Hyperchius—St. Basil the Great
“Firmly purpose in your soul to hate every sin “We see the water of a river flowing uninterruptedly and passing away, and all that floats on its surface, rubbish or beams of thoughttrees, all pass by. So does our life. I was an infant, wordand that time has gone. I was an adolescent, and deedthat too has passed. I was a young man, and when you are tempted to sin resist it valiantly that too is far behind me. The strong and with a feeling of hatred for it; only beware lest your hatred should turn against the person of your brother who gave occasion for the sinmature man that I was is no more. Hate the sin with all your heartMy hair turns white, I succumb to age, but pity your brotherthat too passes; instruct him, I approach the end and pray for him to will go the Almighty, Who sees way of all of us and tries our hearts and innermost partsflesh. I was born in order to die. I die that I may live.Remember me, O Lord, in Thy Kingdom!” —St. John Tikhon of KronstadtVoronezh
“These eight passions “You should be destroyed as follows: gluttony by self-control; unchastity by desire for God and longing for the blessings held in store; avarice by compassion for the poor; anger by goodwill and love for all men; worldly dejection by spiritual joy; listlessness by patience, perseverance and offering thanks to God; self-esteem by doing good in secret and by praying constantly with a contrite heart; and pride by not judging or despising anyone in the manner of the boastful Pharisee (cflook downward. Luke 18 Remember: 11–12), you are earth and by considering oneself the least of all men. When the intellect has been freed in this way from the passions we have described and been raised up you will return to God, it will henceforth live the life of blessedness, receiving the pledge of the Holy Spirit (cf. 2 Cor. 1 : 22). And when it departs this life, dispassionate and full of true knowledge, it will stand before the light of the Holy Trinity and with the divine angels will shine in glory through all eternityearth.” —St. John Ambrose of Damascus, On the Virtues and the Vices, from The Philokalia: The Complete Text (Vol. 2)Optina
“We must consider all evil things“Everything in this life passes away – only God remains, only He is worth struggling towards. We have a choice: to follow the way of this world, even of the passions which war against society that surrounds us, and thereby find ourselves outside of God; or to be not our ownchoose the way of life, but of to choose God Who calls us and for Whom our enemy the devil. This heart is very important. You can only conquer a passion when you do not consider it as part of yousearching.” —St—Fr. Nikon Seraphim Rose of OptinaPlatina
“A sinful soul, full of passions“Just as a pauper, cannot have peace and rejoice in seeing the Lordroyal treasures, even if it had charge over all earthly riches, even if it ruled over the whole world. If it was suddenly said to such a king, happily feasting and sitting on more acknowledges his throneown poverty; so also the spirit, 'King, now you will diereading the accounts of the great deeds of the Holy Fathers,' his soul would be troubled and he would tremble with fear, and he would see his powerlessness. But how many beggars there are, whose only wealth involuntarily is love for God, and who, if you said to them, 'You will die now,' would answer peacefully, 'Let God's will be done. Glory to all the Lord, that He has remembered me and wants to take me to Himselfmore humbled in its way of thought.'” —St. Silouan the AthoniteJohn Climacus
“Man’s will, out of cowardice, tends away from suffering, “Do not shun poverty and man, against his own willaffliction, remains utterly dominated by the fear of death, and, in his desire fuel that gives wings to live, clings to his slavery to pleasureprayer.” —St. Maximus —Evagrios the ConfessorSolitary
“Sin makes man “What is the meaning of the exclamation so often sung in church: ‘Lord, have mercy upon us’? It is the lament of the guilty, condemned sinner, imploring forgiveness of an irritated justice. We are all under the eternal curse and doomed to eternal fire for our innumerable sins, and it is only the Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, interceding for us before the Heavenly Father, that saves us from eternal punishment. It is the lament of the repentant sinner, expressing his firm intention to amend and begin a coward; but new life, becoming for a life in Christian. It is the lament of the repentant sinner, ready to forgive others, as he himself was and is immeasurably forgiven by God, the Truth Judge of Christ makes Him boldhis deeds.” —St. John Chrysostomof Kronstadt, Homilies on the StatuesMy Life in Christ, VIIIpg. 2406
“Of all the “It seems that we do not understand one thing: it is not good things in when we return the world, life is dearest to men, and men love life better than truth, although there is no life in truth. The highest good, then, is life, but truth is the foundation of life. He those who loves life must also love truthus, yet hate those who hate us. But what is We are not on the way to truth? 'I am right path if we do this. We are the way', says sons of light and love – the Lord. 'I am the way'sons of God, that none should think that there is some other way to the truth besides the Lord Jesus. It was for that He was born as a man: to show men the wayhis children. And for this that He was crucifiedAs such, to make the way plain by we must have His qualities and His bloodattributes of love, peace, and kindness towards all.” —St. Nikolai Velimirovich—Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica
“The natural passions become good in those who struggle when, wisely unfastening them from “We suffer because we have no humility and we do not love our brother. From love of our brother comes the things love of the fleshGod. People do not learn humility, use them to gain heavenly things. For example they can change appetite into the movement and because of a spiritual longing for divine things; pleasure into pure joy for their pride cannot receive the cooperation grace of the mind with divine gifts; fear into care to evade future misfortune due to sin Holy Spirit, and sadness into corrective repentance for present eviltherefor the whole world suffers.” —St. Maximus Silouan the ConfessorAthonite
“How good it “Some suffer much from poverty and sickness, but are not humbled, and so they suffer without profit. But one who is to conquer humbled will be happy in all circumstances, because the passions! After the victory one feels such lightness of heartLord is his riches and joy, such peace and greatness all people will wonder at the beauty of spirit!his soul.” —St. John of KronstadtSilouan the Athonite
“He who believes“My joy, fears; he who fears I beg you, acquire the Spirit of Peace. That means to bring oneself to such a state that our spirit will not be disturbed by anything. For one must go through many sorrows to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. This is humble; he who is humble becomes gentle.” the way all righteous men were saved and inherited the Heavenly Kingdom…” —St. Maximus the ConfessorSeraphim of Sarov
“For every humble person “My will, therefore, He took to Himself, my grief. In confidence I call it grief, because I preach His Cross. Mine is gentlethe will which He called His Own, for as Man He bore my grief, as Man He spake, and therefore said, ‘Not as I will, but as Thou wilt.’ Mine was the grief, and every gentle person is invariably humblemine the heaviness with which He bore it, for no man exults when at the point to die. A person With me and for me He Suffers, for me He is humble when he knows that his very being sad, for me He is on loan heavy. In my stead therefore, and in me He grieved Who had no cause to himgrieve for Himself.” —St. Maximus the Confessor
“A humble person lives on earth Not Thy Wound, but mine, hurt Thee, Lord Jesus; not Thy Death, but our weakness, even as if in the Kingdom of Heaven Prophet saith: ‘For He is afflicted for our sakes’-- always happyand we, Lord, esteemed Thee afflicted, when Thou grievedst not for Thyself, peaceful and satisfied with everything.” —Stbut for me. Anthony of Optina
“Not every quiet man And what wonder if He grieved for all, Who wept for one? What wonder if, in the hour of death, He is humbleheavy for all, Who wept when at the point to raise Lazarus from the dead? Then, but every humble man is quietindeed, He was moved by a loving sister's tears, for they touched His human heart,--here by secret grief He brought it to pass that, even as His Death made an end of death, and His Stripes healed our scars, so also His Sorrow took away our sorrow.” —St. Isaac Ambrose of Milan, (+397), Ch. 7, Book II, Exposition on the SyrianChristian Faith
“You wish to be great“Peace is not absence of struggle, begin from the least. You are thinking to construct some mighty fabric in height; first think of the foundation but absence of humility. And how great soever a mass of building one may wish uncertainty and design to place above it, the greater the building is to be, the deeper does he dig his foundationconfusion.” —St. Augustine—Metropolitan Anthony (Bloom) of Sourozh
“A humble person lives on earth “Humility is perfect quietness of heart, it is to expect nothing, to wonder at nothing that is done to me, to feel nothing done against me. It is to be at rest when nobody praises me, and when I am blamed or despised. It is to have a blessed home in the Lord, where I can go in and shut the door, and kneel to my Father in secret, and am at peace as if in the Kingdom a deep sea of Heaven - always happycalmness, peaceful when all around and satisfied with everythingabove is trouble.” —St. Anthony of Optina—Andrew Murray
“In them [“However great the Lives of the Saints] it is clearly and obviously demonstrated: There is no spiritual death from which one cannot be resurrected by the Divine power of the risen and ascended Lord Christ; there is no tormentafflictions we suffer, there is no misfortune, there is no misery, there is no suffering which what are they compared with the Lord will not change either gradually or all at once into quite, compunctionate joy because of faith in Himpromised future reward.” —St. Justin PopovichMacarius the Great
“A servant “Shun the praise of men and love the Lord is he one who , in body stands before menthe fear of the Lord, but in mind knocks at Heaven with prayerreprimands you.” —St. John ClimacusPachomius
“In “When people begin to praise us, let us hurry to remember the Christian East – in factmultitude of ours transgressions, in the East in general – and we love old age because will see that we think are truly unworthy of that it is made for praying. When one is old, which they say and feels the nearness of God across the increasingly transparent surface of biological life, one becomes do in consciousness a child, returned to the Father, made light in spirit by the proximity of death, transparent to another kind of lightour honor.” —St.John Climacus
A civilization in which one no longer prays is a civilization in which old age has no meaning. One walks backward towards death, pretending to “…Don't be youngfrightened at your burden; it’s an agonizing spectacle, because a wonderful possibility is offered, a journey towards ultimate relinquishment, and our Lord will help you to carry it is not taken advantage of.” —St. John Vianney
We need old people who pray, who smile, who live with a disinterested love, who marvel; they alone can show young people that that living is worth “Every tribulation reveals the effort, and that oblivion is not state of our will.” —St. Mark the last word.Ascetic
Every monk whose spiritual practice has born fruit “Every affliction tests our will, showing whether it is called in the East, whatever his age, 'a beautiful old maninclined to good or evil.' He That is beautiful with the beauty that rises from the heart. In him all the periods of his life have come into harmony, as with why an unforeseen affliction is called a symphonytest, one might say. And especially the original child is found again: shining with because it enables a transfigured shining, the beautiful old man has the eyes of a childto test his hidden desires.” —Olivier Clément—St. Mark the Ascetic
“It is “Many are the wiles of great significance if there is a person who truly prays in a family. Prayer attracts God’s grace and all the members enemy to despoil us of the family feel itinner peace, even those whose hearts have grown coldso watch!” —St. Pray always.” —Elder Thaddeus of VitovnicaTheophan the Recluse
“Prayer “In every situation confusion is from the place of refuge for every worrydevil, a foundation for cheerfulness, a source of constant happiness, a protection against sadnessfrom whom may the Lord shield and protect us.” —St. John ChrysostomLeo of Optina
“He “It should be noted that when the fallen spirit wants to get dominion over Christ's ascetics, he does not act imperiously or domineeringly, but tries to draw a man to consent to the proposed delusion, and after getting his consent he takes possession of the person who angers youhas given his consent. Holy David, controls you!in describing his the fallen angel attacks man, has very rightly said: "He lurketh in secret as a lion in his den, that he may ravish the poor; to ravish the poor, when he getteth him into his net."” —Bishop Melchisedek Pleska—St. Ignaty Bryanchaninov, The Arena, chapter 11, On the Solitary Life
“[The desire for] equality is from the Devil“The devil presents minor sins as insignificant in our eyes, because it comes entirely from envyotherwise he would not be able lead us into major ones.” —Fr—St. Alexander SchmemannMark the Ascetic
“In your prayer seek only righteousness and the kingdom of God“Do not leave unobliterated any fault, that ishowever small, virtue and spiritual knowledge; and everything else 'will be given for it may lead you on to you' (Matt. 6:33)greater sins.” —St. Evagrius of PonticusMark the Ascetic
“Virtues are formed by prayer. Prayer preserves temperance. Prayer suppresses anger. Prayer prevents emotions of pride and envy. Prayer draws into “He who honours the soul Lord does what the Holy SpiritLord bids. When he sins or is disobedient, and raises man to Heavenhe patiently accepts what comes as something he deserves.” —St. Ephrem Mark the SyrianAscetic
“Even if we stand at “It is a great error to think that you must undertake important and great labors, whether for heaven, or, as the very summit of virtue'progressives' think, it in order to make one's contribution to humanity. That is by mercy that we shall be savednot necessary at all. It is necessary only to do everything in accordance with the Lord's commandments.” —St. John ChrysostomTheophan the Recluse
“The goodness of God “When we are immersed in sins, and our mind is so rich in gracesoccupied solely with worldly cares, that it seeks a cause we do not notice the state of our soul. We are indifferent to have mercy on who we are inwardly, and we persist along a personfalse path without being aware of it.” —St. Anthimus John (Maximovitch) of ChiosShanghai and San Francisco
“The Holy Spirit has accomplishing “We have to be aware that what is being pounded in each believer the work upon us is all of Christ. Each Christian is one piece; it has a certain rhythm, a communicant certain message to give us, this message of self-worship, of relaxing, of letting go, of enjoying yourself, of giving up any thought of the spirit. This other world … It is something so necessary, that actually an education in fact whoever does not atheism. We have to fight back by knowing just what the Spirit world is not trying to do to us…” —Fr. Seraphim Rose of Christ.” —St. Theophan the ReclusePlatina
“The Church is nothing but “I saw the world on snares that the way to deification; for enemy spreads out over the Churchworld and I said groaning, the world is no longer ‘What can get through from such snares?’ Then I heard a tomb but a wombvoice saying to me, ‘Humility.’” —St.” —Olivier ClémentAnthony the Great
“The church “Learn to love humility, for it will cover all your sins. All sins are repugnant before God but the most repugnant of all is an earthly heaven in which pride of the super-celestial God dwells and walks about. ” —Stheart. Germanus of Constantinople
“Nothing is more abiding than the Church: she is Do not consider yourself learned and wise; otherwise, all your salvation; she is effort will be destroyed and your refuge.” —Stboat will reach the harbor empty. John Chrysostom
“There is no need to weep much over the destruction of a church; after allIf you have great authority, each of usdo not threaten anyone with death. Know, that according to God's mercynature, has or should have his own church - the heart - go in there you too are susceptible to death and pray, that every soul sheds its body from itself as much as you have strength and time. If this church is not well made and is abandoned (without inward prayer), then the visible church will be of little benefitfinal garment.” —Archbishop Barlaam
“Our prayer reflects our attitude towards God. He who is careless of salvation has a different attitude toward God from him who has abandoned sin In Byzantium there existed an unusual and is zealous for virtue but has not yet entered within himself and works for instructive custom during the Lord only outwardly. Finally, he who has entered within and carries crowning of the Lord within himself, standing before Him, has yet another attitude. The first man is negligent emperors in prayer, just as he is negligent in life, and he prays in church and at home merely according to the established custom, without attention or feelingChurch of the Divine Wisdom [St. Sophia]. The second man reads many prayers and goes often to churchcustom was that when the patriarch placed the crown on the emperor's head, trying at the same time to keep his attention from wandering and to experience feelings in accordance with the prayers which are read, although he is seldom successful. The third man, wholly concentrated within, stands handed him a silk purse filled with his mind before God, and prays to Him in his heart without distraction, without long verbal prayers, even when standing for a long time at prayer in his home or in church. … Every prayer must come dirt from the heart and any other prayer is no prayer at allgrave. Prayer-book prayers, your own prayers and very short prayers, all must issue forth from the heart to God, seen before you.” —St. Theophan the Recluse
“It is sometimes well during prayer to say a few words of your ownThen, breathing fervent faith and love to even the Lord. Yes, let us not always converse with God in the words of others, not always remain children in faith emperor would recall death and hope; we must also show our own mind, indite a good matter from our own heart also. Moreover, we grow too accustomed to the words of others avoid all pride and grow cold in prayerbecome humble. And how pleasing this lipsing of our own is, coming from a believing, loving, and thankful heart. It is impossible to explain this; it is only needful to say that when you are praying to God with your own words the soul trembles with joy, it becomes wholly inflamed, vivified, and beatified” —St. You will utter few words, but you will experience such blessedness as you would not have obtained saying Anthony the longest most touching prayers of othersGreat, pronounced out of habit and insincerely.” —St. John Prologue of KronstadtOchrid
“Chastisement through “Wouldst thou comprehend the trials imposed on us is a spiritual rodheight of God? First comprehend the lowliness of God. Condescend to be humble for thine own sake, teaching us humility when in our foolishness we think seeing that God condescended to be humble for thy sake too much of ourselves, for it was not for his own.” —St. Thalassios the LibyanAugustine
“Goodness is not confirmed without trial. Every Christian is tested by something: one by poverty, another by illness, “The greatness of a third by various thoughtsman consisteth of humility, for in proportion as a forth by some calamity or humiliationman descendeth to humility, while another by various doubtshe becometh exalted to greatness. And, through this, firmness ” —Paradise of faiththe Holy Fathers, hope and love of God are tested.” —StVol. Ambrose of Optina2
“Sometimes men are tested by pleasure, sometimes by distress or by physical suffering. By means of His prescriptions “It is easier to measure the Physician of souls administers the remedy according entire sea with a tiny cup than to grasp God's ineffable greatness with the cause of the passions lying hidden in the soulhuman mind.” —St. Maximus Basil the Confessor, PhilokaliaGreat
“If you want, or rather intend, to take “You don't have a splinter out of another person, then do not hack at it with soul. You are a stick instead of Soul. You have a lancet, for you will only drive it in deeperbody.” —St—C. S. John ClimacusLewis
“To exalt oneself “This is one thing, not to do so another, the wisdom and power of God: to humble oneself is something less entirely. A man may always be passing judgement on othersvictorious through weakness, while another man passes judgement neither on others nor on himself. A third, however, though actually guiltlessexalted through humility, may always be passing judgement on himselfrich through poverty.” —St. John ClimacusGregory Palamas
“If a man accuses himself, he is protected on all sides“You will lose nothing of what you have renounced for the Lord’s sake. For in its own time it will return to you greatly multiplied.” —St. PoemenMark the Ascetic
“It “Where can I flee? A place cannot save you because there is not then wealth that is the foundation of pleasure, nor poverty of sadness, but our own judgment and the fact that the eyes of our mind neither see clearly nor remain fixed in one no place, but flutter abroadyou can flee from yourself.” —St. John ChrysostomNikon of Optina
“One who knows oneself“If our purpose is to fight the spiritual fight and to defeat, knows with God: 's help, the demons of malice, we should take every care to guard our heart from the demon of dejection, just as a moth devours clothing and one who knows God is worthy a worm devours wood, so dejection devours a man’s soul. It persuades him to worship Him as is rightshun every helpful encounter and stops him accepting advice from his true friends or giving them a courteous and peaceful reply. ThereforeSeizing the entire soul, my beloveds in it fills it with bitterness and listlessness. Then it suggests to the Lordsoul that we should go away from other people, know yourselvessince they are the cause of its agitation.” —StIt does not allow the soul to understand that its sickness does not come from without, but lies hidden within, only manifesting itself when temptations attack the soul because of our ascetic efforts. Anthony the Great
“In whatever state a person is, he sometimes finds A man can be harmed by another only through the causes of the passions which lie within himself making pure and intense prayers. For even from It is for this reason that first God, the Creator of all and lowest sortthe Doctor of men’s souls, which who alone has to do with recalling accurate knowledge of the future judgmentsoul’s wounds, does not tell us to forsake the one who is still subject company of men; He tells us to root out the punishment causes of terror evil within us and to recognize that the fear of judgment soul’s health is occasionally so struck with compunction that he is filled with no less joy of spirit achieved not by a man’s separating himself from the richness of his supplication than the one whofellows, examining but by his living the kindnesses of God and going over them ascetic life in the purity company of his heart, dissolves into unspeakable gladness and delightholy men. ForWhen we abandon our brothers for some apparently good reason, according to we do not eradicate the words of the Lordmotives for dejection but merely exchange them, since the one who realizes that more has been forgiven him begins to love moresickness which lies hidden within us will show itself again in other circumstances.” —St. John Cassian
“If “A life lived in the world can be as good, in the eyes of God, as one spent in a manmonastery. It is indeed only the keeping of God's self is not kept clean commandments, love of all, and brighta true sense of humility that matter, his glimpse of God will be blurredwherever we are.” —C. S. Lewis—Elder Macarius of Optina
“The pure heart sees God as in a mirror“Those who, because of the rigor of their own ascetic practice, despise the less zealous, think that they are made righteous by physical works. But we are even more foolish if we rely on theoretical knowledge and disparage the ignorant.” —Abba Philemon—St. Mark the Ascetic
“The blessedness of seeing God “A remedy against straying thoughts is justly promised mental attention, attention to the pure of heart. For fact that the eye that Lord is unclean would not be able to see the brightness of the true light, before us and what would be happiness to clear minds would be a torment to those that we are defiled. Therefore, let the mists of worldly vanities be dispelled, and the inner eye be cleansed of all the filth of wickedness, so that the soul's gaze may feast serenely upon the great vision of Godbefore Him.” —St. Leo Theophan the GreatRecluse
“God rests within gentle hearts. The gentle and merciful shall sit fearless “The roots of evil thoughts are the obvious vices, which we keep trying to justify in His regions, our words and will inherit Heavenly gloryactions.” —St. John ClimacusMark the Ascetic
“That which “Guard your speech from boasting and your thoughts from presumption; otherwise you may be abandoned by God and fall into sin. For man cannot do anything good without the word communicates by soundhelp of God, the painting shows silently by representationwho sees everything.” —St. Basil the Great, on Mark the 40 Martyrs of SebasteAscetic
“Do not call God just, for His justice is not manifest "The higher a person’s position in society the things concerning you. And if David calls Him just and upright (cf. Ps. 24:8, 144:17), His Son revealed to us that He is good and kind. ‘He is good,’ He says, ‘to the evil and to the impious’ (cf. Luke 6:35). How can you call God just when you come across the Scriptural passage on the wage given to the workers? ‘Friend, I do thee no wrong I will give unto this last even as unto thee. Is thine eye evil because I am good?’ (Matt. 20:12-15). How can a man call God just when he comes across the passage on the prodigal son who wasted his wealth with riotous living, how for the compunction alone which more he showed, the father ran and fell upon should help others without ever reminding them of his neck and gave him authority over all his wealth? (Luke 15:11 ff.). None other but His very Son said these things concerning Him, lest we doubt it; and thus He bare witness concerning Him. Where, then, is God's justice, for whilst we are sinners Christ died for us! (cf. Rom. 5:8). But if here He is merciful, we may believe that He will not changeposition.” —St—Tsar St. Isaac the Syrian, Homily LXNicholas II
“God chastises with love, not for the sake of revenge---far “If you want your sins to be it!---but in seeking to make whole his image. And he does not harbour wrath until such time as correction is no longer possibleabsolved by Christ, for he does not seek vengeance for himself. This is the aim of love. Lovethen don's chastisement is for correction, but does not aim at retribution. … The man who chooses t speak to consider God as avenger, presuming others about any virtue that in this manner he bears witness to His justiceyou may have, because God will treat our sins the same accuses Him of being bereft of goodnessway we treat our virtues. Far be it that vengeance could ever be found in that Fountain of love and Ocean brimming with goodness!” —St. Isaac Mark the SyrianAscetic
“Among all God's actions there “If any man is none which is not entirely a matter able in power to continue in purity, to the honour of the flesh of mercyour Lord, love and compassion: this constitutes let him continue so without boasting; if he boasts, he is undone; if he become known apart from the beginning and end of His dealings with usbishop, he has destroyed himself.” —St. Isaac the SyrianIgnatius of Antioch
“The world is “Guarding the general name for all mouth wakes up the passions. When we wish conscience to call the passions by a common nameGod, we call them the world. But when we wish to distinguish them by their special names, we call them the passions. The passions are the following: love of riches, desire for possessions, bodily pleasure from which comes sexual passion, love of honour which gives rise to envy, lust for power, arrogance and pride of position, the craving to adorn oneself if it is with luxurious clothes and vain ornaments, the itch for human glory which is knowledge that a source of rancour and resentment, and physical fear. Where these passions cease to be active, there the world is dead; for though living in the flesh, they did not live for the flesh. See for which of these passions you are alive. Then you will know how far you are alive to the world and how far you are dead to itman keeps silence.” —St. Isaac the Syrian
“We don't understand that happiness “Silence is more profitable than speech, for as it has been said, "The words of wise men are heard even in eternity and not in vanityquiet."” —Elder Paisios of Mt—St. AthosBasil the Great
“Why do “Never give your opinion if you beat the air and run in vain? Every occupation has a purposeare not asked for it, obviously. Tell me then, what even if you think that your view is the purpose of all the activity of the world? Answer, I challenge you! It is vanity of vanity: all is vanitybest.” —St. John Chrysostom—Josemaria Escriva
“The sun shines on all alike“Not only for every idle word must man give an account, and vainglory beams on all activities. For instance, I am vainglorious when I fast; and when I relax the fast in order to be unnoticed, I am again vainglorious over my prudence. When well-dressed I am quite overcome by vainglory, and when I put on poor clothes I am vainglorious again. When I talk I am defeated, and when I am silent I am again defeated by it. However I throw this prickly-pear, a spike stands uprightbut for every idle silence.” —St. John ClimacusAmbrose of Milan
"Have you ever observed the life of the heart? Try it even for a short time and see what you find. Something unpleasant happens, and you get irritated; some misfortune occurs, and you pity yourself; you see someone whom you dislike, and animosity wells up within you; you meet one of your equals who has now outdistanced you on the social scale, and you begin to envy him; you think of your talents and capabilities, and you begin to grow proud… All this is rottenness: vainglory“Somewhere we know that without silence words lose their meaning, carnal desirethat without listening speaking no longer heals, gluttony, laziness, malice-one on top of the other, they destroy the heartthat without distance closeness cannot cure.” —St. John (Maximovitch) of Shanghai and San Francisco—Henri Nouwen
“As water and fire oppose one another when combined, so are self-justification and humility opposed to one another“Let your mouth continually administer blessing; then the scorn of anyone will never hurt you.” —St. Mark Isaac the AsceticSyrian
“Fire and water do not mix, neither can you mix judgment of others with the desire “Just as swine run to repent. If a man commits a sin before you at the very moment of his deathplace where there is mire, pass no judgmentand bees dwell where there are fragrances and incense, because likewise demons gather where there are carnal songs and the judgment grace of God is hidden from men. It has happened that men have sinned greatly in the open but have done greater deeds in secretHoly Spirit settles where there are spiritual melodies, so that those who would disparage them have been fooled, with smoke instead of sunlight in their eyessanctifying both mouth and soul.” —St. John ClimacusChrysostom
“Christians“A psalm implies serenity of soul; it is the author of peace, above all menwhich calms bewildering and seething thoughts. For, are forbidden to correct it softens the stumblings wrath of sinners by force… the soul, and what is unbridled it is necessary to make a man better not by force but by persuasionchastens. God gives the crown to A psalm forms friendships, unites those separated, conciliates those who are kept from evilat enmity. Who, not by forceindeed, but by choice.” —St. John Chrysostomcan still consider as an enemy him with whom he has uttered the same prayer to God?
“I have seen pride lead to humility. And I remembered him who said: Who hath known So that psalmody, bringing about choral singing, a bond, as it were, toward unity, and joining the mind people into a harmonious union of one choir, produces also the Lord? The pit and offspring greatest of conceit blessings, charity. A psalm is a fall; but city of refuge from the demons, a means of inducing help from the angels, a weapon in fears by night, a rest from toils by day, a fall is often safeguard for infants, an occasion of humility adornment for those who are willing to use it to at the height of their advantage.” —St. John Climacusvigor, The Ladder of Divine Ascenta consolation for the elders, Step 15, Section 38a most fitting ornament for women.
“Humility It peoples the solitudes; it rids the market place of excesses; it is the only thing that no devil can imitateelementary exposition of beginners, the improvement of those advancing, the solid support of the perfect, the voice of the Church.” —StIt brightens the feast days; it creates a sorrow which is in accordance with God. John Climacus
“An angel fell from Heaven without any other passion except prideFor, and so we may ask whether it a psalm is possible to ascend to Heaven by humility alonethe work of angels, a heavenly institution, without any other of the virtuesspiritual incense.” —St. John ClimacusBasil the Great
“Run from pride“Through the Holy Spirit comes our restoration to paradise, our ascension into the kingdom of heaven, our return to the adoption of sons, our liberty to call God our Father, our being made partakers of the grace of Christ, our being called children of light, our sharing in eternal glory, and, in a word, our being brought into a state of all ‘fullness of blessing,’ both in this world and in the world to come, of all the good gifts that are in store for it is a passion more treacherous than any otherus, by promise hereof, through faith, beholding the reflection of their grace as though they were already present, we await the full enjoyment.” —St. John ChrysostomBasil the Great
“Pride more than anything else“Humility consists, deprives people of both their good deeds not in condemning our conscience, but in recognizing God's grace and help from God. Where there is no humility, pride takes its placecompassion.” —St. Macarius of OptinaMark the Ascetic
“‘Exile is separation from everything in order “Children, I beseech you to correct your hearts and thoughts, so that you may be pleasing to keep the mind inseparable from God. An exile loves Consider that although we may reckon ourselves to be righteous and produces continual weeping.’ From Paradisefrequently succeed in deceiving men, we must become exiled can conceal nothing from God. Let us therefore strive to preserve the world if we hope holiness of our souls and to returnguard the purity of our bodies with all fervor. Ye are the temple of God, says the divine Apostle Paul; If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy.” —Fr—St. Seraphim Rose Nicholas of PlatinaMyra
“Day and night I pray the Lord for love, and the Lord gives me tears to weep “Those who suffer for the whole worldsake of true devotion receive help. But if I find fault with any man, or look on him with an unkind eye, my tears will dry up, This must be learnt through obeying God's law and my soul sink into despondencyour own conscience. Yet do I begin again to entreat forgiveness of ” —St. Mark the Lord, and the Lord in His mercy forgives me, a sinner.Ascetic
Brethren“When you are wronged and your heart and feelings are hardened, before the face of my God I write: Humble your heartsdo not be distressed, for this has happened providentially; but be glad and while yet on this earth reject the thoughts that arise within you , knowing that if they are destroyed at the stage when they are only provocations, their evil consequences will see be cut off, whereas if the mercy of thoughts persist the Lord, and know your Heavenly Creator, and your souls will never have their fill of loveevil may be expected to develop.” —St. Silouan Mark the AthoniteAscetic
“He who in his heart is proud of his tears and secretly condemns those who do not weep is like a man who asks “Struggle to become immortal from now, by dying here on the king for a weapon against his enemy and then commits suicide earth to your bad self. In this way, you won't be sad, but you'll be very glad, living together with itChrist.” —St. John Climacus—Elder Porphyrios
“Do “This being He placed in Paradise, whatever the Paradise may have been, having honoured him with the gift of Free Will (in order that God might belong to him as the result of his choice, no less than to Him who had implanted the seeds of it), to till the immortal plants, by which is meant perhaps the Divine Conceptions, both the simpler and the more perfect; naked in his simplicity and inartificial life, and without any covering or screen; for it was fitting that he who was from the beginning should be such. Also He gave him a Law, as a material for his Free Will to act upon. This Law was a Commandment as to what plants he might partake of, and which one he might not grow conceited touch. This latter was the Tree of Knowledge; not, however, because it was evil from the beginning when planted; nor was it forbidden because God grudged it to us…Let not the enemies of God wag their tongues in that direction, or imitate the Serpent…But it would have been good if you shed tears partaken of at the proper time, for the tree was, according to my theory, Contemplation, upon which it is only safe for those who have reached maturity of habit to enter; but which is not good for those who are still somewhat simple and greedy in their habit; just as solid food is not good for those who are yet tender, and have need of milk. (Hebrews 5:12) But when you praythrough the Devil's malice and the woman's caprice, to which she succumbed as the more tender, and which she brought to bear upon the man, as she was the more apt to persuade, alas for my weakness! (for that of my first father was mine), he forgot the Commandment which had been given to him; (Genesis 3:5) he yielded to the baleful fruit; and for his sin he was banished, at once from the Tree of Life, and from Paradise, and from God; and put on the coats of skins…that is, perhaps, the coarser flesh, both mortal and contradictory. This was the first thing that he learned – his own shame; (Romans 1:22-31) and he hid himself from God. For Yet here too he makes a gain, namely death, and the cutting off of sin, in order that evil may not be immortal. Thus his punishment is changed into a mercy; for it is Christ who has touched your eyesin mercy, I am persuaded, that God inflicts punishment.” —St. Mark Gregory the AsceticTheologian, Oration 38, XII, On Theophany, On the Birth of our Saviour (On the Nativity of Christ)
“And here also we have diligently to consider, “I saw that it is far more secure and safe that every man should do that for himself whiles he is yet alive, which he desireth that others should do for him after his death. For far more blessed it is, to depart free out of this world, than being there was no tragedy in prison to seek for release: and therefore reason teacheth us, that we should with our whole soul contemn this present world, at least because we see that it is now gone and past: and to offer unto God the daily sacrifice of tears, and the daily Sacrifice of His Body and Blood. For this Sacrifice doth especially save our souls from everlasting damnation, which in mystery doth renew unto us the death of the Son of God: who although being risen from death, doth not now die any more, nor death shall not any further prevail against him: yet living in himself immortally, and without all corruption, he Tragedy is again sacrificed for us to be found solely in this mystery of the holy oblation: for there his body is received, there his flesh is distributed for the salvation fortunes of the people: there His Blood is man whose gaze has not now shed betwixt gone beyond the hands confines of infidels, but poured into the mouths of the faithfulthis earth. Wherefore let us hereby meditate what manner of sacrifice this is, ordained for us, which for our absolution doth always represent the passion of the only Son of God: for what right believing Christian can doubt, that in the very hour of the sacrifice, at the words of the Priest, the heavens be opened, and the quires of Angels are present in that mystery of Jesus Christ; that high things are accompanied with low, and earthly joined to heavenly, and that one thing is made of visible and invisible?” —St. Gregory the Great, Dialogues of St. Gregory the Great, Book 4, ch. 58—Archimandrite Sophrony
“… One must clean the royal house from every impurity and adorn it with every beauty, then the king may enter into it. In “The Christian world nowadays presents a similar way one must first cleanse the earth of the heart terrifying and uproot the weeds cheerless picture of sin profound religious and the passionate deeds and soften it with sorrows and the narrow way moral decay. The servants of lifeAntichrist do their utmost to completely displace God from people’s lives, sow in it the seed of virtueorder that mankind, water it content with lamentation and tearsits material well-being, would not feel any need to turn to God in prayer, would not think of God at all, and only then does but would live as though God did not exist. Thus the fruit entire structure of dispassion and eternal contemporary life grow. For in the Holy Spirit does not dwell in a man until he so-called ‘free’ world, where there is no open and bloody persecution of faith, where everyone has been cleansed from passions of the right to believe as he wishes, represents a far greater danger to a Christian’s soul by drawing the Christian wholly down to earth and bodymaking him forget heaven.” —St. Paisius Velichkovsky, ‘Field Flowers’
“I do not know how I came into the world; Nor what the things here in it are. What my sight The entire modern culture, which is, O my God, And what the objects that I see, I cannot tell. How all we men are vain, And have no proper judgement of reality! Yesterday aimed at least I came and tomorrow I shall go, And I think to be immortal yonder. That Thee are my God I confess to everyonepurely worldly achievements, and yet deny Thee daily in my deeds. I teach that Thee have made each living thing; And yet without Thee struggle to have all. Thy rule extends above, below And yet I am not feared to strive against Thee. Let me the needy one, me most miserable; Disburden all the sickness resultant whirlwind of my soul Crushedeveryday life, alas and broken into bits. By vanity, by foolish arrogance. Grant me to be humble, grant me keep a person in such a hand of help; And cleanse my soul’s pollution. And give me tears state of repentance; Love’s tears, tears of liberty; Tears cleansing my mind’s darkness. And filling me with heavenly radiance! For Thee it is, the world’s Light; The Light of my poor eyes, I wish to see – I who fill my heart with life’s evils, Suffering much of affliction constant bustle and of envy. From those who have worked my exiles: From those, rather, who are my benefactors; Who are my masters, my true friends: To whom, O Christ, instead of ill give blessing: Eternal, rich, divine; Prepared by Thee absent-mindedness that he has no opportunity for all the ages; For those who deeply long for Theeany soul-searching, love Theeand spiritual life within him gradually becomes extinguished.” —St. Symeon the New Theologian, On the right attitude to Life—Archbishop Averky (Taushev) of Syracuse
“Ask “In advising against being carried away by artificial practices such as Transcendental Meditation I am but repeating the age-old message of the Church … The way of the Fathers requires firm faith and long patience, whereas our contemporaries want to seize every spiritual gift, including even direct contemplation of the Absolute God, by force and speedily, and will often draw a parallel between prayer in the Name of Jesus and yoga or Transcendental Meditation and the like. I must stress the danger of such errors … He is deluded who endeavors to divest himself mentally of all that is transitory and relative in order to cross some invisible threshold, to realize his eternal origin, his identity with tearsthe Source of all that exists, seek in order to return and merge with obediencehim, knock with patiencethe nameless transpersonal Absolute. For thus he who asks receivesSuch exercises have enabled many to rise to suprarational contemplation of being, to experience a certain mystical trepidation, to know the state of silence of mind, when mind goes beyond the boundaries of time and he who seeks findsspace. In such like states man may feel the peacefulness of being withdrawn from the continually changing phenomena of the visible world, and to him that knocketh it shall be openedmay even have a certain experience of eternity.” —StBut the God of Truth, the Living God, is not in all this. John Climacus
“The passions It is man's own beauty, created in the image of God, that is contemplated and seen as divinity, whereas he himself still continues within the confines of his creatureliness. This is a vastly important concern. The tragedy of the matter lies in the fact that man sees a mirage which, in his longing for eternal life, he mistakes for a genuine oasis. This impersonal form of ascetics leads finally to an assertion of the flesh may be described as belonging divine principle in the very nature of man. Man is then drawn to the left hand, idea of self-conceit as belonging deification—the cause of the original Fall. The man who is blinded by the imaginary majesty of what he contemplates has in fact set his foot on the path to self-destruction. He has discarded the right handrevelation of a personal God … The movement into the depths of his own being is nothing else but attraction towards the non-being from which we were called by the will of the Creator.” —St—Archimandrite Sophrony of Mt. Maximus the ConfessorAthos, His Life is Mine, 115-116
“When the soul leaves the body“Christ said, the enemy advances 'I came not to attack itsend peace, fiercely reviling it and accusing it of its sins in but a harsh sword' and terrifying manner'division'. The devout soul, however, even though in Christ summoned us to war on the past it has often been wounded by sin, is not frightened by the enemy’s attacks and threats. Strengthened by plane of the Lord, winged by joy, filled with courage by the holy angels that guide itspirit, and encircled and protected by our weapon is 'the light sword of faith, it answers the enemy with great boldness: ‘Fugitive from heavenSpirit, wicked slave, what have I to do with you? You have no authority over me; Christ which is the Son word of God has authority over me .' Our battle is waged in extraordinarily unequal conditions. We are tied hand and over all thingsfoot. Against Him have I sinnedWe dare not strike with fire or sword: our sole armament is love, before Him shall I stand on trial, having His Precious Cross as even for enemies. This unique war in which we are engaged is indeed a sure pledge of His saving love towards meholy war. Flee from me, destroyer! You have nothing to do We wrestle with the servants of Christ.’ When the soul says all this fearlessly, the devil turns his back, howling aloud last and unable to withstand the name only enemy of Christ. Then the soul swoops down on the devil from above, attacking him like a hawk attacking a crowmankind death. After this it Our fight is brought rejoicing by the holy angels to the place appointed fight for it in accordance with its inward stateuniversal resurrection.” —St—Archimandrite Sophrony of Mt. TheognostosAthos, On the Practice of the Virtues, Philokalia, Vol. 2His Life is Mine
“If “I ask you wish to be savedtry something. If someone grieves you, O my soulor dishonors you, to go first on the most sorrowful path which has been indicated hereor takes something of yours, to enter into the Heavenly Kingdom and receive eternal life – then refine your fleshpray like this: ‘Lord, taste voluntary bitterness, and endure difficult sorrows, as we are all the Saints tasted and enduredyour creatures. And when a man is preparing himself Pity your servants, and gives himself the command turn them to endure for the sake of God all sorrows repentance,’ and pain which come upon him, then light and painless seem for him all sorrows, unpleasantnesses and attacks of devils and menyou will perceptibly bear grace in your soul. He does not fear deathInduce your heart to love your enemies, and nothing can separate such a one from the love of Christ. Have you heardLord, my beloved soulseeing your good will, how the Holy Fathers spent their lives? O my soul! Imitate them at least a little.” —St. Paisius Velichkovsky “If shall help you rebuke yourself, accuse yourselfin all things, and judge yourself before God for your sins, with a sensitive conscience, even for this will Himself show you will be justifiedexperience.If you are sorrowful But whoever thinks evil of his enemies does not have love for your sins, or you weep, or sigh, your sigh will God and has not be hidden from Him and, as Stknown God.” —St. John Chrysostom saysSilouan the Athonite, ‘If you only lament for your sinsWriting, then He will receive this for your salvationIX.’” —St. Moses of Optina21
“Where there is pride there cannot be grace, and if we lose grace we also lose both love of God and assurance in prayer. The soul is then tormented by evil thoughts and does not understand that she must humble herself and love her enemies, for there is no other way to please God.” —St. Silouan the Athonite
“A good heart produces good thoughts“The whole therapeutic method of the Orthodox Church is not aimed simply at making human beings morally and socially balanced, but at re-establishing their relationship with God and one another. This comes about through the healing of the soul's wounds and the cure of the passions through the Sacraments and the Church's ascetic practice.” —Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos, The Science of Spiritual Medicine: its thoughts correspond to what it stores up Orthodox Psychotherapy in itself.” —St. Thalassios the LibyanAction
“Fasting is for “Many passions are hidden in our souls; they can be brought to light only when the purification of the soul and bodyobjects that rouse them are present.” —St. John ChrysostomMaximus the Confessor, Four Hundred Texts on Love
“Fasting “What is wonderfulholiness? Freedom from every sin and the fullness of every virtue. This freedom from sin and this virtuous life are only attained by a few zealous persons, because it tramples our sins like a dirty weedand that not suddenly, but gradually, by prolonged and manifold sorrows, sicknesses, and labors, by fasting, vigilance, prayer, while it cultivates and raises truth like a flower.” that not by their own strength, but by the grace of Christ…” —St. Basil the GreatJohn of Kronstadt
“Fasting is the mother of health; the friend of chastity; the partner of “A wise heart can transfer an affliction into a blessing, even sin!! He benefits from it: contrition, humility, keenness and sympathy for sinners.” —St—H. Symeon the New theologianH. Pope Shenouda III
“As salt is needed “Humility and suffering free a man from all sin; for all kinds of foodthe first cuts out spiritual passions, so humility is needed for all kinds of virtuesand the latter bodily.” —St. Isaac Maximus the SyrianConfessor
“Virtue is not the manifestation of many and various works performed by the body, but a heart that is most wise in its hope and unites a right aim to godly works. Often, the mind can accomplish that which is good without bodily works, but the body without wisdom of the heart can gain no profit “Hardships often prepare ordinary people for all it may doan extraordinary destiny.” —St—C. S. Isaac the Syrian, Homily 40Lewis
“Let it be known to you that if in your life you have mastered every virtue and every good deed such as mercy, prayer, fast, and other virtues but have no humility in you, your toil will be in vain. For humility in all these virtues “The soul of man is the solid foundation. Without it, we cannot master any of the virtues and all these virtues will become not impureat birth, filthy, and discarded before God because they were not sown with humility and lovebut pure.” —St. John Chrysostom—Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos
“Fasting “By nature the soul is passionless… so you must believe that the mother of health; the friend of chastity; passions do not belong to the partner of humilitysoul by nature.” —St. Symeon Isaac the New theologianSyrian
“What can sin do where there “Just as in legal marriage, the pleasure derived from procreation cannot exactly be called a gift of God, because it is carnal and constitutes a gift of nature and not of grace (even though that nature has been created by God); even so the knowledge that comes from profane education, even if well used, is penitence? And a gift of nature, and not of what use grace-a gift which God accords to all without exception through nature, and which one can develop by exercise. This last point-that no one acquires it without effort and exercise-is love where there an evident proof that it is pride?” —Abba Eliasa question of a natural, not a spiritual, gift.
“Pride It is poverty our sacred wisdom that should legitimately be called a gift of God and not a natural gift, since even simple fishermen who receive it from on high become, as Gregory the soulTheologian says, sons of Thunder, which imagines itself to be richwhose word has encompassed the very bounds of the universe. By this grace, even publicans are made merchants of souls; and being in darknesseven the burning zeal of persecutors is transformed, making them Pauls instead of Sauls, thinks it has lightturning away the earth to attain ‘the third heaven’ and ‘hear ineffable things’. By this true wisdom we too can become conformed to the image of God and continue to be such after death.” —St. John ClimacusGregory Palamas, Triads in Defence of the Holy Hesychasts, Philosophy does not save, pages 29-30
“Modern society calls “Fiery lust, the beggar bum desire for marriage, sexual union … and panhandler and gives him the bum's rush. But all the Greeks used to say other things that , as most people in need are think, the body seeks for - it is not the body as such … but the soul, which through the body seeks pleasure by their means… Let no one think he is being driven towards these things and compelled by his own body… the ambassadors of body cannot be moved to anything apart from the godssoul.” —Peter Maurin—St. Symeon the New Theologian
“Every family should have a room where Christ “Pornography is welcome in the person of the hungry and thirsty strangerdevil's iconography.” —St—Fr. John ChrysostomSeraphim Rose of Platina
“Who is “Just as the virtues are begotten in the soul, so are the greedy man? One for whom plenty does not sufficepassions. Who defrauds others? One who keeps for himself what belongs But the virtues are begotten in accordance with nature, the passions in a mode contrary to everyonenature. Aren’t you greedyFor what produces good or evil in the soul is the will's bias… For our inner disposition is capable of operating in one way or another, don’t you defraudsince it bears within itself both virtue and vice, when you keep for yourself what was given to give away? When someone steals a man’s clothesthe first as its natural birthright, we call him a thief. Shouldn’t we give the same name to one who could clothe second as the result of the naked and does not?self-incurred proclivity of our moral will.” —St. Basil the GreatGregory of Sinai
“The bread you do not use is the bread heart of the hungrya perfectly healthy man becomes weakened for faith and love to God and his neighbor, and easily gives itself up to carnal desires: to slothfulness, negligence, coldness, gluttony, avarice, fornication, pride. The garment hanging in your wardrobe is Whilst the garment heart of the person who a sick man, or a wounded, oppressed, weary heart, is naked. The shoes you do not wear are the shoes of one who strengthened in faith, hope, and love, and is barefootfar removed from carnal passions. The money you keep locked away This is why the money of the poorHeavenly Father, Who careth for our salvation, chastises us by various sicknesses. The acts oppression and afflictions of charity you do not perform are the injustices you commitsickness make us turn again to God.” —St. Basil the GreatJohn of Kronstadt
“You are “If you wish to live long on the earth, do not making hurry to live in a gift carnal manner, to satiate yourself, to get drunk, to smoke, to commit fornication, to live in luxury, to indulge yourself. The carnal way of what life constitutes death, and therefore, in the Holy Scripture, our flesh is yours to the poor called mortal, or, ‘the old man, but you are giving him back what which is hiscorrupt according to the deceitful lusts. You have been appropriating things that are meant ’ If you wish to be live long, live through the spirit; for life consists in the spirit: ‘If ye through the spirit do mortify the common use deeds of everyone. The the body, ye shall live,’ both here on earth belongs to everyone, not to the richand there in heaven.” —St. Ambrose of Milan
“Do not consider your riches as belonging to yourselves aloneOne cannot eat and drink and smoke continually. One cannot turn human life into constant eating, drinking, and smoking, although there are men who do eat, drink, and smoke almost uninterruptedly; open wide your hand and thus the spirit of evil has turned life into smoking, and made the mouth, which ought to those who are be employed in needthanking and praising the Lord, into a smoking furnace.” —StThe less and lighter the food and drink you take, the lighter and more refined your spirit will become. Cyril of Alexandria
“The man who loves his neighbor as himself possesses no more than his neighbor…thusSmoking is a whim. From this comes foot pain and depression. That the devil is the father of the cigarette I especially figured out today: something impacted negatively upon me from head to toe. I felt that the enemy nested in my sides and in my heart and he opposed me strongly, preventing me from saying the prayer, as much as your wealth increasesscaring me, so much does your love decreaseparalyzing me and saddening me to the point of sin.” —St. Basil the Great
“If you cannot find Christ in By smoking an unclean spirit enters a person. Last night after smoking the beggar at devil made his presence felt through continuous hiccups which pestered me from the church doortime of the Cherubic Hymn until a little before Holy Communion. My nerves were stretched, my voice was ‘escaping’ me, I was shivering and I was exhausted. That's why smoking is futile. It is a silly whim, you will not find Him in a desecration of the chalice.” —Stlips, a large and unnecessary irritation, a fog that covers voluntarily. John Chrysostom
“No one in creation is rich The taste of a cigarette I cannot compare to anything but he that fears God; no one is truly poor but he that lacks the truth.” —Stsomething diabolical. Ephrem the SyrianAnd how do I know this smoking? How do I allow myself to do something like this?
“Do you fast? Then feed the hungry, give drink I came to the thirstychurch, visit falling on my knees with a contrite heart before the sick, do Holy Altar. How could I serve my enemy every day and not forget the imprisoned, have pity on the tortured, comfort those who grieve and who weepLord with zeal? Lord, help me to be merciful, humble, kind, calm, patient, sympatheticfree from all evil, forgivingbecause I am an evil man, reverent, truthful and piousdirty, so that God might accept your fasting and might plentifully grant you the fruits full of repentance.” —Stsins. John Chrysostom
“In all your undertakings The Lord knows our weaknesses. He is ready to forgive us everything, as long as we repent and in every way seek forgiveness. The essential thing is that our hearts not become petrified, that is to stop hesitating to think of lifeour committed sin, whether you are living in obedience, or are not submitting your work to anyone, whether in outward or in spiritual mattersimmediately repent, let it be your rule and practice to ask yourself: Am I really doing this in accordance with God’s will?leave ourselves to the mercy of God.” —St. John Climacusof Kronstadt
“Those who submit “Suffering is an indication of another Kingdom which we look to the Lord with simple heart will run the good race. If they keep their minds on being a leashChristian meant being ‘happy’ in this life, they will not draw we wouldn't need the wickedness Kingdom of the demons onto themselvesHeaven.” —St—Fr. John ClimacusSeraphim Rose of Platina
“A hypocrite is someone “Suffering reminds the wise man of God, but crushes those who teaches his neighbor something he makes no effort to do himselfforget Him.” —St. PoemenMark the Ascetic
“I prefer a man who sins “God permits tribulations and repents adversities to one who does not sin befall people – even the saintly – so that they may persist in humility. But if we harden our hearts against adversities and does not repent. The first has good thoughtstribulations, for he admits that he is sinfulHe also hardens these tribulations against us. But On the second has false, soul-destroying thoughtsother hand if we accept them in humility and with a contrite heart, for he imagines himself to be righteousGod will mingle tribulation with mercy.” —Abba Poemen —St. Isaac the GreatSyrian
“At meals don't speak about food: that's vulgar “But do not be troubled or sad. The Lord sometimes allows people who are devoted to Him to fall into such dreadful vices; and unworthy of youthis is in order to prevent them from falling into a still greater sin – pride. Speak about something noble -- of the soul or of the mind -- Your temptation will pass and you will have dignified this dutyspend the remaining days of your life in humility. Only do not forget your sin.” —St. Josemaria EscrivaSeraphim of Sarov
“When someone learns “We must be prepared to acknowledge every man as being better than himselfaccept the will of God. The Lord permits all sorts of things to happen to us contrary to our will, for if we always have it our way, then he has attained humilitywe will not be prepared for the Kingdom of Heaven.” —St. Sisoes the Great—Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica, "Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives"
“It is a spiritual gift from “Similarly, when the sun goes down and when it rises, when you are asleep or awake, give thanks to God , Who created and arranged all things for a man your benefit--to perceive his sinshave you know, love, and praise their Creator.” —St. Isaac Basil the SyrianGreat
“The man who is deemed worthy to Lord gives Himself freely, for His mercy's sake alone. I did not know this before but now every day and every hour every minute, I see himself clearly the mercy of God. The Lord gives peace even in sleep, but without God there is greater than he who is deemed worthy to see angelsno peace in the soul.” —St. Isaac Silouan the SyrianAthonite
“The truly blessed are “What should not the ones who can work miracles or see angels; the truly blessed are the ones who can see their own sinsbe heard by little ears, should not be said by big mouths.” —St. Anthony the Great—unknown
“The nearer a man draws to God, “I am incurably convinced that the more he sees himself a sinner. It was when Isaiah object of opening the prophet saw Godmind, that he declared himself ‘a man as of unclean lipsopening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.” —G.’” —StK. MateosChesterton
“The condition “What is slander? It is every sort of peace among men is that each should keep a consciousness wicked word we would dare not speak in front of his own wrongdoingthe person whom we are complaining about.” —St. Silouan Anthony the AthoniteGreat
“The way “If you want to perfection is through overcome the realization spirit of slander, blame not the person who falls, but the demon that we are blind, naked and poorprompted them to sin.” —St. Theophan the RecluseJohn Climacus
“The perfect person does not only try “You cannot be too gentle, too kind. Shun even to avoid evilappear harsh in your treatment of each other. Nor does he do good for fear Joy, radiant joy, streams from the face of punishment, still less him who gives and kindles joy in order to qualify for the hope heart of a promised rewardhim who receives. All condemnation is from the devil. The perfect person does good through loveNever condemn each other. His actions are not motivated by desire for personal benefit, so he does not have personal advantage as his aimWe condemn others only because we shun knowing ourselves. But as soon as he has realized the beauty of doing goodWhen we gaze at our own failings, he does we see such a swamp that nothing in another can equal it with all his energies and in all that he does. He That is not interested in famewhy we turn away, or a good reputation, or a human or divine rewardand make much of the faults of others. The rule Instead of life for a perfect person is condemning others, strive to be in reach inner peace. Keep silent, refrain from judgment. This will raise you above the image deadly arrows of slander, insult and outrage and likeness of Godwill shield your glowing hearts against all evil.” —St. Clement Seraphim of AlexandriaSarov
“Every day at nightfall“A man may seem to be silent, before sleep comes upon youbut if his heart is condemning others, excite the judgment of your conscience, demand an account he is babbling ceaselessly. But there may be another who talks from it, morning till night and whatever evil counsels you may have taken during the day … pierce themyet he is truly silent, tear them to piecesthat is, and do penance for themhe says nothing that is not profitable.” —St. John Chrysostom—Abba Poemen
“As I became more wretched you drew nearer “If your tongue is used to mechattering, your heart will remain dim and foreign to the luminous intuitions of the Holy Spirit.” —St. AugustineJohn of Dalyatha
“Sin “He who does not control his tongue when he is the fruit of free will. There was a time when sin did not existangry, and there will be a time when it will not existcontrol his passions either.” —St. Isaac the Syrian—Abba Hyperchius
“Prove “Are you angry? Be angry at your love sins, beat your soul, afflict your conscience, be strict in judgement and zeal for wisdom a terrible punisher of your own sins. This is the benefit of anger, wherefore God placed it in actual deedsus.” —St. Callistus XanthopoulosJohn Chrysostom, Homilies on Ephesians 2
“Without “These eight passions should be destroyed as follows: gluttony by self-control; unchastity by desire for God and longing for the blessings held in store; avarice by compassion for the poor; anger by goodwill and lovefor all men; worldly dejection by spiritual joy; listlessness by patience, perseverance and offering thanks to God; self-esteem by doing good in secret and by praying constantly with a contrite heart; and pride by not judging or despising anyone in the manner of the boastful Pharisee (cf. Luke 18 : 11–12), deedsand by considering oneself the least of all men. When the intellect has been freed in this way from the passions we have described and been raised up to God, even it will henceforth live the life of blessedness, receiving the pledge of the most brilliantHoly Spirit (cf. 2 Cor. 1 : 22). And when it departs this life, count as nothingdispassionate and full of true knowledge, it will stand before the light of the Holy Trinity and with the divine angels will shine in glory through all eternity.” —St. Thérèse de LisieuxJohn of Damascus, On the Virtues and the Vices, from The Philokalia: The Complete Text, Vol. 2
“Do “We must consider all evil things, even the passions which war against us, to be not leave unobliterated any faultour own, however small, for but of our enemy the devil. This is very important. You can only conquer a passion when you do not consider it may lead as part of you on to greater sins.” —St. Mark the AsceticNikon of Optina
“Everyday I lay “A sinful soul, full of passions, cannot have peace and rejoice in the Lord, even if it had charge over all earthly riches, even if it ruled over the whole world. If it was suddenly said to such a foundation king, happily feasting and sitting on his throne, 'King, now you will die,' his soul would be troubled and he would tremble with fear, and he would see his powerlessness. But how many beggars there are, whose only wealth is love for building my repentanceGod, and who, if you said to them, 'You will die now,' would answer peacefully, 'Let God's will be done. Glory to the Lord, that He has remembered me and again with my own hands I demolish itwants to take me to Himself.'” —St. Ephrem Silouan the SyrianAthonite
“Having fulfilled “To reach satisfaction in alldesire its possession in nothing.To come to possession in alldesire the possession of nothing.To arrive at being alldesire to be nothing.To come to the knowledge of alldesire the knowledge of nothing.To come to the pleasure you have notyou must go by the way in which you enjoy not.To come to the knowledge you have notyou must go by the way in which you know not.To come to the possession you have notyou must go by the way in which you possess not.To come by the what you are notyou must go by a commandment, expect temptations; because love way in which you are not.When you turn toward Christ somethingyou cease to cast yourself upon the all.For to go from all to the allyou must deny yourself of all in all.And when you come to the possession of the allyou must possess it without wanting anything.Because if you desire to have something in allyour treasure in God is tested by difficultiesnot purely your all.” —St. Mark John of the AsceticCross, Ascent of Mount Carmel
“Do not be surprised that when you draw near to virtue“Man’s will, out of cowardice, tends away from suffering, and man, against his own will, remains utterly dominated by the fear of death, grievous and intense tribulations come , in his desire to you on all sides: for virtue is not considered virtuelive, if it does not involve hard workclings to his slavery to pleasure.” —St. Isaac Maximus the Syrian, Directions on Spiritual Training, The PhilokaliaConfessor
“Do not be surprised that you fall every day“Sin makes man a coward; do not give up, but stand your ground courageously. And assuredly, a life in the angel who guards you will honor your patience. While a wound is still fresh and warm it is easy to heal, but old, neglected and festering ones are hard to cure, and require for their care much treatment, cutting, plastering and cauterization. Many from long neglect become incurable. But with God all things are possibleTruth of Christ makes Him bold.” —St. John ClimacusChrysostom, The Ladder of Divine AscentHomilies on the Statues, Step 5, Section 30VIII. 2
“The “Of all the good things in the world, life is dearest to men, and men love life better than truth, although there is no life in truth. The highest good, then, is life , but truth is the foundation of life. He who loves life must also love truth. But what is the righteous was radiant. How did it become radiant if it wasn’t by patienceway to truth? Love patience'I am the way', O monksays the Lord. 'I am the way', that none should think that there is some other way to the truth besides the Lord Jesus. It was for that He was born as a man: to show men the mother of courageway. And for this that He was crucified, to make the way plain by His blood.” —St. Ephrem the SyrianNikolai Velimirovich
“Seek “See how many and great the evils it has brought on us – this self-justification, this holding fast to our own will, this obstinacy in everything the deep meaningbeing our own guide. All this was the events product of that take place around us and with us have their meaninghateful arrogance towards God. Whereas the products of humility are self-accusation, distrust in our own sentiments, hatred of our own will. By these one is made worthy of being redeemed, of having his human nature restored to its proper state, through the cleansing operation of Christ's holy precepts. Without humility it is impossible to obey the Commandments or at any time to go towards anything good. Nothing happens As Abba Mark says: without a cause…” contrite heart it is impossible to be free from wickedness or to acquire virtue.” —St. Nektary Dorotheos of OptinaGaza, Discourses and Sayings
“…should we fall“Begin gradually, we should do not despair and so estrange ourselves from the Lord's love. For if He so chooses, He can deal mercifully with our weaknesstrust yourself. Only we should Do not cut ourselves off from Him or feel oppressed when constrained by His commandments, nor should we lose heart when we fall short of our goal…let us always be ready to make a new start. If you fall, rise up. If you fall again, rise up again. Only do not abandon depend on your Physicianown understanding, lest you be condemned as worse than a suicide because of reject your despair. Wait on Himwill, and He the Lord will be merciful, either reforming you, or sending you trials, or through some other provision of which give you are ignoranttrue understanding.” —St. Peter Macarius of DamascusOptina, Living Without Hypocrisy
“Faintness of heart is a sign of despondency“If you deny yourself and constantly renounce your own opinions, your own will, and negligence is your own righteousness-or what amounts to the mother of both. A cowardly man shows that he suffers from two diseasessame thing: love of his flesh the knowledge, understanding, will, and lack righteousness of faith; for love fallen nature-in order to plant within you the knowledge of one’s flesh is a sign of unbelief. But he who despises God, the love will of the flesh proves that he believes in God with his whole heart , and awaits the age to come … A courageous heart and scorn righteousness of perils comes from one of two causes: either from hardness of heart or from great faith God taught us in the holy Gospel by God. Pride accompanies hardness of heartHimself, but humility accompanies faith. A man cannot acquire hope in God unless he first does His then fallen nature will with exactness. For hope in God open fire within you and manliness of heart are born of the testimony of declare a savage war against the conscience, Gospel and by against God. Fallen spirits will come to the truthful testimony help of the mind we possess confidence towards God.” —Stfallen nature. Isaac the Syrian, Homily 40
“Just as Do not fall into despondency on this account. By your firmness in the Lord is solicitous about our salvationstruggle, so too show the murder tenacity of menyour purpose and the stability of your free will. When thrown down, get up. When duped and disarmed, rearm yourself afresh. When defeated, again rush to the fight. It is extremely good for you to see within yourself both your own fall and the fall of the devilwhole of mankind. It is essential for you to recognize and study this fall in your own experience, strives in your heart and mind. It is essential for you to lead a man into despairsee the infirmity of your knowledge and intellect, and the weakness of your will.” —St.Ignatius Brianchaninov (Bryanchaninov) of Caucasus, The Arena, chapter 8
A lofty and sound soul does not despair over misfortunes“The natural passions become good in those who struggle when, wisely unfastening them from the things of whatever sort the flesh, use them to gain heavenly things. For example they may be. Our life is as it were can change appetite into the movement of a house of temptations and trialsspiritual longing for divine things; but we will not renounce pleasure into pure joy for the Lord for as long as He allows cooperation of the tempter mind with divine gifts; fear into care to evade future misfortune due to remain with us sin and sadness into corrective repentance for as long as we must wait to be revived through patience and secure passionless!present evil.” —St. Maximus the Confessor
Judas “How good it is to conquer the betrayer was fainthearted and unskilled in battle, and so passions! After the enemy, seeing his despair, attacked him and forced him to hang himself, but Peter, a firm rock, when he fell into great sin, like victory one skilled in battle did not despair nor lose heart, but shed bitter tears from a burning feels such lightness of heart, such peace and the enemy, seeing these tears, his eyes scorched as by fire, fled far form him wailing in paingreatness of spirit!” —St.John of Kronstadt
And so brothers“He who believes, St. Antioch teaches, when despair attacks us let us not yield to it, but being strengthened and protected by the light of faith, with great courage let us say to the evil spirit: ‘What are you to us, estranged from God, a fugitive from heaven and evil servant? You dare do nothing to us. Christ, the Son of God, has authority both over us and over everything. It fears; he who fears is humble; he who is against Him that we have sinned, and before Him that we will be justified. And you, destroyer, leave us. Strengthen by His venerable Cross, we trample under foot your serpent's head’ (St. Antioch Discourse 27)humble becomes gentle.” —St. Seraphim of Sarov, Little Russian PhilokaliaMaximus the Confessor
“I think it needs to be pointed out with utmost charity that the religion of compromise “For every humble person is self-deception gentle, and every gentle person is invariably humble. A person is humble when he knows that there exist today only two absolutely irreconcilable alternatives for man: faith in the world and the religion of self, whose fruit his very being is death; and the faith in Christ the Son of God, in Whom alone is eternal lifeon loan to him.” —Fr—St. Seraphim Rose of PlatinaMaximus the Confessor
“Keep your mind “A humble person lives on earth as if in hell the Kingdom of Heaven - always happy, peaceful and do not despairsatisfied with everything.” —St. Silouan the AthoniteAnthony of Optina
“Stand at the brink of the abyss of despair, and when you see that you cannot bear it anymore, draw back a little“Not every quiet man is humble, and have a cup of teabut every humble man is quiet.” —Elder Sophrony of Essex—St. Isaac the Syrian
“So in every test“If you wish to be truly humble, then consider yourself lower than all, let us say: "Thank worthy of being trampled on by all; for youyourself daily, my Godhourly trample upon the law of the Lord, because this was needed for my salvationand therefore upon the Lord Himself."” —Elder Paisios —St. John of Mount AthosKronstadt
“Only “You wish to be great, begin from the benumbed soul doesn't prayleast. Preserve You are thinking to construct some mighty fabric in yourselves height; first think of the feeling foundation of humility. And how great soever a mass of needbuilding one may wish and design to place above it, and you will always have stimulation for prayerthe greater the building is to be, the deeper does he dig his foundation.” —St. Theophan the RecluseAugustine
“Make sure that you do not limit your prayer merely to a particular part “In them [the Lives of the Saints] it is clearly and obviously demonstrated: There is no spiritual death from which one cannot be resurrected by the Divine power of the day. Turn to prayer risen and ascended Lord Christ; there is no torment, there is no misfortune, there is no misery, there is no suffering which the Lord will not change either gradually or all at anytimeonce into quite, compunctionate joy because of faith in Him.” —St John Chrysostom. Justin Popovich
“The “A servant of the Lord knows that I love you allis he who in body stands before men, but I cannot speak in mind knocks at Heaven with God and people at the same timeprayer.” —St. Arsanius the GreatJohn Climacus
“A Christian…is not his own master; he puts his time at “In the Christian East – in fact, in the East in general – we love old age because we think that it is made for praying. When one is old, and feels the nearness of God's disposalacross the increasingly transparent surface of biological life, one becomes in consciousness a child, returned to the Father, made light in spirit by the proximity of death, transparent to another kind of light.” —St. Ignatius of Antioch
“Do not seek the perfection of the Law A civilization in which one no longer prays is a civilization in human virtueswhich old age has no meaning. One walks backward towards death, pretending to be young; it’s an agonizing spectacle, because a wonderful possibility is offered, a journey towards ultimate relinquishment, for and it is not found perfect in them. Its perfection is hidden in the Cross taken advantage of Christ.” —St. Mark the Ascetic
“The knowledge of We need old people who pray, who smile, who live with a disinterested love, who marvel; they alone can show young people that that living is worth the Cross effort, and that oblivion is concealed in the sufferings of not the Cross.” —Stlast word. Isaac the Syrian
“God had Every monk whose spiritual practice has born fruit is called in the East, whatever his age, 'a beautiful old man.' He is beautiful with the beauty that rises from the heart. In him all the periods of his life have come into harmony, as with a symphony, one son on earth without sinmight say. And especially the original child is found again: shining with a transfigured shining, but never one without sufferingthe beautiful old man has the eyes of a child.” —St. Augustine—Olivier Clément
“Man “It is, by nature, afraid of both death and the dissolution of the body; but great significance if there is this most startling fact: that he a person who has put on truly prays in a family. Prayer attracts God's grace and all the faith members of the Cross despises even what is naturally fearfulfamily feel it, and for Christ's sake is not afraid even of deaththose whose hearts have grown cold. Pray always.” —St. Athanasius the Great—Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica
“Only struggle “Prayer is the place of refuge for every worry, a little more. Carry your cross without complaining. Don't think you are anything special. Don't justify your sins and weaknessesfoundation for cheerfulness, but see yourself as you really are. Anda source of constant happiness, especially, love one anothera protection against sadness.” —Fr—St. Seraphim Rose of PlatinaJohn Chrysostom
“Remember that each of us has his own cross. The Golgotha of this cross is our heart: it is being lifted or implanted through a zealous determination to live according to the Spirit of God. Just as salvation of the world is by the Cross of God“He who angers you, so our salvation is by our crucifixion on our own cross.controls you!” —St. Theophan the Recluse—Bishop Melchisedek Pleska
“Everyone carries their own cross, both Christians and non-Christians, believers and pagans. “[The difference desire for] equality is that for some, their crosses serve as a means of attaining the Kingdom of Heaven, while for the others they bring no such value. For from the ChristianDevil, the cross gradually becomes lighter and more joyful, while for the nonbeliever because it becomes heavier and more burdensomecomes entirely from envy. Why is this so? Because where the one carries their cross with faith and devotion to God, the other carries it with grumbling and anger” —Fr.Alexander Schmemann
Therefore, Christian, do not shun “In your lifelong cross, but, on prayer seek only righteousness and the contrarykingdom of God, thank Jesus Christ that He honored is, virtue and spiritual knowledge; and everything else 'will be given to you to follow and imitate Him' (Matt. 6:33).” —St. Innocent Evagrius of Alaska, Indication Of The Way Into The Kingdom Of HeavenPonticus
“Everyone has a cross to carry“Virtues are formed by prayer. Prayer preserves temperance. Prayer suppresses anger. Why? Since the leader Prayer prevents emotions of our faith endured the cross, we will also endure itpride and envy. On one hand, Prayer draws into the cross is sweet and light, but, on soul the otherHoly Spirit, it can also be bitter and heavy. It depends on our will. If you bear Christ’s cross with love then it will be very light; like a sponge or a cork. But if you have a negative attitude, it becomes heavy; too heavy raises man to liftHeaven.” —Elder Ephraim of Katounakia, 20th Century staretz on Mt—St. Athos, Suffering; TrialsEphrem the Syrian
“When you meet with suffering, contempt, “Even if we stand at the Crossvery summit of virtue, your thought should it is by mercy that we shall be: what is this compared with what I deserve?saved.” —St. Josemaria EscrivaJohn Chrysostom
“Behold, for years and generations, the way “The goodness of God has been leveled by the cross and by death. How is this with theeso rich in graces, that thou seest the afflictions of the way as if they were out of the way? Doest not thou wish it seeks a cause to follow the steps of the saints? Or doest thou wish to go have mercy on a way which is especially for thee, without suffering? The way unto God is a daily cross. No one can ascend unto heaven with comfort, we know where the way of comfort leadsperson.” —St. Isaac the Syrian, Mystic Treatises, Homily LIXAnthimus of Chios
“Understand two thoughts, and fear them“The Holy Spirit has accomplishing in each believer the work of Christ. One says, 'You are Each Christian is a saint,' communicant of the other, 'You won't be savedspirit.' Both of these thoughts are from the enemyThis is something so necessary, and there is no truth that in them. But think this way: I am a great sinner, but fact whoever does not have the Lord Spirit is merciful. He loves people very much, and He will forgive my sinsnot of Christ.” —St. Silouan Theophan the AthoniteRecluse
“He made Him who was righteous “The Church is nothing but the world on the way to be deification; for the Church, the world is no longer a tomb but a sinner, that He might make sinners righteouswomb.” —St. John Chrysostom—Olivier Clément
“Love sinners, but hate their deeds, and do not disdain sinners for their failings, so that you yourself do not fall into the temptation “The church is an earthly heaven in which they abide… Do not be angry at anyone and do not hate anyone, neither for their faith, nor for their shameful deeds… Do not foster hatred for the sinner, for we are all guilty… Hate his sins, super-celestial God dwells and pray for him, so that you may be made like unto Christ, who had no dislike for sinners, but prayed for themwalks about.” —St. Isaac the Syrian, Ascetical Homilies 57,90Germanus of Constantinople
“Love every man in spite of his falling into sin. Never mind “Nothing is more abiding than the sins, but remember that the foundation of the man Church: she is your salvation; she is the same - the image of Godyour refuge.” —St. John of KronstadtChrysostom
“Never confuse “There is no need to weep much over the persondestruction of a church; after all, formed in the image each of us, according to God's mercy, with has or should have his own church - the evil that is heart - go in him: because evil is but a chance misfortunethere and pray, an illness, a devilish reverieas much as you have strength and time. But the very essence of the person If this church is not well made and is abandoned (without inward prayer), then the image visible church will be of God, and this remains in him despite every disfigurementlittle benefit.” —St. John of Kronstadt—Archbishop Barlaam
“For this reason, the man “Our prayer reflects our attitude towards God. He who lives by is careless of salvation has a different attitude toward God's standards from him who has abandoned sin and is zealous for virtue but has not by man'syet entered within himself and works for the Lord only outwardly. Finally, must need be a lover of he who has entered within and carries the goodLord within himself, and it follows that he must hate what is evilstanding before Him, has yet another attitude. Further, since no one The first man is evil by naturenegligent in prayer, but anyone who just as he is evil is evil because of a perversion of naturenegligent in life, and he prays in church and at home merely according to the established custom, without attention or feeling. The second man who lives by God's standards has a duty of "perfect hatred" (Psalm 139:22) towards those who are evil; that is reads many prayers and goes often to saychurch, he should not hate trying at the person because of same time to keep his attention from wandering and to experience feelings in accordance with the faultprayers which are read, nor should although he love the fault because of the personis seldom successful. He should hate the faultThe third man, wholly concentrated within, stands with his mind before God, and prays to Him in his heart without distraction, without long verbal prayers, but love even when standing for a long time at prayer in his home or in church. … Every prayer must come from the manheart and any other prayer is no prayer at all. And when Prayer-book prayers, your own prayers and very short prayers, all must issue forth from the fault has been cured there will remain only what he ought heart to loveGod, nothing that he should hateseen before you.” —St. Augustine of Hippo, The City of GodTheophan the Recluse
“As Jesus Christ “It is my Witnessvery important to know how to pray. Many times even we, the monks in the monasteries, pray, I profess but we only think we pray. It is not enough to attend the church services and just be there like that I hate heresywould be enough. We have to work the prayer from the inside out. No matter how many prayers we say with our mouth, it is nothing if the prayer is not coming from the heart and if we don't apply the heretic; but as is properteachings of Orthodoxy in our everyday life. Now more than ever, lay people have to pray from the heart, for because this will be our only salvation. In the present I shun heart is the heretics because root of all passions and that is where we need to direct our struggles. If in the heresylater years Christianity became lukewarm and superficial, since I we have both convicted and rebuked himto end all that now, this is not going to be enough anymore. Let him renounce his heresy and condemn it by word as well as by deedIf we will not pray from the heart, and he we will cling not be able to all men by sustain the bond of brotherhoodpsychological attacks, because it the evil one has hidden brainwashing methods that are unknown to us. The greatest sin today is writtencarelessness. We pray carelessly, we repent carelessly, ‘Bear ye one anothereven if we do it. Times will come when only the ones that have the Spirit of God will be able to know good from evil. The human mind itself on its own will not be able to tell the difference. There will be great deceptions and only the Holy Spirit will give us the discernment we need so we can save ourselves. Pray that you will not be deceived! Only through prayer can we receive the Holy Spirit. If we don's burden t pray and just persevere in our laziness and unrepentant ways, we will completely lose the Holy Spirit and so fulfill His guidance. May it not be that we lose the law guidance of Christ’ the Holy Spirit!” —Elder Justin (Gal. 6:2Pârvu).” —Orosius of BragaRomania, Book in Defense Against The truth about the times–Spirituality of the Pelagiansend of times, 2010
“Our life “It is sometimes well during prayer to say a few words of your own, breathing fervent faith and love to the Lord. Yes, let us not always converse with God in the words of others, not always remain children in faith and hope; we must also show our own mind, indite a good matter from our own heart also. Moreover, we grow too accustomed to the words of others and grow cold in prayer. And how pleasing this lipsing of our death own is , coming from a believing, loving, and thankful heart. It is impossible to explain this; it is only needful to say that when you are praying to God with our neighboryour own words the soul trembles with joy, it becomes wholly inflamed, vivified, and beatified. You will utter few words, but you will experience such blessedness as you would not have obtained saying the longest most touching prayers of others, pronounced out of habit and insincerely.” —St.John of Kronstadt
If we gain our brother, we have gained God“Chastisement through the trials imposed on us is a spiritual rod, but if we scandalize teaching us humility when in our brother, foolishness we have sinned against Christthink too much of ourselves.” —St.Thalassios the Libyan
This “Goodness is the great work not confirmed without trial. Every Christian is tested by something: one by poverty, another by illness, a third by various thoughts, a fourth by some calamity or humiliation, while another by various doubts. And, through this, firmness of faith, hope and love of a man: always to take the blame for his own sins before God and to expect temptation to his last breathare tested.” —St. Anthony the GreatAmbrose of Optina
“Unless we look at a person and see the beauty there is in this person“Sometimes men are tested by pleasure, we can contribute nothing to him. One does not help a person sometimes by distress or by discerning what is wrong, what is ugly, what is distortedphysical suffering. Christ looked at everyone he met, at By means of His prescriptions the Physician of souls administers the prostitute, at remedy according to the thief, and saw cause of the beauty passions lying hidden therein the soul. Perhaps it was distorted, perhaps damaged, but it was beauty none ” —St. Maximus the lessConfessor, and what he did was to call out this beauty.” —Metropolitan Anthony of SourozhPhilokalia
“He who busies himself with the sins of others“If you want, or judges his brother on suspicionrather intend, to take a splinter out of another person, has then do not yet even begun to repent or to examine himself so as to discover his own sinshack at it with a stick instead of a lancet, for you will only drive it in deeper.” —St. Maximus the ConfessorJohn Climacus
“As long as we pay attention “To exalt oneself is one thing, not to the negative sides of various people we meetdo so another, we will not find peace and repentanceto humble oneself is something less entirely. As long as we keep in ourselves the thought of offenseA man may always be passing judgement on others, caused to us by enemieswhile another man passes judgement neither on others nor on himself. A third, friendshowever, family and neighboursthough actually guiltless, we will not find peace and quiet and we will live in a hellish statemay always be passing judgement on himself.” —Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica—St. John Climacus
“If you are offended by anythinga man accuses himself, whether intended or unintended, you do not know the way of peace, which through love brings the lovers of divine knowledge to the knowledge of Godhe is protected on all sides.” —St. Maximus the ConfessorPoemen
“In hell there “It is democracy not then wealth that is the foundation of pleasure, nor poverty of sadness, but our own judgment and the fact that the eyes of our mind neither see clearly nor remain fixed in Heaven there is a Kingdomone place, but flutter abroad.” —St. John of KronstadtChrysostom
“We shall not care what people think of us“One who knows oneself, or how they treat us. We shall cease to be afraid of falling out of favour. We shall love our fellow men without thought of whether they love us. Christ gave us the commandment to love others but did not make it a condition of salvation that they should love us. Indeed, we may positively be disliked for independence of spirit. It knows God: and one who knows God is essential in these days to be able worthy to protect ourselves from the influence of those with whom we come in contact. Otherwise we risk losing both faith and prayer. Let the whole world dismiss us worship Him as unworthy of attention, trust or respect – it will not matter provided that the Lord accept usis right. And vice versa: it will profit us nothing if the whole world thinks well of us and sings our praisesTherefore, if my beloveds in the Lord declines to abide with us. This is only a fragment of the freedom Christ meant when Hial practices such as Transcendental Meditation I am but repeating the age-old message of the Church … The way of the Fathers requires firm faith and long patience, whereas our contemporaries want to seize every spiritual gift, including even direct contemplation of the Absolute God, by force and speedily, and will often draw a parallel between prayer in the Name of Jesus and yoga or Transcendental Meditation ande said, ‘Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free’ (John 8yourselves.32)” —St. Our sole care will be to continue in Anthony the word of Christ, to become His disciples and cease to be servants of sin.” —Archimandrite Sophrony of Essex, His Life is Mine, Chapter 6; pg. 55Great
“The Church “God is a hospitaltruth and light, God's judgement is nothing else than our coming into contact with truth and not a courtroom, for soulslight. She does not condemn on behalf In the day of sins, but grants remission the Great Judgement all men will appear naked before this penetrating light of sinstruth. The ‘books’ will be opened. Nothing is so joyous in What are these ‘books’? They are our life as the thanksgiving that we experience in the Churchhearts. In Our hearts will be opened by the Churchpenetrating light of God, the joyful sustain their joyand what is in these hearts will be revealed. In the Church, If in those worried acquire merrimenthearts there is love for God, and those saddened, joyhearts will rejoice in seeing God's light. In the ChurchIf, on the troubled find reliefcontrary, and the heavy-ladenthere is hatred for God in those hearts, restthese men will suffer by receiving on their opened hearts this penetrating light of truth which they detested all their life. ‘Come,’ says the Lord, ‘near me, all of you who labor and are heavy-laden (with trials So that which will differentiate between one man and sins), and I another will give you rest’ (Matthew 11:28). What could not be more desirable than to meet this voice? What is sweeter than this invitation? The Lord is calling you to the Church for a rich banquet. He transfers you decision of God, a reward or a punishment from struggles to restHim, and from tortures to relief. He relieves you from but that which was in each one's heart; what was there during all our life will be revealed in the burden Day of your sinsJudgement. He heals worries with thanksgiving, If there is a reward and sadness with joy. No one is truly free or joyful besides he who lives for Christ. Such a person overcomes all evil punishment during this revelation – and there really is – it does not fear anything!” —Stcome from God but from the love or hate which reigns in our heart. John ChrysostomLove has bliss in it, hatred has despair, bitterness, grief, Homily XVaffliction, II Cor. VII VIIIwickedness, paragraph 6agitation, Themes of Life IIconfusion, Life Issues IIdarkness, Holy Monastery of and all the other interior conditions which compose hell.” —St. Symeon the ParacleteNew Theologian
“The goal “In whatever state a person is, he sometimes finds himself making pure and intense prayers. For even from that first and lowest sort, which has to do with recalling the future judgment, the one who is still subject to the punishment of human freedom terror and the fear of judgment is occasionally so struck with compunction that he is not filled with no less joy of spirit from the richness of his supplication than the one who, examining the kindnesses of God and going over them in freedom itselfthe purity of his heart, dissolves into unspeakable gladness and delight. For, nor it is in manaccording to the words of the Lord, but in Godthe one who realizes that more has been forgiven him begins to love more.” —St. Theophan the RecluseJohn Cassian
“When you are depressed“If a man's self is not kept clean and bright, bear in mind the Lord’s command to Peter to forgive a sinner seventy times seven. And you may his glimpse of God will be sure that He Who gave this command to another will Himself do very much moreblurred.” —St—C. S. John ClimacusLewis
“The time of this present life is a time for harvesting, and each person gathers spiritual food - as pure heart sees God as possible - and stores it up for the other life. It is not the clever, the noble, the polished speakers, or the rich who win, but whoever is insulted and forbears, whoever is wronged and forgives, whoever is slandered and endures, whoever becomes in a sponge and mops up whatever they might say to him. Such a person is cleansed and polished even more. He reaches great heights. He delights in the theoria of mysteries. And finally, it is he who is already inside paradise, while still in this lifemirror.” —Elder Joseph the Hesychast and Cave-dweller—Abba Philemon
“When you are ready “The blessedness of seeing God is justly promised to the pure of heart. For the eye that is unclean would not be able to stand in see the presence brightness of the Lordtrue light, and what would be happiness to clear minds would be a torment to those that are defiled. Therefore, let your soul wear a garment woven from the cloth mists of your forgiveness worldly vanities be dispelled, and the inner eye be cleansed of others. Otherwiseall the filth of wickedness, your prayer will be so that the soul's gaze may feast serenely upon the great vision of no value whatsoeverGod.” —St. John ClimacusLeo the Great
“Forgiveness is better than revenge“God rests within gentle hearts. The gentle and merciful shall sit fearless in His regions, and will inherit Heavenly glory.” —St. Tikhon of ZadonskJohn Climacus
“When God forgave you“That which the word communicates by sound, it means He forgave you for eternitythe painting shows silently by representation.” —Elder Arsenios Papacioc—St. Basil the Great, on the 40 Martyrs of Sebaste
“Love “Do not call God just, for His justice is not manifest in the things concerning you. And if David calls Him just and upright (cf. Ps. 24:8, 144:17), His Son revealed to us that He is good and kind. ‘He is good,’ He says, ‘to the evil and to the impious’ (cf. Luke 6:35). How can you call God just when you come across the Scriptural passage on the wage given to the workers? ‘Friend, I do thee no wrong I will give unto this last even as unto thee. Is thine eye evil because I am good?’ (Matt. 20:12-15). How can a man call God just when he comes across the passage on the prodigal son who wasted his wealth with riotous living, how for the compunction alone harmoniously joins which he showed, the father ran and fell upon his neck and gave him authority over all created his wealth? (Luke 15:11 ff.). None other but His very Son said these things with concerning Him, lest we doubt it; and thus He bare witness concerning Him. Where, then, is God and with each other's justice, for whilst we are sinners Christ died for us! (cf. Rom. 5:8). But if here He is merciful, we may believe that He will not change.” —St. Thalassios Isaac the LibyanSyrian, Homily LX
“A monk “God chastises with love, not for the sake of revenge---far be it!---but in seeking to make whole his image. And he does not harbour wrath until such time as correction is no longer possible, for he who withdrawing from all mendoes not seek vengeance for himself. This is the aim of love. Love's chastisement is for correction, is united with all mankindbut does not aim at retribution. … A monk is he The man who regards himself chooses to consider God as existing with all men and sees himself avenger, presuming that in each manthis manner he bears witness to His justice, the same accuses Him of being bereft of goodness.Far be it that vengeance could ever be found in that Fountain of love and Ocean brimming with goodness!” —St. Nilus of SinaiIsaac the Syrian
“Love towards Christ “Among all God's actions there is without limits, and the same none which is true not entirely a matter of mercy, love towards our neighbour. It should radiate everywhere, to and compassion: this constitutes the ends beginning and end of the earth, to every person. I wanted to go and live His dealings with the hippies at …… in order to show them the love of Christ and how great it is and how it could transfigure themus. Love is above everything” —St.” —Wounded by Love, Elder Porphyrios, pg 188Isaac the Syrian
“So God created man “We must hate avarice, self-esteem and sensual pleasure, as mothers of the vices and stepmothers of the virtues. Because of them we are commanded not to love ‘the world’ and ‘the things that are in His own imagethe world’ (1 John 2:15); in not so that we should hate God's creation through lack of discernment, but so that we should eliminate the image of God He created him; male and female He created themoccasions for these three passions.” —Genesis 1:27—St. Mark the Ascetic
“For God knows that in “‘The world’ is the general name for all the passions. When we wish to call the passions by a common name, we call them the world. But when we wish to distinguish them by their special names, we call them the passions. The passions are the following: love of riches, desire for possessions, bodily pleasure from which comes sexual passion, love of honour which gives rise to envy, lust for power, arrogance and pride of position, the craving to adorn oneself with luxurious clothes and vain ornaments, the day you eat itch for human glory which is a source of it your eyes will rancour and resentment, and physical fear. Where these passions cease to be openedactive, and there the world is dead; for though living in the flesh, they did not live for the flesh. See for which of these passions you are alive. Then you will be like God, knowing good know how far you are alive to the world and evilhow far you are dead to it.” —Genesis 3:5—St. Isaac the Syrian
“And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself “Just as a man whose head is under water cannot inhale pure air, so a man whose thoughts are plunged into an angel the cares of lightthis world cannot absorb the sensation of the world to come.” —2 Corinthians 11:14—St. Isaac the Syrian
“You shall “We don't understand that happiness is in eternity and not murderin vanity.” —Exodus 20:13—Elder Paisios of Mt. Athos
“Cursed “Why do you beat the air and run in vain? Every occupation has a purpose, obviously. Tell me then, what is the one who takes a bribe to slay an innocent personpurpose of all the activity of the world? Answer, I challenge you! It is vanity of vanity: all is vanity.” —Deuteronomy 27:25—St. John Chrysostom
“He shall judge between “The sun shines on all alike, and vainglory beams on all activities. For instance, I am vainglorious when I fast; and when I relax the nationsfast in order to be unnoticed,And rebuke many people;They shall beat their swords into plowsharesI am again vainglorious over my prudence. When well-dressed I am quite overcome by vainglory, and when I put on poor clothes I am vainglorious again. When I talk I am defeated,And their spears into pruning hooks;Nation shall not lift up sword against nationand when I am silent I am again defeated by it. However I throw this prickly-pear,Neither shall they learn war anymorea spike stands upright.” —Isaiah 2:4—St. John Climacus
“But Jesus said “Watch your heart during all your life – examine it, listen to himit, ‘Put your sword in and see what prevents its place, union with the most blessed Lord. Let this be for you the science of all who take sciences, and with God’s help, you will easily observe what estranges you from God, and what draws you towards Him and unites you to Him. It is the sword will perish evil spirit more than anything that stands between our hearts and God; he estranges God from us by various passions, or by the desire of the flesh, by the sworddesires of the eyes, and by worldly pride.’” —Matthew 26:52” —St. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ
“You know “Have you ever observed the commandments: ‘Do not commit adulterylife of the heart? Try it even for a short time and see what you find. Something unpleasant happens,’ ‘Do not murderand you get irritated; some misfortune occurs,’ ‘Do not stealand you pity yourself; you see someone whom you dislike,’ ‘Do not bear false witnessand animosity wells up within you; you meet one of your equals who has now outdistanced you on the social scale,’ ‘Honor and you begin to envy him; you think of your father talents and capabilities, and your motheryou begin to grow proud… All this is rottenness: vainglory, carnal desire, gluttony, laziness, malice – one on top of the other, they destroy the heart.” —St.’” —Luke 18:20John (Maximovitch) of Shanghai and San Francisco
“So “As water and fire oppose one another when they continued asking Himcombined, He raised Himself up so are self-justification and said humility opposed to them, ‘He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her firstone another.” —St.’” —John 8:7Mark the Ascetic
“Whoever hates “Fire and water do not mix, neither can you mix judgment of others with the desire to repent. If a man commits a sin before you at the very moment of his brother death, pass no judgment, because the judgment of God is a murdererhidden from men. It has happened that men have sinned greatly in the open but have done greater deeds in secret, and you know so that no murderer has eternal life abiding those who would disparage them have been fooled, with smoke instead of sunlight in himtheir eyes.” —1 —St. John 3:15Climacus
“And “Christians, above all men, are forbidden to correct the second commandment stumblings of sinners by force… it is necessary to make a man better not by force but by persuasion. God gives the Teaching; Thou shalt not commit murdercrown to those who are kept from evil, thou shalt not commit adulteryby force, thou shalt not commit paederasty, thou shalt not commit fornication, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not practise magic, thou shalt not practise witchcraft, thou shalt not murder a child but by abortion nor kill that which is begottenchoice.” —Didache 2:2—St. John Chrysostom
“The mold in “I have seen pride lead to humility. And I remembered him who said: Who hath known the womb may not be destroyedmind of the Lord? The pit and offspring of conceit is a fall; but a fall is often an occasion of humility for those who are willing to use it to their advantage.” —Tertullian—St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 15, Section 38
“The woman who purposely destroys her unborn child “Humility is guilty of murder. The hair-splitting difference between formed and unformed makes the only thing that no difference to usdevil can imitate.” —St. Basil the GreatJohn Climacus
“Those who use abortifacients commit homicide“An angel fell from Heaven without any other passion except pride, and so we may ask whether it is possible to ascend to Heaven by humility alone, without any other of the virtues.” —St. Clement of AlexandriaJohn Climacus
“For every argument there “Run from pride, for it is a counter-argument, but who can argue against life?passion more treacherous than any other.” —St. Gregory Palamas, Triads in Defence of the Holy HesychastsJohn Chrysostom
“O God“Pride more than anything else, grant us a deeper sense deprives people of fellowship with all living things, our little brothers both their good deeds and sisters to whom in common with us you have given this earth as home. We recall with regret that in the past we have acted high-handedly and cruelly in exercising our domain over them. Thus, the voice of the earth which should have risen to you in song has turned into a groan of travailhelp from God. May we realize that all these creatures also live for themselves and for you - not for us alone. They too love the goodness of life, as we doWhere there is no humility, and serve you better in their way than we do in ours. Amenpride takes its place.” —St. Basil the GreatMacarius of Optina
“We follow “‘Exile is separation from everything in order to keep the ways of wolves, the habits of tigers: or, rather we are worse than theymind inseparable from God. To them nature has assigned that they should be thus fed, while God has honoured us with rational speech An exile loves and a sense of equityproduces continual weeping. And yet ’ From Paradise, we are must become worse than exiled from the wild beastworld if we hope to return.” —St—Fr. John ChrysostomSeraphim Rose of Platina
“Concepts create idols; only wonder comprehends anything“Prayer is superior to all good works. People kill It begets tears of repentance, greatly contributes to peace in one’s thoughts, leads one another over idolsto think only of God Who is the ultimate Peace, and brings forth the love of God. Wonder makes us fall to our kneesPrayer alone purifies the rational part of the soul through the vision of God, Who causes the purification of the angels; it also preserves the desiring part of the soul in purity before God.” —St. Gregory Kallistos Telikoudes, On the Practice of NyssaHesychasm, The Philokalia, Vol. 5
“The unspeakable “Day and prodigious fire hidden in night I pray the essence of thingsLord for love, as in and the Lord gives me tears to weep for the bushwhole world. But if I find fault with any man, is or look on him with an unkind eye, my tears will dry up, and my soul sink into despondency. Yet do I begin again to entreat forgiveness of the fire of divine love Lord, and the dazzling brilliance of Lord in His beauty inside every thingmercy forgives me, a sinner.” —St. Maximus the Confessor
“Blessed Brethren, before the one who observes with spiritual understanding the choirs face of stars shining with glory my God I write: Humble your hearts, and while yet on this earth you will see the beauty mercy of the heavens Lord, and longs to contemplate the Maker know your Heavenly Creator, and your souls will never have their fill of all thingslove.” —St. Ephrem Silouan the SyrianAthonite
“Look at “Here are those of whom I speak and who are called heretics by me. They are the ones who say that in our present age there is no one in our midst who is able to observe the commandments and be like the world around youholy fathers…. It supplies Those who declare this is impossible have fallen not into one particular heresy but into all your bodily needs. It feasts your eyes with its beauty. And its glory reflects the glory of Godthem, so it feasts your soul alsoto speak – a heresy surpassing all others in its impiety and greatest blasphemy. Look at the plants and the treesThey are buried underneath it…. Can you count The one who speaks in such a manner turns all the different species? Can you describe all the different shapes of the leavesScripture upside down…. These antichrists affirm, ‘It is impossible, impossible’. Why then is it impossible? Tell me. In what other way did the color saints shine on earth and fragrances did they become lamps of the flowersworld? LookIf it were impossible, toothey would never have succeeded in it. For they were men like us, at the animals and possessed no more than we do except a will directed toward the insectsgood. Are you not enthralled by their different sizes and shapesThey had zeal, patience, by the different colors and textures of their skin and furhumility, by the different ways in which they move about and gather food? And the wonder why love for God has created . Therefore, acquire all this. Has he created the marvelous universe just to supply our needs and to feast our eyes and souls? or your soul which today is there some other purpose in it all? The answer is that he has created all things--for their own sakeas hard as rock shall become a fountain of tears inside you. Each creature has its own purpose However, if you refuse to suffer such anguish and destinyaffliction, which God in his infinite wisdom and love has planned. Do at least do not try to understand God’s plans; the human mind is hardly better than say that of an ant in discerning the ways of God. Simply accept all his plans and rejoice in themthis is impossible.” —St. John ChrysostomSymeon the New Theologian, On Living SimplyThe Discourses, pg 54Discourse XXIX: The Heresy of Pusillanimity
“For as long as you are on earth“…The ambition of men, consider yourself a guest in the Household who have no fear of Christ. If you are at the tableGod, it is He who treats you. If you breathe airrushes into high posts, it and exalted office is His air you breathenow publicly known as the prize of impiety. If you bathe, it The result is in His water you are bathing. If you are traveling, it is over His land that you are traveling. If you are amassing goodsthe worse a man blasphemes, it is His goods you are amassingthe fitter the people think him to be a bishop. If you are squandering, it Clerical dignity is His goods that you are squanderinga thing of the past. If you are powerful, it There is by His permission that you are strong. If you are in the company a complete lack of men, you and shepherding the others are His guests. If you are out in nature, you are in His garden. If you are alone, He is present.” —StLord’s flock with knowledge. Nikolai Velimirovich
“Some people see Ambitious men are constantly throwing away the provision for the poor on their own enjoyment and the houses distribution of gifts. There is no precise knowledge of canons. There is complete immunity in which they live as their kingdomsinning; and although for when men have been placed in their minds office by the favour of men, they know that death will one day force them are obliged to return the favour by continually showing indulgence to leave, in their hearts they feel they will stay foreveroffenders. They take pride in Just judgment is a thing of the size of their houses past; and everyone walks according to his heart’s desire. Vice knows no bounds; the fine material with which they are builtpeople know no restraint. They take pleasure Men in decorating their houses with bright colorsauthority are afraid to speak, and in obtaining for those who have reached power by human interest are the best and most solid furniture slaves of those to fill whom they owe their advancement. And now the rooms. They imagine that they can find peace very vindication of Orthodoxy is looked upon in some quarters as an opportunity for mutual attack; and security by owning a house whose walls men conceal their private ill-will and roof will last pretend that their hostility is all for many generationsthe sake of the truth. WeOthers, afraid of being convicted of disgraceful crimes, by contrastmadden the people into fratricidal quarrels, know that we are only temporary guests on earth. We recognize that the houses their own doings may be unnoticed in which we live serve only as hostels on the road to eternal lifegeneral distress. We do not seek peace or security from Hence the material walls around us or war admits of no truce, for the roof above our heads. Rather we want to surround ourselves with doers of ill deeds are afraid of a wall of divine grace; and we look upward peace, as being likely to heaven as our roof. And lift the furniture of our lives should be good works, performed in a spirit of love.” —Stveil from their secret infamy. John Chrysostom, On Living Simply, pg 11
“What hinders All the while unbelievers laugh; men of weak faith are shaken; faith is uncertain; souls are drenched in ignorance, because adulterators of the word imitate the truth. The mouths of true believers are dumb, while every blasphemous tongue wags free; holy things are trodden under foot; the better laity shun the churches as schools of impiety; and lift their hands in the deserts with sighs and tears to their Lord in heaven. Even you must have heard what is going on in most of our cities, how our people with wives and children and even our old men stream out before the walls, and offer their prayers in the open air, putting up with all the inconvenience of the weather with great patience, and waiting for help from fulfilling Christ’s commandments?the Lord.” —St. Basil the Great, Letter 92, To the Italians and Gaul
The flesh and the world: that is, pleasant food and drink which men like, “He who in which they delight both in thought and in fact, which make the his heart gross and hard—a partiality for elegant dress and adornment, or for distinctions and rewards; if the dress or adornments are made is proud of very beautiful coloured and delicate materials, then care and anxiety arise how to avoid staining or soiling them, or getting them dusty or wet, whilst care and anxiety how to please God in thought, word, and deed vanish his tears and secretly condemns those who do not weep is like a man who asks the heart lives king for dress and adornment, and becomes entirely engrossed in these things, ceasing to care about God and being united to Him; if such is the case with a priest, then he neglects praying for weapon against his people, enemy and becomes not soul-loving, but money-loving and ambitious, seeking not the men themselves, but that which appertains to them, that is, money, food, drink, their favour, their good opinion and good word, and flattering themthen commits suicide with it.” —St.John Climacus
Therefore fight against every worldly enticement, against every material enticement that hinders “Do not grow conceited if you from fulfilling Christ’s commandments, love God with all your heart, and care with all shed tears when you pray. For it is Christ who has touched your strength for the salvation of your own soul, and the souls of others, be soul-lovingeyes.” —St. John of KronstadtMark the Ascetic
“Worldly glory does “And here also we have diligently to consider, that it is far more secure and safe that every man should do that for himself whiles he is yet alive, which he desireth that others should do for him after his death. For far more blessed it is, to depart free out of this world, than being in prison to seek for release: and therefore reason teacheth us, that we should with our whole soul contemn this present world, at least because we see that it is now gone and past: and to offer unto God the daily sacrifice of tears, and the daily Sacrifice of His Body and Blood. For this Sacrifice doth especially save our souls from everlasting damnation, which in mystery doth renew unto us the death of the Son of God: who although being risen from death, doth not lead now die any more, nor death shall not any further prevail against him: yet living in himself immortally, and without all corruption, he is again sacrificed for us in this mystery of the holy oblation: for there his body is received, there his flesh is distributed for the salvation of the people: there His Blood is not now shed betwixt the hands of infidels, but poured into the mouths of the faithful. Wherefore let us hereby meditate what manner of sacrifice this is, ordained for us, which for our absolution doth always represent the passion of the only Son of God's children : for what right believing Christian can doubt, that in the very hour of the sacrifice, at the words of the Priest, the heavens be opened, and the quires of Angels are present in that mystery of Jesus Christ; that high things are accompanied with low, and earthly joined to heaven.heavenly, and that one thing is made of visible and invisible?” —St. RaphaelGregory the Great, Dialogues of St. Gregory the Newly-revealed Martyr of LesvosGreat, Book 4, ch. 58
“Satan “… One must clean the royal house from every impurity and adorn it with every beauty, then the king may enter into it. In a similar way one must first cleanse the earth of the heart and uproot the weeds of sin and the passionate deeds and soften it with sorrows and the narrow way of life, sow in it the seed of virtue, water it with lamentation and tears, and only then does the fruit of dispassion and eternal life grow. For the Holy Spirit does not dwell in a man until he has no need to tempt those who tempt themselves, been cleansed from passions of the soul and are continually dragged down by worldly affairsbody.” —St. John of KarpathosPaisius Velichkovsky, ‘Field Flowers’
“The devil does not hunt after those who are lost; “God, Who is by nature good and dispassionate, loves all men equally as His handiwork. But He glorifies the virtuous man because in his will he hunts after those who are aware, those who are close is united to God. He takes from them trust At the same time, in God His goodness he is merciful to the sinner and begins by chastising him in this life brings him back to afflict them with self-assurancethe path of virtue. Similarly, logica man of good and dispassionate judgment also loves all men equally. He loves the virtuous man because of his nature and the probity of his intention; and he loves the sinner, thinkingtoo, criticism. Therefore we should not trust our logical mindsbecause of his nature and because in his compassion he pities him for foolishly stumbling in darkness.” —Elder Paisios of Mt—St. AthosMaximus the Confessor
“Only He “I do not know how I came into the world; Nor what the things here in it are. What my sight is worth struggling towards, O my God, And what the objects that I see, I cannot tell. We How all we men are vain, And have a choice: no proper judgement of reality! Yesterday at least I came and tomorrow I shall go, And I think to be immortal yonder. That Thee are my God I confess to everyone, and yet deny Thee daily in my deeds. I teach that Thee have made each living thing; And yet without Thee struggle to have all. Thy rule extends above, below And yet I am not feared to follow strive against Thee. Let me the needy one, me most miserable; Disburden all the way sickness of this worldmy soul Crushed, alas and broken into bits. By vanity, by foolish arrogance. Grant me to be humble, grant me a hand of the society that surrounds ushelp; And cleanse my soul’s pollution. And give me tears of repentance; Love’s tears, and thereby find ourselves outside tears of Godliberty; or Tears cleansing my mind’s darkness. And filling me with heavenly radiance! For Thee it is, the choose the way world’s Light; The Light of lifemy poor eyes, I wish to choose God see – I who fill my heart with life’s evils, Suffering much of affliction and of envy. From those who have worked my exiles: From those, rather, who are my benefactors; Who calls us and are my masters, my true friends: To whom, O Christ, instead of ill give blessing: Eternal, rich, divine; Prepared by Thee for all the ages; For those who deeply long for Whom our heart is searchingThee, love Thee.” —Fr—St. Seraphim Rose of PlatinaSymeon the New Theologian, On the right attitude to Life
“Ask with tears, seek with obedience, knock with patience. For thus he who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” —St. John Climacus “The passions of the flesh may be described as belonging to the left hand, self-conceit as belonging to the right hand.” —St. Maximus the Confessor “When the soul leaves the body, the enemy advances to attack it, fiercely reviling it and accusing it of its sins in a harsh and terrifying manner. The devout soul, however, even though in the past it has often been wounded by sin, is not frightened by the enemy’s attacks and threats. Strengthened by the Lord, winged by joy, filled with courage by the holy angels that guide it, and encircled and protected by the light of faith, it answers the enemy with great boldness: ‘Fugitive from heaven, wicked slave, what have I to do with you? You have no authority over me; Christ the Son of God has authority over me and over all things. Against Him have I sinned, before Him shall I stand on trial, having His Precious Cross as a sure pledge of His saving love towards me. Flee from me, destroyer! You have nothing to do with the servants of Christ.’ When the soul says all this fearlessly, the devil turns his back, howling aloud and unable to withstand the name of Christ. Then the soul swoops down on the devil from above, attacking him like a hawk attacking a crow. After this it is brought rejoicing by the holy angels to the place appointed for it in accordance with its inward state.” —St. Theognostos, On the Practice of the Virtues, Philokalia, Vol. 2 “If you wish to be saved, O my soul, to go first on the most sorrowful path which has been indicated here, to enter into the Heavenly Kingdom and receive eternal life – then refine your flesh, taste voluntary bitterness, and endure difficult sorrows, as all the Saints tasted and endured. And when a man is preparing himself and gives himself the command to endure for the sake of God all sorrows and pain which come upon him, then light and painless seem for him all sorrows, unpleasantnesses and attacks of devils and men. He does not fear death, and nothing can separate such a one from the love of Christ. Have you heard, my beloved soul, how the Holy Fathers spent their lives? O my soul! Imitate them at least a little.” —St. Paisius Velichkovsky “If you rebuke yourself, accuse yourself, and judge yourself before God for your sins, with a sensitive conscience, even for this you will be justified.If you are sorrowful for your sins, or you weep, or sigh, your sigh will not be hidden from Him and, as St. John Chrysostom says, ‘If you only lament for your sins, then He will receive this for your salvation.’” —St. Moses of Optina “A good heart produces good thoughts: its thoughts correspond to what it stores up in itself.” —St. Thalassios the Libyan “Fasting is for the purification of the soul and body.” —St. John Chrysostom “Fasting is wonderful, because it tramples our sins like a dirty weed, while it cultivates and raises truth like a flower.” —St. Basil the Great “Fasting is the mother of health; the friend of chastity; the partner of humility.” —St. Symeon the New theologian “Many fast with body, but do not fast with soul: many fast from food and drink, but do not fast from evil thoughts, actions and words, and what is the benefit of it?! Many fast a day and two more, but from anger, resentment and vengeance will not fast; many refrain from wine, meat and fish, but with their tongue they eat people similar to themselves, and what is the benefit of it?! There are those who do not reach for food with their hands, but provide them for bribery, embezzlement and robbery, and what is the benefit of it?! True and true fasting is abstaining from every evil. If you want, Christian, to benefit from your fasting, fast carnally, fast mentally, and fast always! When you instruct fasting to your stomach, impose it on your evil thoughts and lusts. Let your mind fast from vain thoughts and memory from resentment, and your will from evil wanting, and your eyes from evil looking. Turn away your eyes from beholding vanity, let your ears fast from shameful songs and whispers of slander, let your tongue fast from defamation, condemnation, blasphemy, lies, flattery, filth and every empty and rotten word. Let your hands fast from the robbery of another's goods, and your feet from the clothing of evil work. Repent and, abstaining from every evil word, deed and thought, learn every virtue and you will always fast before God.” —St. Tikhon of Zadonsk “As salt is needed for all kinds of food, so humility is needed for all kinds of virtues.” —St. Isaac the Syrian “Virtue is not the manifestation of many and various works performed by the body, but a heart that is most wise in its hope and unites a right aim to godly works. Often, the mind can accomplish that which is good without bodily works, but the body without wisdom of the heart can gain no profit for all it may do.” —St. Isaac the Syrian, Homily 40 “Let it be known to you that if in your life you have mastered every virtue and every good deed such as mercy, prayer, fast, and other virtues but have no humility in you, your toil will be in vain. For humility in all these virtues is the solid foundation. Without it, we cannot master any of the virtues and all these virtues will become impure, filthy, and discarded before God because they were not sown with humility and love.” —St. John Chrysostom “Fasting is the mother of health; the friend of chastity; the partner of humility.” —St. Symeon the New theologian “What can sin do where there is penitence? And of what use is love where there is pride?” —Abba Elias “Pride is poverty of the soul, which imagines itself to be rich, and being in darkness, thinks it has light.” —St. John Climacus “Modern society calls the beggar bum and panhandler and gives him the bum's rush. But the Greeks used to say that people in need are the ambassadors of the gods.” —Peter Maurin “Every family should have a room where Christ is welcome in the person of the hungry and thirsty stranger.” —St. John Chrysostom “Who is the greedy man? One for whom plenty does not suffice. Who defrauds others? One who keeps for himself what belongs to everyone. Aren’t you greedy, don’t you defraud, when you keep for yourself what was given to give away? When someone steals a man’s clothes, we call him a thief. Shouldn’t we give the same name to one who could clothe the naked and does not?” —St. Basil the Great “The bread you do not use is the bread of the hungry. The garment hanging in your wardrobe is the garment of the person who is naked. The shoes you do not wear are the shoes of one who is barefoot. The money you keep locked away is the money of the poor. The acts of charity you do not perform are the injustices you commit.” —St. Basil the Great “You are not making a gift of what is yours to the poor man, but you are giving him back what is his. You have been appropriating things that are meant to be for the common use of everyone. The earth belongs to everyone, not to the rich.” —St. Ambrose of Milan “Do not consider your riches as belonging to yourselves alone; open wide your hand to those who are in need.” —St. Cyril of Alexandria “The man who loves his neighbor as himself possesses no more than his neighbor…thus, as much as your wealth increases, so much does your love decrease.” —St. Basil the Great “If you cannot find Christ in the beggar at the church door, you will not find Him in the chalice.” —St. John Chrysostom “A rich man is not one who has much, but one who gives much. For what he gives away remains his forever.” —St. John Chrysostom “A poor man when he reaches out to you does not beg, but offers you the kingdom of God.” —Elder Arsenie (Papacioc) of Romania “No one in creation is rich but he that fears God; no one is truly poor but he that lacks the truth.” —St. Ephrem the Syrian “Do you fast? Then feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, visit the sick, do not forget the imprisoned, have pity on the tortured, comfort those who grieve and who weep, be merciful, humble, kind, calm, patient, sympathetic, forgiving, reverent, truthful and pious, so that God might accept your fasting and might plentifully grant you the fruits of repentance.” —St. John Chrysostom “The Lord Himself said in the Gospel: ‘The last shall be first and the first, last’ (Matt 20:16). Thus, may Divine mercy shine forth with His love upon the poor, so that it may make great ones from the little, and that from the weak it may make co-inheritors with His Only Begotten Son. For it exhalts the poverty of this world to Heaven, to which the earthly kingdom cannot rise, so that the rustic comes to the place where he who wears the purple does not merit to come.” —St Gregory of Tours, Via Patrum “In all your undertakings and in every way of life, whether you are living in obedience, or are not submitting your work to anyone, whether in outward or in spiritual matters, let it be your rule and practice to ask yourself: Am I really doing this in accordance with God's will?” —St. John Climacus “Those who submit to the Lord with simple heart will run the good race. If they keep their minds on a leash, they will not draw the wickedness of the demons onto themselves.” —St. John Climacus “A hypocrite is someone who teaches his neighbor something he makes no effort to do himself.” —St. Poemen “I prefer a man who sins and repents to one who does not sin and does not repent. The first has good thoughts, for he admits that he is sinful. But the second has false, soul-destroying thoughts, for he imagines himself to be righteous.” —Abba Poemen the Great “At meals don't speak about food: that's vulgar and unworthy of you. Speak about something noble -- of the soul or of the mind -- and you will have dignified this duty.” —Josemaria Escriva “When someone learns to acknowledge every man as being better than himself, then he has attained humility.” —St. Sisoes the Great “It is a spiritual gift from God for a man to perceive his sins.” —St. Isaac the Syrian “The man who is deemed worthy to see himself is greater than he who is deemed worthy to see angels.” —St. Isaac the Syrian “The truly blessed are not the ones who can work miracles or see angels; the truly blessed are the ones who can see their own sins.” —St. Anthony the Great “The nearer a man draws to God, the more he sees himself a sinner. It was when Isaiah the prophet saw God, that he declared himself ‘a man of unclean lips.’” —St. Mateos “The condition of peace among men is that each should keep a consciousness of his own wrongdoing.” —St. Silouan the Athonite “The way to perfection is through the realization that we are blind, naked and poor.” —St. Theophan the Recluse “The perfect person does not only try to avoid evil. Nor does he do good for fear of punishment, still less in order to qualify for the hope of a promised reward. The perfect person does good through love. His actions are not motivated by desire for personal benefit, so he does not have personal advantage as his aim. But as soon as he has realized the beauty of doing good, he does it with all his energies and in all that he does. He is not interested in fame, or a good reputation, or a human or divine reward. The rule of life for a perfect person is to be in the image and likeness of God.” —St. Clement of Alexandria “Every day at nightfall, before sleep comes upon you, excite the judgment of your conscience, demand an account from it, and whatever evil counsels you may have taken during the day … pierce them, tear them to pieces, and do penance for them.” —St. John Chrysostom “As I became more wretched you drew nearer to me.” —St. Augustine “Sin is the fruit of free will. There was a time when sin did not exist, and there will be a time when it will not exist.” —St. Isaac the Syrian “Prove your love and zeal for wisdom in actual deeds.” —St. Callistus Xanthopoulos “Without love, deeds, even the most brilliant, count as nothing.” —Thérèse de Lisieux “Do not leave unobliterated any fault, however small, for it may lead you on to greater sins.” —St. Mark the Ascetic “Everyday I lay a foundation for building my repentance, and again with my own hands I demolish it.” —St. Ephrem the Syrian “Having fulfilled a commandment, expect temptations; because love toward Christ is tested by difficulties.” —St. Mark the Ascetic “Do not be surprised that when you draw near to virtue, grievous and intense tribulations come to you on all sides: for virtue is not considered virtue, if it does not involve hard work.” —St. Isaac the Syrian, Directions on Spiritual Training, The Philokalia “A certain brother had succumbed to the sin of lust, repeating this sin every day, but every day he would also beseech the Lord's mercy, with tears and prayers. By acting this way, his bad habit always fooled him and he would repeat the sin again; but again, after sinning, he would go to the Church and, upon seeing the holy and venerable icon of our Lord Jesus Christ, would fall to his knees and with bitter tears would say: ‘Spare me, Lord, and rid of me this tortuous temptation, because it plagues me terribly and harms me with its bitter pleasures. My face is not worthy to look upon Your holy icon, so that my heart might be consoled.’ That was the sort of thing he would say, but whenever he left the Church, he would again fall in the mire. Yet he never lost his hopes for salvation, and immediately after sinning, he would again return to the Church and say the same things, praying to the benevolent Lord God: ‘Lord, be my warrantor that from now on I won't sin again; but please, Lord, forgive all of my sins, from the beginning, up to now.’ And after making these grandiose promises, he would again return to the same, terrible sin. And one could discern the sweet benevolence and infinite goodness of the Lord, in tolerating and enduring this incorrigible and grave violation and the ingratitude of this man, and how, in His great compassion, the Lord desired the repentance of this man and his definitive return; because this sin was being repeated, not for one, two or three years, but for ten and more. Brothers, can you see the immeasurable tolerance and infinite benevolence of the Lord? How He shows forbearance and kindness every time, by enduring our gross iniquities and sins? What is more staggering and provokes our wonder with regard to God's wealth of compassion, is that although our brother kept promising and would agree to desist from that sin, he proved himself a liar. One day, after our brother had fallen into that sin again, he went running to the Church, mourning and moaning and in tears, beseeching the compassion of the merciful God to spare him and save him from the mire of incontinence. While this brother was begging the benevolent God, the wicked devil, the destruction of our souls, realized that he had achieved nothing, because while he was sewing with sin, the man was fraying it with his repentance. So the devil impudently appeared before him visibly, and, turning his face towards the venerable icon of our Lord Jesus Christ, started to cry out, saying: ‘What ‘s it going to be with us two, Jesus Christ? Your infinite sympathy defeats me and degrades me, whenever you accept this lecher, this wanton, who lies to you every day and disregards your authority. Why then don't you burn him? Why are You so forbearing and tolerant towards him? You are supposed to be the one who will judge the adulterous and the licentious and will eliminate all sinners. In fact, You are not a fair judge, because, wherever Your authority considers it befitting, You judge unfairly and You overlook things. With me, because of the small infraction of pride, you cast me down from heaven, whereas with him, who is a liar, a lecher and a prodigal, because he merely knelt before You, You imperturbably grant him Your favor. So, why do they call You a fair judge? From what I can see, You simply give Yourself to people out of Your great goodness, and You overlook justice.’ As the devil was saying these, all choked up by his bitterness, flames and smoke came out of his nostrils. After the devil had finished speaking, he became silent, and immediately, a voice was heard coming out of the altar saying: ‘You wicked and pestilent dragon, your wickedness wasn't satiated by swallowing the whole world, and now you are trying to grab and swallow this man who found refuge in the infinite mercy of My compassion? Can you present any sins that are heavier than the precious blood which I shed for this man, on the Cross? Mark well, that My crucifixion and My death forgave his sins. Besides, you didn't send him away when he headed towards sin, but you accepted him with joy and you neither abhorred him nor hindered him, because you hoped to win him. Well then, I, Who am so merciful and benevolent, who had instructed my high Apostle Peter to forgive any man who sins daily up to seventy times seven, will I not forgive and spare this man? Yes, I say to you, and because he sought refuge in Me, I will not turn away from him, until I have made him mine. Because I was crucified for the sinners and it was for them that I extended my immaculate arms, so that everyone who wants to be saved, will seek refuge in me and be saved. I do not avoid anyone, nor do I send anyone away, not even if someone sins a thousand times in one day and then comes to Me a thousand times; he won't leave dismayed. Because I did not come to call the righteous to repent, but the sinners.’ As soon as these words were heard, the devil stood fixed in place, trembling, unable to escape. And the voice spoke again: ‘Listen, impostor, with regard to what you said about me being unfair : because I am fair to everyone, and in whichever condition I might find them, I will judge them accordingly. Look at this man, I found him in repentance and returning back, fallen on his knees in front of Me, and your conqueror. I will therefore accept him and save his soul, because he did not despair about his salvation. And you, when seeing the honor that I grant him, will impale yourself out of envy and be put to shame.’ And just as the brother lay there, prone and weeping, he gave up his soul; instantly, a fury as great as a fire fell upon the devil, and it consumed him. Therefore my brothers let us learn from this incident of God's immeasurable compassion and philanthropy, what a kind God we have, and that we must never despair or not tend to our salvation.” —St. Amphilochios, On Masturbation and the Futility of Despair “Do not be surprised that you fall every day; do not give up, but stand your ground courageously. And assuredly, the angel who guards you will honor your patience. While a wound is still fresh and warm it is easy to heal, but old, neglected and festering ones are hard to cure, and require for their care much treatment, cutting, plastering and cauterization. Many from long neglect become incurable. But with God all things are possible.” —St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 5, Section 30 “The life of the righteous was radiant. How did it become radiant if it wasn’t by patience? Love patience, O monk, as the mother of courage.” —St. Ephrem the Syrian “Seek in everything the deep meaning. All the events that take place around us and with us have their meaning. Nothing happens without a cause…” —St. Nektary of Optina “…should we fall, we should not despair and so estrange ourselves from the Lord's love. For if He so chooses, He can deal mercifully with our weakness. Only we should not cut ourselves off from Him or feel oppressed when constrained by His commandments, nor should we lose heart when we fall short of our goal…let us always be ready to make a new start. If you fall, rise up. If you fall again, rise up again. Only do not abandon your Physician, lest you be condemned as worse than a suicide because of your despair. Wait on Him, and He will be merciful, either reforming you, or sending you trials, or through some other provision of which you are ignorant.” —St. Peter of Damascus “Faintness of heart is a sign of despondency, and negligence is the mother of both. A cowardly man shows that he suffers from two diseases: love of his flesh and lack of faith; for love of one's flesh is a sign of unbelief. But he who despises the love of the flesh proves that he believes in God with his whole heart and awaits the age to come … A courageous heart and scorn of perils comes from one of two causes: either from hardness of heart or from great faith in God. Pride accompanies hardness of heart, but humility accompanies faith. A man cannot acquire hope in God unless he first does His will with exactness. For hope in God and manliness of heart are born of the testimony of the conscience, and by the truthful testimony of the mind we possess confidence towards God.” —St. Isaac the Syrian, Homily 40 “Within the heart are unfathomable depths. The heart is a small vessel, and yet dragons and lions are there. And there also are poisonous creatures and all the treasures of wickedness; rough and uneven paths are there and gaping chasms. Likewise, God is there; there are angels, there is life and the Kingdom, there is light and the apostles and the heavenly cities and the treasures of grace. All things lie within that little space.” —St. Macarius the Great “Just as the Lord is solicitous about our salvation, so too the murder of men, the devil, strives to lead a man into despair. A lofty and sound soul does not despair over misfortunes, of whatever sort they may be. Our life is as it were a house of temptations and trials; but we will not renounce the Lord for as long as He allows the tempter to remain with us and for as long as we must wait to be revived through patience and secure passionless! Judas the betrayer was fainthearted and unskilled in battle, and so the enemy, seeing his despair, attacked him and forced him to hang himself, but Peter, a firm rock, when he fell into great sin, like one skilled in battle did not despair nor lose heart, but shed bitter tears from a burning heart, and the enemy, seeing these tears, his eyes scorched as by fire, fled far form him wailing in pain. And so brothers, St. Antioch teaches, when despair attacks us let us not yield to it, but being strengthened and protected by the light of faith, with great courage let us say to the evil spirit: ‘What are you to us, estranged from God, a fugitive from heaven and evil servant? You dare do nothing to us. Christ, the Son of God, has authority both over us and over everything. It is against Him that we have sinned, and before Him that we will be justified. And you, destroyer, leave us. Strengthen by His venerable Cross, we trample under foot your serpent's head’ (St. Antioch Discourse 27).” —St. Seraphim of Sarov, Little Russian Philokalia “I think it needs to be pointed out with utmost charity that the religion of compromise is self-deception and that there exist today only two absolutely irreconcilable alternatives for man: faith in the world and the religion of self, whose fruit is death; and the faith in Christ the Son of God, in Whom alone is eternal life.” —Fr. Seraphim Rose of Platina “Keep your mind in hell and do not despair.” —St. Silouan the Athonite “Stand at the brink of the abyss of despair, and when you see that you cannot bear it anymore, draw back a little, and have a cup of tea.” —Elder Sophrony of Essex “So in every test, let us say: "Thank you, my God, because this was needed for my salvation."” —Elder Paisios of Mt. Athos “Only the benumbed soul doesn't pray. Preserve in yourselves the feeling of need, and you will always have stimulation for prayer.” —St. Theophan the Recluse “Make sure that you do not limit your prayer merely to a particular part of the day. Turn to prayer at anytime.” —St John Chrysostom “The Lord knows that I love you all, but I cannot speak with God and people at the same time.” —St. Arsanius the Great “A Christian…is not his own master; he puts his time at God's disposal.” —St. Ignatius of Antioch “Do not seek the perfection of the Law in human virtues, for it is not found perfect in them. Its perfection is hidden in the Cross of Christ.” —St. Mark the Ascetic “The knowledge of the Cross is concealed in the sufferings of the Cross.” —St. Isaac the Syrian “It is impossible to believe that Christ is Risen, while we are afraid of death…” —St. Gregory Palamas “God had one son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering.” —St. Augustine of Hippo “Let us understand that God is a physician, and that suffering is a medicine for salvation, not a punishment for damnation.” —St. Augustine of Hippo “Nevertheless one who regards only the dissolution of the body is greatly disturbed, and makes it a hardship that this life of ours should be dissolved by death; it is, he says, the extremity of evil that our being should be quenched by this condition of mortality. Let him, then, observe through this gloomy prospect the excess of the Divine benevolence.”” —St. Gregory of Nyssa, The Great Catechism, §VIII “Man is, by nature, afraid of both death and the dissolution of the body; but there is this most startling fact: that he who has put on the faith of the Cross despises even what is naturally fearful, and for Christ's sake is not afraid even of death.” —St. Athanasius the Great “Let the crowds of wild beasts; let tearings, breakings, and dislocations of bones; let cutting off of members; let shatterings of the whole body; and let all the dreadful torments of the devil come upon me: only let me attain to Jesus Christ.” —St. Ignatius of Antioch “Everything will happen suddenly. It may even happen tonight. Maybe it has begun already? Today you are deprived of one thing, tomorrow of another. God is giving it to us a little at a time, and we stupid people don’t understand. I say this to you and I counsel you, even if the sky were to fall down, even if the earth would rise up, even if the whole world were destroyed, as it is due to do so, today, tomorrow, don’t be concerned with what God is going to do. Let them burn your body, let them fry it, let them take your possessions – don’t concern yourself. Give them away – they are not yours. You need your soul and Christ. Even if the whole world were to fall apart, no one can take these two things away from you against your will. Guard these two, and don’t loose them.” —St. Kosmas Aitolos “Certainly in times of tranquility the cross should give you joy. But maintain the same faith in times of persecution. Otherwise you will be a friend of Jesus in times of peace and his enemy during war.” —St. Cyril of Jerusalem “Only struggle a little more. Carry your cross without complaining. Don't think you are anything special. Don't justify your sins and weaknesses, but see yourself as you really are. And, especially, love one another.” —Fr. Seraphim Rose of Platina “Remember that each of us has his own cross. The Golgotha of this cross is our heart: it is being lifted or implanted through a zealous determination to live according to the Spirit of God. Just as salvation of the world is by the Cross of God, so our salvation is by our crucifixion on our own cross.” —St. Theophan the Recluse “Everyone carries their own cross, both Christians and non-Christians, believers and pagans. The difference is that for some, their crosses serve as a means of attaining the Kingdom of Heaven, while for the others they bring no such value. For the Christian, the cross gradually becomes lighter and more joyful, while for the nonbeliever it becomes heavier and more burdensome. Why is this so? Because where the one carries their cross with faith and devotion to God, the other carries it with grumbling and anger. Therefore, Christian, do not shun your lifelong cross, but, on the contrary, thank Jesus Christ that He honored you to follow and imitate Him.” —St. Innocent of Alaska, Indication Of The Way Into The Kingdom Of Heaven “Everyone has a cross to carry. Why? Since the leader of our faith endured the cross, we will also endure it. On one hand, the cross is sweet and light, but, on the other, it can also be bitter and heavy. It depends on our will. If you bear Christ’s cross with love then it will be very light; like a sponge or a cork. But if you have a negative attitude, it becomes heavy; too heavy to lift.” —Elder Ephraim of Katounakia, 20th Century staretz on Mt. Athos, Suffering; Trials “When you meet with suffering, contempt, the Cross, your thought should be: what is this compared with what I deserve?” —Josemaria Escriva “Many people, finding daily life unsatisfying, try to live in a fantasy world of their own. Underlying the whole of modern culture is the common denominator of the worship of oneself and one's own comfort, which is deadly to any idea of spiritual life.” —Fr. Seraphim Rose of Platina “Behold, for years and generations, the way of God has been leveled by the cross and by death. How is this with thee, that thou seest the afflictions of the way as if they were out of the way? Doest not thou wish to follow the steps of the saints? Or doest thou wish to go a way which is especially for thee, without suffering? The way unto God is a daily cross. No one can ascend unto heaven with comfort, we know where the way of comfort leads.” —St. Isaac the Syrian, Mystic Treatises, Homily LIX “I know of my spiritual poverty, my own nothingness without faith. I am so weak, that it is only by Christ's name that I live and obtain peace, that I rejoice and my heart expands, whilst without Him I am spiritually dead, I am troubled, and my heart is oppressed; without the Lord's Cross I should have been long since the victim of the most cruel distress and despair. Only Christ keeps me alive: and the Cross is my peace and my consolation.” —St. John of Kronstadt “Yesterday I was crucified with Him; today I am glorified with Him; yesterday I died with Him; today I am quickened with Him; yesterday I was buried with Him; today I rise with Him.” —St. Gregory the Theologian “Understand two thoughts, and fear them. One says, 'You are a saint,' the other, 'You won't be saved.' Both of these thoughts are from the enemy, and there is no truth in them. But think this way: I am a great sinner, but the Lord is merciful. He loves people very much, and He will forgive my sins. Believe in this way, and you will see, the Lord will forgive you. But put no faith in feats of your own, however much you may have striven… Thus God has mercy on us, not for our achievements but gracious, because of His goodness.” —St. Silouan the Athonite “He made Him who was righteous to be a sinner, that He might make sinners righteous.” —St. John Chrysostom “Love sinners, but hate their deeds, and do not disdain sinners for their failings, so that you yourself do not fall into the temptation in which they abide… Do not be angry at anyone and do not hate anyone, neither for their faith, nor for their shameful deeds… Do not foster hatred for the sinner, for we are all guilty… Hate his sins, and pray for him, so that you may be made like unto Christ, who had no dislike for sinners, but prayed for them.” —St. Isaac the Syrian, Ascetical Homilies 57,90 “Love every man in spite of his falling into sin. Never mind the sins, but remember that the foundation of the man is the same - the image of God.” —St. John of Kronstadt “Never confuse the person, formed in the image of God, with the evil that is in him: because evil is but a chance misfortune, an illness, a devilish reverie. But the very essence of the person is the image of God, and this remains in him despite every disfigurement.” —St. John of Kronstadt “Firmly purpose in your soul to hate every sin of thought, word, and deed, and when you are tempted to sin resist it valiantly and with a feeling of hatred for it; only beware lest your hatred should turn against the person of your brother who gave occasion for the sin. Hate the sin with all your heart, but pity your brother; instruct him, and pray for him to the Almighty, Who sees all of us and tries our hearts and innermost parts.” —St. John of Kronstadt “For this reason, the man who lives by God's standards and not by man's, must needs be a lover of the good, and it follows that he must hate what is evil. Further, since no one is evil by nature, but anyone who is evil is evil because of a perversion of nature, the man who lives by God's standards has a duty of ‘perfect hatred’ (Psalm 139:22) towards those who are evil; that is to say, he should not hate the person because of the fault, nor should he love the fault because of the person. He should hate the fault, but love the man. And when the fault has been cured there will remain only what he ought to love, nothing that he should hate.” —St. Augustine of Hippo, The City of God, 14:6, Penguin ed., transl. Bettenson “As Jesus Christ is my Witness, I profess that I hate heresy, not the heretic; but as is proper, for the present I shun the heretics because of the heresy, since I have both convicted and rebuked him. Let him renounce his heresy and condemn it by word as well as by deed, and he will cling to all men by the bond of brotherhood, because it is written, ‘Bear ye one another's burden and so fulfill the law of Christ’ (Gal. 6:2).” —Orosius of Braga, Book in Defense Against the Pelagians “Our life and our death is with our neighbor. If we gain our brother, we have gained God, but if we scandalize our brother, we have sinned against Christ. This is the great work of a man: always to take the blame for his own sins before God and to expect temptation to his last breath.” —St. Anthony the Great “Unless we look at a person and see the beauty there is in this person, we can contribute nothing to him. One does not help a person by discerning what is wrong, what is ugly, what is distorted. Christ looked at everyone he met, at the prostitute, at the thief, and saw the beauty hidden there. Perhaps it was distorted, perhaps damaged, but it was beauty none the less, and what he did was to call out this beauty.” —Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh “He who busies himself with the sins of others, or judges his brother on suspicion, has not yet even begun to repent or to examine himself so as to discover his own sins.” —St. Maximus the Confessor “As long as we pay attention to the negative sides of various people we meet, we will not find peace and repentance. As long as we keep in ourselves the thought of offense, caused to us by enemies, friends, family and neighbours, we will not find peace and quiet and we will live in a hellish state.” —Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica “If you are offended by anything, whether intended or unintended, you do not know the way of peace, which through love brings the lovers of divine knowledge to the knowledge of God.” —St. Maximus the Confessor “Especially, do not be disturbed by blasphemous thoughts, which clearly come from the envy of the Enemy. They occur in a person either because of proud self-opinion or the condemnation of others.” —St. Ambrose of Optina “In hell there is democracy and in Heaven there is a Kingdom.” —St. John of Kronstadt “We shall not care what people think of us, or how they treat us. We shall cease to be afraid of falling out of favour. We shall love our fellow men without thought of whether they love us. Christ gave us the commandment to love others but did not make it a condition of salvation that they should love us. Indeed, we may positively be disliked for independence of spirit. It is essential in these days to be able to protect ourselves from the influence of those with whom we come in contact. Otherwise we risk losing both faith and prayer. Let the whole world dismiss us as unworthy of attention, trust or respect – it will not matter provided that the Lord accept us. And vice versa: it will profit us nothing if the whole world thinks well of us and sings our praises, if the Lord declines to abide with us. This is only a fragment of the freedom Christ meant when He said, ‘Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free’ (John 8.32). Our sole care will be to continue in the word of Christ, to become His disciples and cease to be servants of sin.” —Archimandrite Sophrony of Essex, His Life is Mine, Chapter 6; pg. 55 “The Church is a hospital, and not a courtroom, for souls. She does not condemn on behalf of sins, but grants remission of sins. Nothing is so joyous in our life as the thanksgiving that we experience in the Church. In the Church, the joyful sustain their joy. In the Church, those worried acquire merriment, and those saddened, joy. In the Church, the troubled find relief, and the heavy-laden, rest. ‘Come,’ says the Lord, ‘near me, all of you who labor and are heavy-laden (with trials and sins), and I will give you rest’ (Matthew 11:28). What could be more desirable than to meet this voice? What is sweeter than this invitation? The Lord is calling you to the Church for a rich banquet. He transfers you from struggles to rest, and from tortures to relief. He relieves you from the burden of your sins. He heals worries with thanksgiving, and sadness with joy. No one is truly free or joyful besides he who lives for Christ. Such a person overcomes all evil and does not fear anything!” —St. John Chrysostom, Homily XV, II Cor. VII VIII, paragraph 6, Themes of Life II, Life Issues II, Holy Monastery of the Paraclete “The goal of human freedom is not in freedom itself, nor is it in man, but in God. By giving man freedom God has yielded to man a piece of His divine authority, but with the intention that man himself would voluntarily bring it as a sacrifice to God, as a most perfect offering.” —St. Theophan the Recluse, The Path to Salvation “When you are depressed, bear in mind the Lord’s command to Peter to forgive a sinner seventy times seven. And you may be sure that He Who gave this command to another will Himself do very much more.” —St. John Climacus “A person who suffers bitterly when slighted or insulted should recognize from this that he still harbours the ancient serpent in his breast. If he quietly endures the insult or responds with great humility, he weakens the serpent and lessens its hold. But if he replies acrimoniously or brazenly, he gives it strength to pour its venom into his heart and to feed mercilessly on his guts. In this way the serpent becomes increasingly powerful; it destroys his soul's strength and his attempts to set himself right, compelling him to live for sin and to be completely dead to righteousness.” —St. Symeon the New Theologian “The time of this present life is a time for harvesting, and each person gathers spiritual food - as pure as possible - and stores it up for the other life. It is not the clever, the noble, the polished speakers, or the rich who win, but whoever is insulted and forbears, whoever is wronged and forgives, whoever is slandered and endures, whoever becomes a sponge and mops up whatever they might say to him. Such a person is cleansed and polished even more. He reaches great heights. He delights in the theoria of mysteries. And finally, it is he who is already inside paradise, while still in this life.” —Elder Joseph the Hesychast and Cave-dweller “When you are ready to stand in the presence of the Lord, let your soul wear a garment woven from the cloth of your forgiveness of others. Otherwise, your prayer will be of no value whatsoever.” —St. John Climacus “Forgiveness is better than revenge.” —St. Tikhon of Zadonsk “When God forgave you, it means He forgave you for eternity.” —Elder Arsenie (Papacioc) of Romania “Love alone harmoniously joins all created things with God and with each other.” —St. Thalassios the Libyan “A monk is he who withdrawing from all men, is united with all mankind. … A monk is he who regards himself as existing with all men and sees himself in each man.” —St. Nilus of Sinai “Love towards Christ is without limits, and the same is true of love towards our neighbour. It should radiate everywhere, to the ends of the earth, to every person. I wanted to go and live with the hippies at …… in order to show them the love of Christ and how great it is and how it could transfigure them. Love is above everything.” —Wounded by Love, Elder Porphyrios, pg 188 “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” —Genesis 1:27 “For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” —Genesis 3:5 “And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.” —2 Corinthians 11:14 “You shall not murder.” —Exodus 20:13 “Cursed is the one who takes a bribe to slay an innocent person.” —Deuteronomy 27:25 “He shall judge between the nations,And rebuke many people;They shall beat their swords into plowshares,And their spears into pruning hooks;Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,Neither shall they learn war anymore.” —Isaiah 2:4 “But Jesus said to him, ‘Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.’” —Matthew 26:52 “You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’” —Luke 18:20 “So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, ‘He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.’” —John 8:7 “Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” —1 John 3:15 “And the second commandment of the Teaching; Thou shalt not commit murder, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not commit paederasty, thou shalt not commit fornication, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not practise magic, thou shalt not practise witchcraft, thou shalt not murder a child by abortion nor kill that which is begotten.” —Didache 2:2 “You shall not take the life of the child by obtaining an abortion. Nor, again, shall you destroy him after he is born.” —St. Barnabas, Epistle of St. Barnabas “The mold in the womb may not be destroyed.” —Tertullian “There is no question about that which is bred in the uterus, both growing, and moving from place to place. It remains, therefore, that we must think that the point of commencement of existence is one and the same for body and soul.” —St. Gregory of Nyssa “We acknowledge, therefore, that life begins with conception, because we contend that the soul begins at conception. Life begins when the soul begins. For us, we may not destroy even the fetus in the womb, while as yet the human being derives blood from other parts of the body for its sustenance. To hinder a birth is merely a speedier man-killing; nor does it matter when you take away a life that is born, or destroy one that is coming to birth. That is a man which is going to be one: you have the fruit already in the seed.” —Tertullian, Apology 9:6 “Now the entire process of sowing, forming, and completing the human embryo in the womb is no doubt regulated by some power, which ministers herein to the will of God, whatever may be the method which it is appointed to employ. Even the superstition of Rome, by carefully attending to these points, imagined the goddess Alemona to nourish the foetus in the womb; as well as [the goddesses] Nona and Decima, called after the most critical months of gestation; and Partula, to manage and direct parturition; and Lucina, to bring the child to the birth and light of day. We, on our part, believe the angels to officiate herein for God. The embryo therefore becomes a human being in the womb from the moment that its form is completed (conception). The law of Moses, indeed, punishes with due penalties the man who shall cause abortion, inasmuch as there exists already the rudiment of a human being, which has imputed to it even now the condition of life and death, since it is already liable to the issues of both, although, by living still in the mother, it for the most part shares its own state with the mother.” —Tertullian, Treatise on the Soul, Ch. XXXVII, On the Formation and State of the Embryo, Its Relation with the Subject of this Treatise “The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church.” —Tertullian “…if we would not kill off the human race born and developing according to God's plan, then our whole lives would be lived according to nature. Women who make use of some sort of deadly abortion drug kill not only the embryo but, together with it, all human kindness.” —St. Clement of Alexandria, Christ the Educator, Volume II, page 10 “Those who use abortifacients commit homicide.” —St. Clement of Alexandria “The woman who aborts her child to hide her immorality, aborts at the same time her own humanity.” —St. Clement of Alexandria “Women who were reputed believers began to resort to drugs for producing sterility. They also girded themselves around, so as to expel what was being gestated. For they did not wish to have a child by either slave or by any common fellow - out of concern for their family and their excessive wealth. See what a great impiety the lawless one has advanced! He teaches adultery and murder at the same time!” —St. Hipploytus, Refutation Of All Heresies “He [Novatian] struck the womb of his wife with his heel and produced a hurried an abortion, thereby causing parricide.” —St. Cyprian of Carthage, Epistle 52 To Cornelius “The wealthy, in order that their inheritance may not be divided among several, deny in the very womb their own progeny. By use of' parricidal mixtures they snuff out the fruit of their wombs in the genital organs themselves. In this way life is taken away before it is born… Who except man himself has taught us ways of repudiating children?” —St. Ambrose of Milan “Sometimes their sadistic licentiousness goes so far that they procure poison to produce infertility, and when this is of no avail, they find one means or another to destroy the unborn and flush it from the mother's womb. For they desire to see their offspring perish before it is alive or, if it has already been granted life, they seek to kill it within the mother's body before it is born.” —St. Augustine of Hippo, The City of God, Book One, Ch. 16 “A woman who has deliberately destroyed a fetus must pay the penalty for murder… those also who give drugs causing abortions are murderers themselves, as well as those who receive the poison which kills the fetus.” —St. Basil the Great, First Canonical Letter, 188:2 and 188:8 “Women also who administer drugs to cause abortion, as well as those who take poisons to destroy unborn children, are murderesses.” —St. Basil the Great, Letter CLXXXVIII: Canonica Prima, to Amphilochius, concerning the Canons, VII “The woman who purposely destroys her unborn child is guilty of murder. The hair-splitting difference between formed and unformed makes no difference to us.” —St. Basil the Great “Why do you sow where the field is eager to destroy the fruit? Where there are medicines of sterility? Where there is murder before birth? You do not even let a harlot remain only a harlot, but you make her a murderess as well. Indeed, it is something worse than murder and I do not know what to call it; for she does not kill what is formed but prevents its formation. What then? Do you condemn the gifts of God, and fight with His laws? What is a curse you seek as though it were a blessing. Do you make the anteroom of slaughter? Do you teach the women who are given to you for a procreation of offspring to perpetuate killing? Yet such turpitude … the matter still seems indifferent to many men–even to many men having wives. In this indifference of the married men there is greater evil filth; for then poisons are prepared, not against the womb of a prostitute, but against your injured wife. Against her are these innumerable tricks…” —St. John Chrysostom, Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, XXIV “Some virgins [unmarried women] go so far as to take potions, that they may insure barrenness, and thus murder human beings almost before their conception. Some, when they find themselves with child through their sin, use drugs to procure abortion, and when (as often happens) they die with their offspring, they enter the lower world laden with the guilt not only of adultery against Christ but also of suicide and child murder.” —St. Jerome, Letter to Eustochium, 22:13 “The rich women, to avoid dividing the inheritance among many, kill their own unborn in the womb and with lethal extracts terminate their own offspring while yet in the womb.” —St. Ambrose, On the Hexaemeron “For every argument there is a counter-argument, but who can argue against life?” —St. Gregory Palamas, Triads in Defence of the Holy Hesychasts “If you can't feed a hundred people, feed just one.”“I prefer you to make mistakes in kindness than work miracles in unkindness.”“People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway. If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.”“If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway.”“It is a poverty that a child must die, so that you may live as you wish.”“How can you say there are too many children? That is like saying there are too many flowers.”“The greatest destroyer of peace is abortion because if a mother can kill her own child, what is left for me to kill you and you to kill me? There is nothing between.”“Any Country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what it wants.”“We can do no great things, only small things with great love.”“Do not look for big things, just do small things with great love… The smaller the thing the greater must be our love. “God did not call us to be successful, but to be faithful.”“Go out into the world today and love the people you meet. Let your presence light new light in the hearts of people.”“There are no great things, only small things with great love. Happy are those.”“Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.”“Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.”—Teresa of Calcutta “No one heals himself by wounding another.” —St. Ambrose of Milan “Abortion is the anti-Christ's demonic parody of the Eucharist. That's why it uses the same holy words ‘This is my body’ with the blasphemous opposite meaning.” —Dr. Peter Kreeft “An Irish pro-abortion leader described their vote as a decision to enter the ‘modern’ world. That was extremely well-said. Modernity suggests to us that we are the masters of history, the arbiters of life and death. Our compassion for the suffering is always expressed, ultimately, in our willingness to kill them, without remorse. For many, abortion has become the sacrament of modernity, in which we learn to say in blasphemous irony: ‘This is my body.’” —Fr. Stephen Freeman “Each child with special needs such as this does not come into the world in order to make our lives difficult and make us suffer. They each come into this world for a reason and have their secret inner voice. It remains to us to offer love; to ‘bear one another's burdens’; to experience a collective humbling – to realize, that is, that we are not as powerful and important as we think; and to try to lighten that person's burden and understand their language… These children are better at speaking the language of God.” —Metropolitan Nikolaos of Mesogaia and Labreotiki, When God is Not There, pg. 48 “O God, grant us a deeper sense of fellowship with all living things, our little brothers and sisters to whom in common with us you have given this earth as home. We recall with regret that in the past we have acted high-handedly and cruelly in exercising our domain over them. Thus, the voice of the earth which should have risen to you in song has turned into a groan of travail. May we realize that all these creatures also live for themselves and for you - not for us alone. They too love the goodness of life, as we do, and serve you better in their way than we do in ours. Amen.” —St. Basil the Great “We follow the ways of wolves, the habits of tigers: or, rather we are worse than they. To them nature has assigned that they should be thus fed, while God has honoured us with rational speech and a sense of equity. And yet we are become worse than the wild beast.” —St. John Chrysostom “Drink water from the spring where horses drink. The horse will never drink bad water. Lay your bed where the cat sleeps. Eat the fruit that has been touched by a worm. Boldly pick the mushroom on which the insects sit. Plant the tree where the mole digs. Build your house where the snake sits to warm itself. Dig your fountain where the birds hide from the heat. Go to sleep and wake up at the same time with the birds – you will reap all of the days' golden grains. Eat more green – you will have strong legs and a resistant heart, like the beings of the forest. Swim often and you will feel on earth like the fish in the water. Look at the sky as often as possible and your thoughts will become light and clear. Be quiet a lot, speak little – and silence will come in your heart, and your spirit will be calm and full of peace.” —St. Seraphim of Sarov (Nature is talking to you, are you listening?) “Nothing is without order and purpose in the animal kingdom; each animal bears the wisdom of the Creator and testifies of Him. God granted man and animals many natural attributes, such as compassion, love, feelings… for even animals bewail the loss of one of their own.” —St. John Climacus “…surely we ought to show kindness and gentleness to animals for many reasons, and chiefly because they are of the same origin as ourselves.” —St. John Chrysostom “Concepts create idols; only wonder comprehends anything. People kill one another over idols. Wonder makes us fall to our knees.” —St. Gregory of Nyssa “Why not learn to enjoy the little things! There are so many of them.” —St. John Chrysostom “The unspeakable and prodigious fire hidden in the essence of things, as in the bush, is the fire of divine love and the dazzling brilliance of His beauty inside every thing.” —St. Maximus the Confessor “Blessed the one who observes with spiritual understanding the choirs of stars shining with glory and the beauty of the heavens and longs to contemplate the Maker of all things.” —St. Ephrem the Syrian “Look at the world around you. It supplies all your bodily needs. It feasts your eyes with its beauty. And its glory reflects the glory of God, so it feasts your soul also. Look at the plants and the trees. Can you count all the different species? Can you describe all the different shapes of the leaves, the color and fragrances of the flowers? Look, too, at the animals and the insects. Are you not enthralled by their different sizes and shapes, by the different colors and textures of their skin and fur, by the different ways in which they move about and gather food? And the wonder why God has created all this. Has he created the marvelous universe just to supply our needs and to feast our eyes and souls? or is there some other purpose in it all? The answer is that he has created all things--for their own sake. Each creature has its own purpose and destiny, which God in his infinite wisdom and love has planned. Do not try to understand God's plans; the human mind is hardly better than that of an ant in discerning the ways of God. Simply accept all his plans and rejoice in them.” —St. John Chrysostom, On Living Simply, pg 54 “For as long as you are on earth, consider yourself a guest in the Household of Christ. If you are at the table, it is He who treats you. If you breathe air, it is His air you breathe. If you bathe, it is in His water you are bathing. If you are traveling, it is over His land that you are traveling. If you are amassing goods, it is His goods you are amassing. If you are squandering, it is His goods that you are squandering. If you are powerful, it is by His permission that you are strong. If you are in the company of men, you and the others are His guests. If you are out in nature, you are in His garden. If you are alone, He is present.” —St. Nikolai Velimirovich “Some people see the houses in which they live as their kingdom; and although in their minds they know that death will one day force them to leave, in their hearts they feel they will stay forever. They take pride in the size of their houses and the fine material with which they are built. They take pleasure in decorating their houses with bright colors, and in obtaining the best and most solid furniture to fill the rooms. They imagine that they can find peace and security by owning a house whose walls and roof will last for many generations. We, by contrast, know that we are only temporary guests on earth. We recognize that the houses in which we live serve only as hostels on the road to eternal life. We do not seek peace or security from the material walls around us or the roof above our heads. Rather we want to surround ourselves with a wall of divine grace; and we look upward to heaven as our roof. And the furniture of our lives should be good works, performed in a spirit of love.” —St. John Chrysostom, On Living Simply, pg 11 “What hinders you from fulfilling Christ’s commandments? The flesh and the world: that is, pleasant food and drink which men like, in which they delight both in thought and in fact, which make the heart gross and hard—a partiality for elegant dress and adornment, or for distinctions and rewards; if the dress or adornments are made of very beautiful coloured and delicate materials, then care and anxiety arise how to avoid staining or soiling them, or getting them dusty or wet, whilst care and anxiety how to please God in thought, word, and deed vanish and the heart lives for dress and adornment, and becomes entirely engrossed in these things, ceasing to care about God and being united to Him; if such is the case with a priest, then he neglects praying for his people, and becomes not soul-loving, but money-loving and ambitious, seeking not the men themselves, but that which appertains to them, that is, money, food, drink, their favour, their good opinion and good word, and flattering them. Therefore fight against every worldly enticement, against every material enticement that hinders you from fulfilling Christ’s commandments, love God with all your heart, and care with all your strength for the salvation of your own soul, and the souls of others, be soul-loving.” —St. John of Kronstadt “Let us be satisfied simply with what sustains our present life, not with what pampers it. Let us pray to God for this, as we have been taught, so that we may keep our souls unenslaved and absolutely free from domination by any of the visible things loved for the sake of the body. Let us show that we eat for the sake of living, and not be guilty of living for the sake of eating. The first is a sign of intelligence, the second proof of its absence.” —St. Maximus the Confessor “[R]eal Orthodox can never be chauvinists. I recall once, in a conversation with me in 1926, the blessedly reposed metropolitan [A. Khrapovitsky] related to me the following: "On Athos there is a custom that a monk who does not forgive offences is punished by being made to omit the words ‘and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors,’ at the reading of the Lord’s Prayer, until such a time when he has forgiven the offence committed against him. And I myself have suggested," added the great saint, "that the chauvinist-nationalists not read the ninth article of the Symbol of Faith." If we were to crystallize this principle of Vladyka, it would read as follows: the Russian, Serbian, and Bulgarian nations can be great only if the goal of their existence be the collective realization of the commandments of the Gospel. Otherwise, "Serbianism", "Russianism", and "Bulgarianism", are reduced to senseless and pernicious chauvinism. If "Serbianism" flourishes not by the power of evangelical podvigs and not to Orthodox catholicity, then it will choke in its own egoistic chauvinism. What is profitable for Serbdom is profitable for other nationalities as well. Nations pass, the Gospel is eternal. Only in so far as a nation is filled with the eternal evangelical truth and righteousness, does it exist, and itself becomes and remains eternal. Only such patriotism can be justified from an evangelical point of view. This is the patriotism of the holy apostles, the holy martyrs, the holy fathers. When the emperor-tormentor asked the holy martyrs Acindynus, Pegasius, and Anempodistus where they were from, they answered: "Are you asking us, O Emperor, about our homeland? Our homeland and our life is the most holy, consubstantial and undivided Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the one God." (On Met. Anthony Khrapovitsky) The blessed Metropolitan Anthony is the most gifted contemporary representative of Russian Orthodox nationalism, a nationalism consecrated and enlightened by Christ; a nationalism by which all men are brothers in Christ; a nationalism by which the mighty must serve the weak, the wise the unwise, the humble the proud, the first the last. Growing out of patristic Orthodox universal patriotism, the blessed Vladyka can only be appreciated from the same apostolic patristic perspective. We can apply to him what St. Gregory of Nyssa said about his own brother, St. Basil, after his death: "Wherein lies Basil's noble origin? Where is his homeland? His origin is his affinity to divinity, and his homeland is virtue."” —St. Justin Popovich “Worldly glory does not lead God's children to heaven.” —St. Raphael, the Newly-revealed Martyr of Lesvos “Satan has no need to tempt those who tempt themselves, and are continually dragged down by worldly affairs.” —St. John of Karpathos “The devil does not hunt after those who are lost; he hunts after those who are aware, those who are close to God. He takes from them trust in God and begins to afflict them with self-assurance, logic, thinking, criticism. Therefore we should not trust our logical minds.” —Elder Paisios of Mt. Athos “Christ is the only exit from this world; all other exits – sexual rapture, political utopia, economic independence – are but blind alleys in which rot the corpses of the many that have tried them.” —Fr. Seraphim Rose of Platina “Only He is worth struggling towards. We have a choice: to follow the way of this world, of the society that surrounds us, and thereby find ourselves outside of God; or to choose the way of life, to choose God Who calls us and for Whom our heart is searching.” —Fr. Seraphim Rose of Platina “Let the hearing of worldly tales be to you as a bitter taste in your mouth, but the discourse of holy men as a honeycomb.” —St. Basil the Great “All the things of this world are no more than earth. Place them in a heap under your feet and you will be so much nearer to heaven.” —Josemaria Escriva “A man who has dedicated himself once and for all to God goes through life with a restful mind.” —St. Isaac the Syrian “Do you seek any further reward beyond that of having pleased God? In truth, you know not how great a good it is to please Him.” —St. John Chrysostom “Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.” —St. Augustine “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” —Matthew 22:37-40 “And Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!"” —John 20:28 “For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.” —John 5:22-23 “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you…” —Matthew 5:44 “The fool has said in his heart,‘There is no God.’They are corrupt,They have done abominable works,There is none who does good.” —Psalm 14:1 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart,And lean not on your own understanding;” —Proverbs 3:5 “Hatred stirs up strife,But love covers all sins.” —Proverbs 10:12 “When pride comes, then comes shame;But with the humble is wisdom.” —Proverbs 11:2 “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes,But he who heeds counsel is wise.” —Proverbs 12:15 “There is a way that seems right to a man,But its end is the way of death.” —Proverbs 14:12 “Pride goes before destruction,And a haughty spirit before a fall.” —Proverbs 16:18 “Let another man praise you, and not your own mouth;A stranger, and not your own lips.” —Proverbs 27:2 “Open rebuke is betterThan love carefully concealed. Faithful are the wounds of a friend,But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.” —Proverbs 27:5-6 “If a wise man contends with a foolish man,Whether the fool rages or laughs, there is no peace.” —Proverbs 29:9 “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. … I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and indeed, all is vanity and grasping for the wind.” —Ecclesiastes 1:2,14 “For in much wisdom is much grief,And he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.” —Ecclesiastes 1:18
“All “The work of righteousness will be peace,And the things effect of this world are no more than earth. Place them in a heap under your feet righteousness, quietness and you will be so much nearer to heavenassurance forever.” —St. Josemaria Escriva—Isaiah 32:17
“A man who has dedicated himself once and for all to God goes through life with a restful mind“Children’s children are the crown of old men,And the glory of children is their father.” —St. Isaac the Syrian—Proverbs 17:6
“Do you seek any further reward beyond that of having pleased God? In truth, you know not how great a good it is to please Him“The righteous man walks in his integrity;His children are blessed after him.” —St. John Chrysostom—Proverbs 20:7
“Faith is to believe what you do not see; “The father of the reward of this faith is to see what you believerighteous will greatly rejoice,And he who begets a wise child will delight in him.” —St. Augustine—Proverbs 23:24
“‘You shall love “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soulThe fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, and with all your mindSo are the children of one’s youth.’ This Happy is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You man who has his quiver full of them;They shall not be ashamed,But shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and speak with their enemies in the Prophetsgate.” —Matthew 22—Psalm 127:373-405
“And Thomas answered “The sons of wisdom are the church of the just: and said to Himtheir generation, "My Lord obedience and my God!"” —John 20:28love.
“For Children, hear the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Sonof your father, and so do that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Himyou may be saved.” —John 5:22-23
“But I say For God hath made the father honourable to youthe children: and seeking the judgment of the mothers, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you…” —Matthew 5:44hath confirmed it upon the children.
“The fool has said in He that loves God, shall obtain pardon for his heartsins by prayer,‘There is no God.’They are corruptand shall refrain himself from them,They have done abominable works,There is none who does goodand shall be heard in the prayer of days.” —Psalm 14:1
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart,And lean not on your own understanding;” —Proverbs 3:5he that honours his mother is as one that lays up a treasure.
“Hatred stirs up strifeHe that honours his father shall have joy in his own children,But love covers all sinsand in the day of his prayer he shall be heard.” —Proverbs 10:12
“When pride comesHe that honours his father shall enjoy a long life: and he that obeys the father, then comes shame;But with the humble is wisdomshall be a comfort to his mother.” —Proverbs 11:2
“The way of a fool is right in He that fears the Lord, honours his own eyesparents,But he who heeds counsel is wiseand will serve them as his masters that brought him into the world.” —Proverbs 12—Sirach 3:151-8
“There is a way that seems right to a man“But Jesus said,But its end is ‘Let the way of death.” —Proverbs 14:12 “Pride goes before destruction,And a haughty spirit before a fall.” —Proverbs 16:18 “Let another man praise youlittle children come to Me, and do not your own mouthforbid them;A stranger, and not your own lips.” —Proverbs 27:2 “Open rebuke for of such is betterThan love carefully concealed. Faithful are the wounds of a friend,But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.” —Proverbs 27:5-6 “If a wise man contends with a foolish man,Whether the fool rages or laughs, there is no peace.” —Proverbs 29:9 “Vanity kingdom of vanities, all is vanity. … I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and indeed, all is vanity and grasping for the windheaven.” Ecclesiastes 1’” —Matthew 19:2,14 “For in much wisdom is much grief,And he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.” —Ecclesiastes 1:18 “The work of righteousness will be peace,And the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever.” —Isaiah 32:17
“Reflect on the statutes of the Lord,
“For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. For 'He has put all things under His feet.' But when He says 'all things are put under Him,' it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.” —1 Corinthians 15:25-28
“To have faith in Christ means more than simply despising the delights of this life. It means we should bear all our daily trials that may bring us sorrow, distress, or unhappiness, and bear them patiently for as long as God wishes and until He comes to visit us. For it is said, ‘I waited on the Lord and He came to me.’” —St. Symeon the New Theologian
“Anyone who truly wants to follow God must be free from the bonds of attachment to this life. To do this we must make a complete break with our old way of life. Indeed, unless we avoid all obsession with the body and with the concerns of this world, we shall never succeed in pleasing God. We must depart as it were to another world in our way of thinking, as the Apostle said: ‘Our citizenship is in heaven’.” —St. Basil the Great, Gateway to Paradise
“For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.” —Philippians 3:20-21
“When someone opens your heart, I'd like him to find nothing there but Christ.” —Elder Amphilochios of Patmos
“Think nothing and do nothing without a purpose directed to God. For to journey without direction is wasted effort.” —St. Mark the Ascetic
“To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek Him, the greatest adventure; to find Him, the greatest achievement.” —St. Augustine
“The end of each discovery becomes the starting point for the discovery of something higher, and the ascent continues. Thus our ascent is unending. We go from beginning to beginning by way of beginnings without end.” —St. Gregory of Nyssa
“He who forsakes all worldly desires sets himself above all worldly distress.” —St. Maximus the Confessor
“He is with me, He who left the world behind. He is present in me, He who left His nature. He dwells in me, He who denied Himself. He is wholly for me, He who lost His life for me.” —St. Ambrose of Milan
“Brethren, He is near each one of us, even if unseen. That is why He said to the apostles when He ascended, ‘Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world’ (Matt 28:20). Every day we should stand in awe of Him, as He is with us, and do what is pleasing before Him. If we are unable now to perceive Him with our physical eyes, we can, if we are watchful, see Him continuously with the eyes of our understanding, and not just see Him, but reap great benefits from Him. This vision destroys all sin, demolishes all evil, and drives away everything bad. It yields every virtue, gives birth to purity and dispassion, and bestows eternal life and the kingdom without end. As we attend to this joyful sight, gazing with our mind's eye on Christ as though He were present, each of us will say with David, ‘Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident’ (Ps. 27:3).” —St. Gregory of Palamas, Homily 23, The Appearance of Jesus
“Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.
Enemies have driven me into your embrace more than friends have.
Friends have bound me to earth, enemies have loosed me from earth and have demolished all my aspirations in the world.
Enemies have made me a stranger in worldly realms and an extraneous inhabitant of the world. Just as a hunted animal finds safer shelter than an unhunted animal does, so have I, persecuted by enemies, found the safest sanctuary, having ensconced myself beneath your tabernacle, where neither friends nor enemies can slay my soul.
Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.
They, rather than I, have confessed my sins before the world.
They have punished me, whenever I have hesitated to punish myself.
They have tormented me, whenever I have tried to flee torments.
They have scolded me, whenever I have flattered myself.
They have spat upon me, whenever I have filled myself with arrogance.
Bless my enemies, O Lord, Even I bless them and do not curse them.
Whenever I have made myself wise, they have called me foolish.
Whenever I have made myself mighty, they have mocked me as though I were a dwarf.
Whenever I have wanted to lead people, they have shoved me into the background.
Whenever I have rushed to enrich myself, they have prevented me with an iron hand.
Whenever I thought that I would sleep peacefully, they have wakened me from sleep.
Whenever I have tried to build a home for a long and tranquil life, they have demolished it and driven me out.
Truly, enemies have cut me loose from the world and have stretched out my hands to the hem of your garment.
Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.
Bless them and multiply them; multiply them and make them even more bitterly against me:
so that my fleeing to You may have no return;
so that all hope in men may be scattered like cobwebs;
so that absolute serenity may begin to reign in my soul;
so that my heart may become the grave of my two evil twins, arrogance and anger;
so that I might amass all my treasure in heaven;
ah, so that I may for once be freed from self-deception, which has entangled me in the dreadful web of illusory life.
Enemies have taught me to know what hardly anyone knows, that a person has no enemies in the world except himself.
One hates his enemies only when he fails to realize that they are not enemies, but cruel friends.
It is truly difficult for me to say who has done me more good and who has done me more evil in the world: friends or enemies.
Therefore bless, O Lord, both my friends and enemies.
A slave curses enemies, for he does not understand. But a son blesses them, for he understands.
For a son knows that his enemies cannot touch his life.
Therefore he freely steps among them and prays to God for them.” —St. Nikolai Velimirovich, Prayers by the Lake
“O Lord,
Grant me to greet the coming day in peace.
Help me in all things
to rely upon Thy Holy Will.
In every hour of the day,
reveal Thy will to me.
Bless my dealings with all who surround me.
Teach me to treat all that comes to me
throughout the day with peace of soul,
and with firm conviction
that Thy will governs all.
In all my deeds and words,
guide my thoughts and feelings.
In unforeseen events, let me not forget
that all are sent by Thee.
Teach me to act firmly and wisely,
without embittering and embarrassing others.
Give me strength to bear the fatigue
of the coming day with all that it shall bring.
Direct my will.
Teach me to pray.
Pray Thou Thyself in me.
Amen.” —St. Philaret (Drozdov), Metropolitan of Moscow, The Morning Prayer of Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow
“In that anxious and dreadful hour when the heavenly powers are roused, when all the angels, archangels, seraphim and cherubim will stand with fear and trembling before Thy glory, when the foundations of the earth will be shaken, and when all that breathes will be terrified by the incomparable greatness of Thy glory – in that hour mayest Thou take me under Thy wing and may my soul be delivered from the terrible fire and from the gnashing of teeth, from outer darkness and eternal lamentation, that I may bless Thee and say: Glory to Him Who has desired to save a sinner according to the great compassion of His mercy!” —St. Ephrem the Syrian
“If there is any rest for us in this world, then it consists only in purity of the conscience and patience. This is a harbor for us who sail upon the sea of life…” —St. Tikhon of Zadonsk
“There are far, far better things ahead than anything we leave behind.” —C. S. Lewis
“God and our conscience know our secrets. Let them correct us.” —St. Mark the Ascetic
“The face is the mirror of the mind, and eyes without speaking confess the secrets of the heart.” —St. Jerome
“What, then, is greater than that the Father of the only-begotten Son Himself recognizes in us His members and finds the very form of the Son in our faces?” —St. Nicholas Cabasilas
“This, then, is the way in which we interpret the Eighth Day…namely that when the time that is measured in weeks comes to an end, an Eight Day will come into being…It will remain one day continually, never to be divided by the darkness of night. Another Sun will bring it into being, radiating the true light; embracing all things in it's luminous power, it will produce light continually and will make those who share in that Light into other suns.” —St. Gregory of Nyssa, Commentary on the Psalms
“The Son of God became man, that we might become god.” —St. Athanasius of Alexandria
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” —Philippians 4:13
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” —Romans 8:28
“With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” —Matthew 19:26
“«δόξα τῷ θεῷ πάντων ἕνεκεν» (Glory be to God for all things!)” —St. John Chrysostom, the last words of
