God listens, not to our voice, but to our heart. He does not need to be prodded with shouts, since He sees our thoughts, as the Lord proved when He asked, ‘Why do you think evil in your hearts?’ And elsewhere He stated: ‘All the churches shall know that I am He Who searches minds and hearts.’
- Saint Cyprian of Carthage
…I cannot ignore the direction the Holy Spirit has taken me in and I cannot ignore the voice of God when He calls to me and leads me. He has led me to the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, the very Church that Christ founded that has remained unchanged in faith since the days of Christ otherwise known as the Orthodox Church. Despite being a happy Anglican I never felt like I quite fitted in and I didn’t know why until I found Orthodoxy and now I know why; tomorrow (Sunday) morning I will make the biggest step of my life so far and become a member of the Orthodox Church through Chrismation and I know that this is what God wants me to do.
… Today is my last day as an Anglican and tomorrow is the first day of my new life in the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, the Orthodox Church.
- James, talking about his conversion to Orthodoxy
We cannot give Christ to others unless we have welcomed Him into the central place in our own heart…
- Abbot Tryphon of Vashon Island
If we do not ask for help from God, we will fall flat on our face. Whereas, when we do ask for divine help, Christ will bind us with a rope to His Grace and will uphold us. The wind may blow fiercely from all directions, but, because we are bound fast, we are not in danger. But when man does not realize that it is Christ Who upholds him, he may unbind himself, in which case he will be buffeted left and right and tormented.
- Elder Paisios of Mount Athos, “Spiritual Awakening”
Living a chaste Christian life is sometimes more difficult than suffering a martyr’s death…
-St. Mark the Ascetic
How often have I entered the House of God without fear and trembling, stood there in prayer, frivolous and absent-minded, and left it in the same spirit and disposition! And in prayer at home I have been just as cold and indifferent, praying little, lazily, and indolently, inattentively and impiously, and even completely omitting the appointed prayers!
- St Basil The Great
Pride does not allow the soul to set out on the path of faith. Here is my advice to the unbeliever: let him say, “Lord, if you exist, then illumine me, and I will serve you with all my heart and soul.” And for this humble thought and readiness to serve God, the Lord will immediately illumine him… And then your soul will sense the Lord; she will sense that the Lord has forgiven her, and loves her, and you will know this from experience, and the grace of the Holy Spirit will be a witness in your soul of your salvation, and you will want to cry out to the whole world: “The Lord loves us so much!”
- St. Silouan the Athonite
Whom have we, Lord, like you? -
The Great One who became small, the Wakeful who slept,
The Pure One who was baptized, the Living One who died,
The King who abased himself to ensure honor for all.
Blessed is your honor!
It is right that man should acknowledge your divinity,
It is right for heavenly beings to worship your humanity.
The heavenly beings were amazed to see how small you became,
And earthly ones to see how exalted.
- St. Ephrem the Syrian
He who has realized love for God in his heart is tireless in his pursuit of the Lord his God, and bears every hardship, reproach and insult nobly, never thinking the least evil of anyone.
- St. Maximos the Confessor
This video is an attempt to portray some of the beauty and struggle of monastic life using quotes from the Scriptures and the Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church.
He who willingly suffers injustice and forgives his neighbor is like Jesus; he who neither commits injustice, nor suffers it, is like Adam; he who commits injustice, or demands interest, or mistreats someone else, is like the Devil.
- An Anonymous Desert Father
Every day you provide your bodies with good to keep them from failing. In the same way your good works should be the daily nourishment of your hearts. Your bodies are fed with food and your spirits with good works. You aren’t to deny your soul, which is going to live forever, what you grant to your body, which is going to die.
- St. Gregory the Great
When you sit down to pray, you ought to empty your mind of all images and during prayer to reflect not, so God may place in your emptied mind His Holy Spirit, filling you with His presence.
- Fr. Roman Braga
Any place may become a place of Resurrection, if the Humility of Christ becomes the way of our life.
- Mother Gabriel
