The only thing that I have is my Savior

Will I be saved or not? Am I living in a way that is pleasing to God, or not? Am I acting according to God’s righteousness? I do not know. God alone knows whether He forgives my sins, or not; whether He will call me to be with Him and will write my name in the Book of Life, or not. What can I say, a wretched sinner who has nothing? The only thing that I have is my Savior, my God, my Joy; I have nothing else in this life. God the Angels, the soul - this is the only reality unto the ages of ages. Amen.

- From the book “Reflections of a Humble Heart”

On the path of salvation

How crafty the devil is! To young people who managed to unite in Christian marriage he whispers, ‘How much better you would be if you went to the monastery and lived the heavenly spiritual pleasures, far from the cares of family life which sever you and keep you down!’  While to those who went to the monastery, as they desired the life of virginity in Christ, he whispers, ‘How much better you would be, if you got married and made your home a temple of God, living the joys of marital life, far from ascetic mortification and the loneliness which depresses you!’ And if the married one became a monk and the monk married, he would tell them the opposite. All this to throw the person into despair and to pull him from the path of salvation. For the path of salvation is both blessed marriage and virginity in Christ.

- Elder Epiphanios of Athens

The Christian doctrine of our salvation…

The Christian doctrine of our salvation demands that we shall be maximalists. We are not to think of him as “half-in-half”. Jesus Christ is not fifty percent God and fifty percent man, but one hundred percent God and one hundred percent man.

- Met. Kallistos Ware, “The Orthodox Way”

Our salvation in Christ

The wealth of our salvation in Christ is so rich that it cannot be expressed in any one single formula, nor even in all of them taken together. It is a mystery which can never be completely understood or defined.

- Fr. Dumitru Staniloae

Not the place, but the manner saves man

You write, my child, that you are distressed in the world and by its vanity, delusion and impiety, sin and noise. So that I can lighten your affliction a bit I advise you to do the following: First, think that God is everywhere present, and since He is everywhere, he also is in the wilderness and in the world, in the sea and on land, He is everywhere. And He is not far from each one of us, as the Apostle Paul told the Athenians. So since my child, God is near you, Ieave the old world, let it do whatever it wants, you will not give account for the world. At the 2nd Coming each one will give account concerning his own self.

Second, say about those who make noise and disturb you from morning till night: They do theirjob and I let me do my job. They shout, sing, dance and bless Satan, with lewd songs, dances and foul words. I must hymn, bless and glorify God, pray and ask Him to save me, to take me with Him into paradise, as He took the thief, the prodigal, the adulteress, the publican. Is it not, my child, a great shame to us, for them to have greater eagerness than us in working for Satan day and night, for him to damn them, and us to be negligent and cold and working for God with indolence?

So I advise you, have patience and don’t abandon ceaseless noetic prayer, don’t allow God to depart from near you. Joseph was in Egypt, in the place of sin, and he did not sin because he recalled God, he had Him near him. Adam was in paradise, where sin did not exist, but because he forgot God, he disobeyed Him and listened to the devil, and he lost paradise. So it is not the place, but the manner which saves man, the divine Chrysostom used to say.

- Elder Philotheos Zervakos

Do you know what I’ll say to God…?

Do you know what I’ll say to God when I’m standing in front of Him? Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner! I won’t say anything else to Him!

- Elder Teofil Paraian

Concerning the salvation of non-Orthodox Christians

I was asked to make this rebloggable, so here it is :)

Orthodox Christianity is the assured means to the be joined to Christ, but how God will ultimately join to Christ those who do not have access to the presence of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church is his prerogative and mystery.

About the salvation of those who have not consciously rejected Christ, we have the words of St. Theophan the Recluse to guide us into a correct Orthodox understanding:

“You ask, will the heterodox be saved… Why do you worry about them? They have a Saviour Who desires the salvation of every human being. He will take care of them. You and I should not be burdened with such concern. Study yourself and your own sins… I will tell you one thing, however: should you, being Orthodox and possessing the Truth in its fullness, betray Orthodoxy, and enter a different faith, you will lose your soul forever.”

And there are the words of the Metropolitan Philaret who was the First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad a very conservative theologian:

“It is self evident, however, that sincere Christians who are Roman Catholics, or Lutherans, or members, of other non-Orthodox confessions, 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 inherited, just as do the majority of you who are Orthodox; 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” (Jn. 1.43), undoubtedly is leading them also towards salvation In His own way.”

However, Elder Nektary of Optina said:

“God desires not only that the nations be saved, but each individual soul. A simple Indian, believing in his own way in the Creator and fulfilling His will as best he can, will be saved; but he who, knowing about Christianity, follows the Indian mystical path, will not.” [Ivan Kontzevitch, Elder Nektary of Optina, p. 181].

Individuals within Orthodoxy might give you all sorts of different answers, but the most uniform response you will get about who God will save outside of the Church is that we simply do not know. Christ as God, and King and Judge can save whoever He wants to save, and condemn whoever He wants to condemn. Even being in the Church is no guarantee of salvation; it’s not a free ticket. We must cooperate with God and experience a rebirth.

Same goes for people who belong to other religions as well. We don’t know if they will be saved or not. It’s up to God, who desires the salvation of every human soul.

If you wait…

If you wait for only agreeable conditions for salvation, then you will never begin a God pleasing life.

- St. Nikon of Optina

If you want to attain salvation…

If you want to attain salvation, learn and keep in your heart all that the holy Church teaches and, receiving heavenly power from the mysteries of the Church, walk the path of Christ’s commandments, under the direction of lawful pastors, and you will undoubtedly attain the Heavenly Kingdom and be saved. All of this is naturally necessary in the matter of salvation, necessary in it entirety and for all. Whoever rejects or neglects any part of it has no salvation.

- St. Theophan the Recluse, Five Teachings on the Path to Salvation, 3

If you wish to be saved…

If you wish to be saved, seek no other thing here in this world as much as love.

- St. Kosmas Aitolos

On fasting

The more days of fasting there are, the better the healing is; the longer the period of abstinence, the more abundant the gain of salvation is.

- Saint Seraphim of Sarov

Work Out Your Salvation

…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12)

What does it mean to ‘work out our salvation’? It means that among all the things that we see in cosmic existence, we choose what is pleasing to God and separate ourselves from what goes against God. Then, little by little, we see our life changing. But be patient. God can, of course, visit us and in an instant open our eyes to eternity. But usually it is a labor of several years, which has nothing to do with a mere creation of our imagination. Read Saint Silouan: you will see what his state was, how he was always in God. You will understand his word, where he says that the saints do not spend one second without prayer.

- The Elder Sophrony in Words of Life

Do you want your salvation?

Do you want to become a partaker of the blessings conferred by Divine Communion? Do you want your salvation? Become a true Christian, have fear of God, faith in the Mystery of Divine Communion, and love for God and for your neighbor.

- St. Nektarios of Aegina

Pray for the salvation of others

Pray for the forgiveness of the sins of others as you pray for the forgiveness of your own; pray for the salvation of others as you pray for your own. Then you will receive from God a wealth of spiritual gifts, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, Who loves a soul which is concerned with the salvation of others.

- St. John of Kronstadt