On hatred
If we detect any trace of hatred in our hearts against any man whatsoever for committing any fault, we are utterly estranged from love for God, since love for God absolutely precludes us from hating any man.
- St. Maximus the Confessor
He cannot hear the silence…
The only place where modern man does not like to visit - is himself. He cannot hear the silence, he does not want to hear the voice of his conscience. But without knowing yourself you can not know God. Modern man lives in a shadowy world of TV, the media, the Internet, but the greatest reality in the world is the human soul. Inside we can open up the kingdom of heaven, in our heart God wants to be born!
- Bishop Panteleimon (Shatov), 21st Century Russian Hierarch
Why does the world suffer?
After all, why does the world suffer?…emptiness and the absence of God lie behind this, because every passion is the fruit of emptiness, the fruit of the lack of desire to move towards faith and God.
- Igumen Tikhon Borisov, 21st Century Russian monk
Do not look to the shortness of the time
‘Let no one say to me: ‘I am so ashamed. I have a conscience filled with sins. I am carrying the heaviest of burdens.’ The period of five days is time enough to cut away the multitude of your sins if you are sober and watchful and if you pray. Do not look to the shortness of the time but consider the loving-kindness of the master. The people of Nineveh drove off God’s great wrath in three days. The narrow span of time did not deter them, but after their eager souls won for them the master’s loving-kindness, they were able to accomplish the whole task.
- The Fathers of the Church: St. John Chrysostom – On the Incomprehensible Nature of God, pg. 178
Let them take courage
Let them take courage who are humbled by their passions. For even if they fall into every pit and are caught in every snare, when they attain health they will become healers, luminaries, beacons and guides to all, teaching about the forms of every sickness and through their own experience saving those who are about to fall.
- St. John Climacus
To live without speaking…
To live without speaking is better than to speak without living. For the former who lives rightly does good even by his silence, but the latter does no good even when he speaks. When words and life correspond to one another they are together the whole of divine philosophy.
- St. Isidore of Pelusium
Life without God
Man ate the forbidden fruit, thinking that it would give him life. But life itself outside of and without God is simply communion with death.
- Fr. Alexander Schmemann, O Death, Where is Thy Sting?
Just as fish die…
Just as fish die if they stay too long out of water, so the monks who loiter outside their cells or pass their time with men of the world lose the intensity of inner peace. So like a fish going towards the sea, we must hurry to reach our cell, for fear that if we delay outside we will lost our interior watchfulness.
- St. Anthony
That is all I will be asked…
At the Last Judgment I will not be asked whether I satisfactorily practiced asceticism, nor how many bows I have made before the divine altar. I will be asked whether I fed the hungry, clothed the naked, visited the sick, and the prisoner in his jail. That is all I will be asked.
- Holy Martyr Mother Maria of Paris
The power of Love
Such is the power of love: it embraces, and unites, and fastens together not only those who are present and near, and visible, but also those who are distant. And neither time, not separation in space, nor anything else of that kind, can break up and divide in pieces the affection of the soul.
- St. John Chrysostom
Many desire virtues…
Many desire virtue, but fear to go forward in the way that leads to it, while others consider that virtue does not even exist. So it is necessary to persuade the former to give up their sloth, and teach the others what virtue really is.
- Abba Isidore of Pelusium
On forgetting the idea of the Cross
To the degree that people forget the idea of the Cross, so evil grows and spreads, with the different pressures which occur both naturally and artificially.
Blessed is the man who is wide awake and praying.
- Elder Joseph of Vatopaidi
The mystery of the existence
The Christian must respect the mystery of the existence of everyone and everything.
- Mother Gabriel
Nothing is stronger…
Nothing is stronger than prayer in it’s action, nothing more effective in winning God’s favor…
-St. Mark the Ascetic
On forgiveness of Offenses
For an offence, whatever kind may have been given, one must not only not avenge oneself, but on the contrary must all the more forgive from the heart, even though it may resist this, and must incline the heart by conviction of the word of God: If ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses (Matt. 6:15); and again, Pray for them which despitefully use you (Matt. 5:44).
- Saint Seraphim of Sarov
