“Saints’ struggle to conceal their virtue was greater than to obtain it.”
St. Paisios
“He who avoids beneficial temptation, avoids eternal life. If you take temptations out of the way, nobody will become a saint.”
Elder’s words
“If you do not hate sin first, you cannot do the will of God… The only thing God asks of man is his good mood and to always fear God.”
Elder’s words
“God has chosen the paltrier material, earth, to make the human body of it. And that was done on purpose. As Gregory of Nyssa philosophizes, just the image of earth, from which the human body came, is enough to teach the futility of the earthly life.”
Father Augustine Cantiotes
“Why do not all Christians have the same grace from the Holy Spirit? When you go to the church to lit a candle, you give thirty cents to a get small candle, 50 cents for a medium one. And if you give five euros, you get a really big candle. This is done with the grace of the Holy Spirit, the more you give, the more you get.”
Father Tychonas
“Silly people and fools prefer to have a small rest here, rathen than the Kingdom of the Heavens, not knowing that it is better to suffer during the struggle rather than to rest οn a royal bedding and to be criticized for indolence.”
Saint Isaac the Syrian
An elder said: “To be truly happy you must…
Think of God at least as much as you think of people.
Fear God, at least as much as you fear people.
Honour God, at least as much as you honour people.
Hope in God, at least as much as you hope in people.
Fulfill the law of God at least as much as you apply human law.
Ask for God’s help at least as much as you ask for people’s.
Glorify God at least as much as you praise people.”
To practice prayer: “The primary prerequisite and absolute necessity is “know thyself”. To gain this awareness, the novice trainee must learn to be awakened to the versatile possibilities of selfishness.”
Elder Nikon Karouliotis
“For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.”
(Timothy 4: 3-4)
“Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment. Indeed, we all make many mistakes. For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way.”
(Jacob 3: 1-2)
“A virtue that is obvious is not a virtue.”
Elder Serapheim Savvaitis
“We owe the Lord a debt of immence gratitude, for He determines the value of our works not by their importance or grandeur but by our disposition when we do them.”
Saint Saint Theophanes the Confessor
“Do you see in you the willingness to break free from passions? If so, take care of yourself every day, fear the fall, and protect yourselves from the motives of sin in every way. So, over time, passions get weaker.”
Saint Theophanes the Confessor
“Spiritual coldness and dryness, psychic numbing and depression are presented periodically in Christian life and, as the Holy Fathers say, are granted by God in order to avoid arrogance and to constantly engage in humility.”
Saint Theophanes the Confessor
“Our Judge is compassionate and philanthropist. He is not trying to find something in order to condemn us. On the contrary, he is looking for something, the slightest thing, to justify us.”
Saint Theophanes the Confessor
“Every virtue done effortlessly is regarded as ‘abomination’ in the sight of God. The sighs of your heart, your prayers and vigil will help you acquire virtue. However, no matter how much you cry with prayers to the Lord, He does not listen to you unless your prayers are accompanied by humility.”
Abba Isaac the Syrian
“Denunciation is the death of love.”
Κ.I.Κ.
“Know that even a single tear equals a bath. As the bath relieves the body and cleanses the garment, so the tears of the repentant soul purify the heart, purify the mind, purify the body, purify life, purify the word, purify even all the expressions of man.”
Elder Ephraim of Arizona
“We prevent the reproductive function of love and create something that God did not create; a deliberately unfruitful love. And when love brings fruits, we kill them in their mother’s womb.”
Ganotis Konstantinos
“For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”
(Galatians 6:8)
“We learn so many things in vain, our curiosity leaves nothing without checking it out, but we do not find enough time to read and learn what the Gospel says about our salvation. In order to heal the slightest sickness of our body, we seek and find the physician, but we give no consideration and do not care at all about what will happen to our soul if we die and how we can save it from condemnation…”
Fotis Kontoglou
*The article was originally published in Greek in ikivotos.gr
