"Our requests are necessary expressly to strengthen our faith, through which alone we can be saved. 'By grace are we saved through faith' (Eph. 2:8). 'O woman, great is your faith' (Mt. 15:28). For this reason the Lord made the woman pray earnestly, in order to awaken her faith and to strengthen it."
* * *
Once I asked him, "Father Herman, how can you live on this island, alone in the forest? Do you not get lonely?" He replied, "No, I am not alone, for God is there, just as He is everywhere, and the Holy Angels are there also. How can I be lonely?
With whom is it better and more pleasant to speak -- people or angels? Angels, of course!"
Once I asked him, "Father Herman, how can you live on this island, alone in the forest? Do you not get lonely?" He replied, "No, I am not alone, for God is there, just as He is everywhere, and the Holy Angels are there also. How can I be lonely?
With whom is it better and more pleasant to speak -- people or angels? Angels, of course!"
* * *
"The Lord has ordered us to love our enemies, to bless those who curse us, and to do good to those who persecute us. What danger we are in then, when we hate one another, when we hate our co-members, one with us, sons of God, branches of the true vine, sheep of the spiritual flock gathered by the true Shepherd, the Only-Begotten Son of God, Who offered Himself in sacrifice for us! The Living Word underwent these sufferings for so great a work, and you, man, hate it through jealously and vaniglory, or avarice, or contempt - things for which the enemy has ensnared you, to make you a stranger to God. What defence will you present before Christ?"
St. Pachomius the Great
"The Lord has ordered us to love our enemies, to bless those who curse us, and to do good to those who persecute us. What danger we are in then, when we hate one another, when we hate our co-members, one with us, sons of God, branches of the true vine, sheep of the spiritual flock gathered by the true Shepherd, the Only-Begotten Son of God, Who offered Himself in sacrifice for us! The Living Word underwent these sufferings for so great a work, and you, man, hate it through jealously and vaniglory, or avarice, or contempt - things for which the enemy has ensnared you, to make you a stranger to God. What defence will you present before Christ?"
St. Pachomius the Great
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