Quote: Innocent of Alaska

... A disciple of Christ must follow Him. This means that in all deeds and actions we must try to be like our Lord Jesus Christ in His virtues. We must strive to live and act as He lived and acted. For example,

Jesus Christ always thanked His Heavenly Father and constantly prayed to Him. Thus we also should constantly thank God and pray to Him in all circumstances, whether successful or difficult.


St Innocent of Alaska.

He is ...

He is with me, He who left the world behind.
He is present in me, He who left His nature.
He dwells in me, He who denied Himself.
He is wholly for me, He who lost His life for me.

~ St. Ambrose.

Peace of soul

One must by every means strive to preserve peace of soul and not be disturbed by offenses from others; for this one must in every way strive to restrain anger and by means of attentiveness to keep the mind and heart from improper feelings. And therefore we must bear offenses from others with equanimity and accustom ourselves to such a disposition of spirit that these offenses seem to concern not us, but others. Such a practice can give quietness to the human heart and make it as dwelling for God Himself. 


- St. Seraphim of Sarov


And this is love


And this is love, that we walk after His commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it." Divine Truth is contained and found in the commandments of the Gospel. Divine love gives us will, strength, and perseverance for we walk after the [divine] commandments, for we walk after His commandments in them and with them. Our love -- as much towards the Lord Christ as towards men -- consists of living according to the commandments of Christ. For at the end, everything comes back to this double commandment: the commandment of love of God and one's neighbor. This is why the holy Evangelist recalls all the commandments to a single one: This is the commandment, That ... you walk in it [love]. We now know that the entire Gospel of Christ is contained in the single commandment on love: he who lives in love lives in Christ God. Thus, he who fulfills the Gospel of God is deserving of heaven and earth. 

Commentary on the Second Epistle of St. John by St. Archimandrite Justin Popovich.

Desire and love ...

Do not look for status or glory on this earth, but seek only the good opinion of God himself. Desire God alone, that He may desire you, and so guide you into His eternal Kingdom. Listen to me not because I am your chosen pastor, but because as someone who is shortly to die I have no reason to deceive you: as death approaches, the truth is all that matters.

Patience, forgiveness and joy are the three greatest characteristics of divine love. They are characteristics of all real love - if there is such a thing as real love outside divine love. Without these three characteristics, love is not love. If you give the name 'love' to anything else, it is as though you were giving the name 'sheep' to a goat or a pig.

-St. Nikolai Velimirovich

You must endure

"Tremble with awe, O men! The insults God suffered for the sake of our salvation you too must endure! God is slapped on the face by the basest of slaves (Jn. 18:22). He gives you an example of victory, yet do you refuse to undergo this at the hands of a man of like passions as yourself? You are ashamed of becoming an imitator of God (Eph. 5:1), how then will you reign with Him and share in His glory in the kingdom of heaven if you do not endure that man?

- From St. Symeon the New Theologian (The Discourses; Paulist Press pg. 292)

"…the more have been your trials, look for a more perfect reward from your just Judge. Do not take your present troubles ill. Do not lose hope. Yet a little while and your Helper will come to you and will not tarry (cf. Hab. 2:3)."

- From St. Basil the Great (The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Second Series Vol. VIII pg. 280)

Live in hope - quote

Blessed is a man who has a living hope in God; he shows faith, trust, glory, and honor to Him. God is then obliged to keep him in His providence, and the saying of the holy Gospel applies: "As you have believed, so let it be done for you." (Mt.8:13).

But unfortunately, temptations come to us, creating great spiritual confusion, and the bright sun of sweet hope is covered by deep darkness. Then we lose our orientation and end up thinking and doing something unbecoming to our calling as Christians. But the goodness of God, Who knows that the mind of man is inclined to evil from his youth (Gen.8:21), and that men are not able to remain in the height of Christian perfection, gave us glorious and endless repentance.

What people think of us.

"We shall not care what people think of us, or how they treat us. We shall cease to be afraid of falling out of favor. We shall love our fellow men without thought of whether they love us. Christ gave us the commandment to love others but did not make it a condition of salvation that they should love us. Indeed, we may positively be disliked for independence of spirit. 

It is essential in these days to be able to protect ourselves from the influence of those with whom we come in contact. Otherwise we risk losing both faith and prayer. Let the whole world dismiss us as unworthy of attention, trust or respect – it will not matter provided that the Lord accepts us. And vice versa: it will profit us nothing if the whole world thinks well of us and sings our praises, if the Lord declines to abide with us. 

This is only a fragment of the freedom Christ meant when He said, 'Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free' (John 8.32). 

Our sole care will be to continue in the word of Christ, to become His disciples and cease to be servants of sin."

- From 'His Life is Mine' by Archimandrite Sophrony p.55, St Vladimir Seminary Press, Crestwood, New York 1977.

Untreated disease

"It is not possible to correct yourself rightly if you do not recognize the evil hidden in your heart and the calamities that proceed from it. An unrecognized disease remains untreated. The beginning of health is to know your disease, and the beginning of blessedness is to know your misfortune and wretchedness. For who having recognized his illness does not seek healing, and who knowing his misfortune does not seek deliverance from it?"

Tranquility of soul ...

"A psalm is the tranquility of souls, the arbitrator of peace, restraining the disorder and turbulence of thoughts, for it softens the passion of the soul and moderates its unruliness. A psalm forms friendships, unites the divided, mediates between enemies. For who can still consider him an enemy with whom he has set forth one voice to God? So that the singing of psalms brings love, the greatest of good things, contriving harmony like some bond of union and uniting the people in the symphony of a single choir."

—Saint Basil the Great

Η αγάπη

Η αγάπη απονέμεται πάντα σαν δώρο. 

Eλεύθερα.

πρόθυμα.

Aπροσδόκητα. 

Προσφέρεται ακόμα και όταν οι άλλοι δεν την αναγνωρίζουν 

και δεν την εκτιμούν. 

Δεν αγαπάμε για να μας αγαπήσουν.

Aγαπάμε γιατί έτσι νιώθουμε…

The full force of love ...

He who loves God both believes truly and performs the works of faith reverently. But he who only believes and does not love, lacks even the faith he thinks he has; for he believes merely with a certain superficiality of intellect and is not energized by the full force of love's glory. The chief part of virtue, then, is faith energized by love.

From St. Gregory Palamas (The Philokalia Vol. 4; Faber and Faber pg. 308):

 

…the passion for popularity brings such injury upon those it masters that it shipwrecks faith itself. Our Lord confirms this when He says, “How can you have faith in Me when you receive honour from one another and do not seek for the honour that comes from the only God?” (cf. Jn. 5:44).

On Condemnation

Slander is a great evil. Just as the little rudder steers the whole ship wherever it wants, likewise the tongue leads a person either to good or to evil. The holy father's greatly censure judging other people's sins, faults, or evil habits.

When we judge our brother, we condemn ourselves to a great sin. But when we cover our brother, God will also protect us from great sins. When we expose our brother, we drive the grace of God away from us and He permits us to fall into the same sins so that we learn that we are all weak and that the grace of God supports us. Whoever guards his tongue guards his soul from great sins and grievous falls.

The chief cause of criticism and slander is pride and egotism, because one considers oneself better than the others. For this reason it is very beneficial for a person to think of himself as below everyone, so that he considers his brother better than him in order that, with the help of God, he may be delivered from this evil.

* * *

If something pushes you to criticism in any matter regarding a brother or the monastery, try to pray about the matter instead, without passing it under the judgement of your reason. If you turn within yourself through prayer, humility, and mourning, you will find a spiritual treasure---just keep pride and criticism far from you.

* * *

Be attentive, my child, that you not judge any soul. For God permits the one who judges his neighbor to fall, so that he learns to have sympathy for his weak brother. The mercy of God supports all of us, but if we become proud, God will remove His grace and we shall become worse than the others.

It is one thing to condemn someone and another to be fought by thoughts of condemnation. To condemn is a terrible passion, but to be fought by such thoughts and to fight back---this is an occasion for crowns.

* * * 

Each person must bear the weaknesses of others. Who is perfect? Who can boast that he has kept his heart undefiled? Hence, we are all sick, and whoever condemns his brother does not perceive that he himself is sick, because a sick person does not condemn another sick person.

 

* * *

Love, endure, overlook, do not get angry, do not flare up, forgive one another, so that you resemble our Christ and are counted worthy to be near Him in His Kingdom. My children, avoid condemnation---it is a very great sin. God is greatly saddened when we condemn and loathe people. Let us concern ourselves only with our own faults---for these we should feel pain. Let us condemn ourselves and then we shall find mercy and grace from God.

* * *

St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, 10:

If you want to overcome the spirit of slander, blame not the person who falls but the prompting demon. No one wants to sin against God, even though all of us sin without being compelled to it.

I knew a man who sinned openly but repented in secret. I denounced him for being lecherous but he was chaste in the eyes of God, having propitiated Him by a genuine conversion.

Do not allow human respect to get in your way when you hear someone slandering his neighbor. Instead, say to him, "Brother, stop it! I do worse things every day, so how can I criticize him?" You accomplish two things when you say this. You heal yourself and you heal your neighbor with the one bandage.

From St. Ambrose (The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series Two Vol. X; Eerdmans pg. 57):  

'I know,' St. Paul says, 'how to be abased' (Phil. 4:12).

An untaught humility has no claim to praise, but only that which possesses modesty and a knowledge of self. For there is a humility that rests on fear, one too, that rests on want of skill and ignorance. Therefore Scripture says: 'He will save the humble in spirit' (Ps. 34:18). Gloriously, therefore, does he say: 'I know how to be abased;' that is to say, where, in what moderation, to what end, in what duty, in which office. The Pharisee knew not how to be abased, therefore he was cast down. The publican knew, and therefore he was justified (Lk. 18:11).

Pearls of Wisdom (St John of Kronstadt)

St John of Kronstadt:

"Watch your heart during all your life - examine it, listen to it, and see what prevents its union with the most blessed Lord. Let this be for you the science of all sciences, and with God's help you will easily observe what estranges you from God, and what draws you towards Him and unites you to Him."

From My Life in Christ, Part 1; Holy Trinity Monastery.

Pearls of Wisdom (St Symeon)

St. Symeon the New Theologian:

The roof of any house stands upon the foundations and the rest of the structure. The foundations themselves are laid in order to carry the roof. This is both useful and necessary, for the roof cannot stand without the foundations and the foundations are absolutely useless without the roof - no help to any living creature. In the same way the grace of God is preserved by the practice of the commandments, and the observance of these commandments is laid down like foundations through the gift of God. The grace of the Spirit cannot remain with us without the practice of the commandments, but the practice of the commandments is of no help or advantage to us without the grace of God. 

From "The Practical and Theological Chapters."

What is Prayer?

Prayer is a conversation of man with God.  

He who prays with a broken and humbled spirit is filled with divine gifts and blessings - that is, with joy, peace, comfort, illumination, and consolation - and he, too, becomes blessed.  Prayer is a doubled-edged sword that slays despair, saves from danger, assuages grief, and so on.  Prayer is a preventative medicine for all diseases of soul and body.

Elder Ephraim of Philotheou (Mt. Athos)

"The person found worthy of praising God gains more by it than God, for he has received a great and marvelous gift of grace. The more he praises God, the more he becomes a debtor, until finally he finds no limit or interruption to his knowledge of God or to thanksgiving or humility or love."

St. Peter of Damascus 

"Where humility is combined with the remembrance of God that is established through watchfulness and attention, and also with recurrent prayer inflexible in its resistance to the enemy, there is the place of God, the heaven of the heart in which because of God's presence no demonic army dares to make a stand."

St. Philotheos of Sinai

Regarding the fear that overcomes you at night, etc., know that it is from the tempter.

You will defeat him with faith in God.

In other words, you should reflect that God is everywhere present. "In God we live and move," (Acts 17:28) and nothing happens without God allowing it. Even if we find ourselves with the devil or amongst wild beasts, God is present! Neither the devil or the wild beasts are able to harm us if they do not have the authority from God to do so.

Why then should we lack this salvific truth of God---faith in His providence---and be afraid when there is nothing to fear? How can I be harmed, since God has authority over the devil and an evil person and everything that can harm me? And how will a person's guardian angel---who, by God's providence, never leaves him---permit him to be harmed, if he does not receive a command from the Lord to let him?

Therefore, my child, take courage. And when this fear comes upon you, say:

"Whom shall I fear? Who is able to harm me, since God governs everything? 'Even if I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for thou art with me'" (Ps. 22:4).

At the same time, say the Jesus prayer, and fear nothing.

Believe firmly in the truth of faith.