Power to Keep Silence

"If thou wishest to acquire the "power to keep silence, think not and say not within thyself that thou art doing the works of spiritual excellence, but say, '"I am not even worthy to speak.'"

- Abba Poemen

Reference: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/athanasius/paradise1/formats/theparadiseorgar00unkwuoft_djvu.txt

Committing Oneself to God

"Committing oneself to God is a very high degree of moral perfection, and people do not reach it immediately the moment they understand its value. It comes on its own after labors over oneself."

- Saint Theophan the Recluse

Reference: http://days.pravoslavie.ru/en/Days/20110907.htm

Hold Your Peace

"If a man will only remember that which is written, 'Thou shalt be justified by thy words, and shalt be condemned by thy words' (St. Matthew xii, 37), he would know that it is right to hold his peace."

- Abba Alonis

Reference: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/athanasius/paradise1/formats/theparadiseorgar00unkwuoft_djvu.txt

Why Does a Person Study Religion'?

"There are many incidental reasons, but there is only one reason if a person is really in earnest: in a word, it is to come into contact with reality, to find a reality deeper than the everyday reality that so quickly changes, rots away, leaves nothing behind and offers no lasting happiness to the human soul. Every religion that is sincere tries to open up contact with this reality." 

- Father Seraphim Rose

Reference: (Hieromonk), Damascene. Father Seraphim Rose: his life and works. 2005. pp36. Print. 

Study As Much As We Will

“We may study as much as we will but we shall still not come to know the Lord unless we live according to His commandments, for the Lord is not made known through learning bu the Holy Spirit.”

- Saint Silouan the Athonite

Guard Against Idleness

"Be on your guard against idleness, my beloved; intelligible death is hidden in it. Without it it is impossible that the solitary should fall into the hands of those who wish to captivate him."

- Saint Isaac the Syrian

The Soul That...Does Not Understand

“The soul that has not come to know the Holy Spirit does not understand how it is possible to love one's enemies, and will not receive this commandment; but in the Lord is pity for all men, and he who would be with the Lord must love his enemies.”

- Staretz Silouan

Care of Small Things

“To trouble oneself with the care of small things is better than to give opportunity for sin by remissness regarding them.”

- Saint Isaac the Syrian

Home Icons

"Only in pious homes do the icons of the Lord Jesus Christ, His Most Pure Mother, and His saints remind the thoughtful that we, Christians and members of Christ, members of His kingdom, look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the age to come, in which we shall unite with the Lord and the saints, having cleansed ourselves of all defilement of flesh and spirit."

 - Saint John of Kronstadt

Reference: http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/43276.htm

Благодатью Христовой

“Когда человек достигает самых высоких ступеней молитвы ума и когда Дух Святой сходит в сердце человека, с благодатью Христовой, только тогда он едва начинает видеть миллионы немощей, которые порабощают его через чувства и мысли.”

- Архим. Клеопа (Илие)

The Holy Fathers

"When a person begins to struggle with himself, when he tries to travel the path of the Gospels, then the Holy Fathers become something he needs, they become his family. A Holy Father becomes his closest teacher, who speaks to the soul; and the soul receives it with joy and is consoled."

- Abbot Igumen Nikon (Vorobiev)

Reference: http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/48438.htm

The Responsibility We Bear

"We must always reiterate to people the responsibility that we bear for our lifetime, the only time given to us, so that we would set a lock upon our tongue and purify our hearts from evil."

- Elder Arsenie (Papacioc) 

Reference: http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/47865.htm

The Intellect

“When the intellect grows strong, it makes ready to pursue the love which quenches all bodily passions and which prevents anything contrary to nature from gaining control over the heart. Then the intellect, struggling against what is contrary to nature, separates this from what is in accordance with nature.

- St Isaiah the Solitary

Reference: The Philokalia: the complete text By Saint Nicodemus (the Hagiorite), Saint Makarios (Metropolitan of Corinth), Gerald Eustace Howell Palmer

Every Vice...

"Every vice has an opposing virtue and in striving toward that virtue, the vice can, with the help of God (for nothing can be accomplished without prayer and grace from the Lord!), be overcome, or at least lessened to a great degree." 

- Archbishop Laurus

Reference: http://orthodoxinfo.com/praxis/theveil_podvig.aspx

Uninterrupted Prayer

“The way to secure uninterrupted prayer is for every devout man to make his life one long prayer by works acceptable to God and always done to His glory: thus a life lived according to the Law by night and day will in itself become a nightly and daily meditation in the Law."

- Saint Basil the Great

After Sin

"After sin immediately say in your heart the Psalm, 'Have mercy upon me, O God,' and say the whole Psalm in and from your heart. If it does not take effect the first time, try again : only say it the second time more heartily, more feelingly, and then salvation will speedily shine into your soul."

- Saint John of Kronstadt

Reference: http://www.archive.org/details/mylifeinchrist00sergiala

The Unguarded Heart

"I entreat you not to leave your heart unguarded, so long as you are in the body. Just as a farmer cannot feel confident about the crop growing in his fields, because he does not know what will happen to it before it is stored away in his granary, so a man should not leave his heart unguarded so long as he still has breath in his nostrils. Up to his last breath he cannot know what passion will attack him; so long as he breathes, therefore, he must not leave his heart unguarded, but should at every moment pray to God for His help and mercy."  

- St Isaiah the Solitary 

Reference: The Philokalia: the complete text By Saint Nicodemus (the Hagiorite), Saint Makarios (Metropolitan of Corinth), Gerald Eustace Howell Palmer

That Good End

"People make their choice according to faith, and through hope they are firm in their choice; while through patience they attain that good end."


- Saint Theophan the Recluse

Examine Yourself Daily...

"Examine yourself daily in the sight of God, and discover which of the passions is in your heart. Cast it out, and so escape His judgment."

- Saint Isaiah the Solitary 

Reference: The Philokalia: the complete text By Saint Nicodemus (the Hagiorite), Saint Makarios (Metropolitan of Corinth), Gerald Eustace Howell Palmer

First Forgive...

"Before you pray, first forgive all those who have offended you. Then you may pray. Only in this way will your prayer rise up into the presence of God. If you do not forgive, it will simply remain on the earth." 

- Aphrahat the Persian

Resentment

"Abba Dorotheus, a Desert Father of the sixth century, says that we can be healed of the sickness of resentment "by prayer right from the heart for the one who has annoyed us. We can pray such words as, 'O God, help my brother, and me through his prayers.'" "In this," says Abba Dorotheus, "we are interceding for our brother, which is a sure sign of sympathy and love, and we are humiliating ourselves by asking help through our brother's prayers." 

 - Hieromonk Damascene

Reference: http://orthodoxinfo.com/praxis/resentforgive.aspx

At the Time of Prayer...

"At the time of prayer, we should expel from our heart the provocation of each evil thought, rebutting it in a spirit of devotion so that we do not prove to be speaking to God with our lips, while pondering wicked thoughts in our heart."

- Saint Isaiah the Solitary

Reference: The Philokalia: the complete text By Saint Nicodemus (the Hagiorite), Saint Makarios (Metropolitan of Corinth), Gerald Eustace Howell Palmer

"Watch; for ye know not, what hour your Lord doth come."

"Watch; for ye know not, what hour your Lord doth come. If only this were remembered, there would be no sinners. But it is not remembered, although everyone knows that it is unquestionably true. Even the strictest ascetics were not strong enough to easily keep this in mind, and made efforts to fix it in their consciousness so that it would not leave—one kept a coffin in his cell, another begged his co-ascetics to ask about his coffin and grave, another kept pictures of death and judgment, another in other ways. If death does not touch a soul, the soul does not remember it. But in no way can what immediately follows death not touch a soul; a soul cannot but be concerned about this, since it is the judgment of its fate for eternal ages. Why does a soul not remember this? It deceives itself that death will come not soon, and that perhaps somehow things won’t go badly for us. How bitter! It goes without saying that a soul which abides in such thoughts is careless and self-indulgent. So, how can it think that judgment will go favorably for it? No, one must behave like a student who is facing an exam: no matter what he does, the exam does not leave his head; such remembrance does not allow him to waste even a minute in vain, and he uses all his time to prepare for the exam. When will we acquire a mindset like this!"

- Saint Theophan the Recluse

Reference: http://days.pravoslavie.ru/en/Days/20110813.htm