Through Love

"Just as the light of the sun attracts a healthy eye, so through love knowledge of God naturally draws to itself a pure intellect."

- Saint Maximos the Confessor

Through Patience

"It is patience that reveals every grace to you, and it is through patience that the saints received all that was promised to them."

- Saint Pachomius

Quiet the Passions

“No matter what passion troubles you, begin to read the word of God and the passion will become quieter and quieter, and at last it will be entirely calmed.” 

- Saint Theophan the Recluse

The Perfume of Prayer

"When the Spirit makes his abode in a man, he is no longer able to stop praying, because the Spirit never ceases to pray in him. Whether he sleeps or wakes, prayer is never separated from his soul. When he is eating, drinking, lying down, occupied in working, plunged in sleep, the perfume of prayer rises freely from his soul. From then on he does not order his prayer at set times, but prays all the time."

- Saint Isaac the Syrian

Requirements of Baptism

"These three things God requires of all the baptized: right faith in the heart, truth on the tongue, temperance in the body."

- Saint Gregory the Theologian

Sick Brothers

"If your heart has been softened either by repentance before God or by learning the boundless love of God towards you, do not be proud with those whose hearts are still hard. Remember how long your heart was hard and incorrigible. Seven brothers were ill in one hospital. One recovered from his illness and got up and rushed to serve his other brothers with brotherly love, to speed their recovery. Be like this brother. Consider all men to be your brothers, and sick brothers at that. And if you come to feel that God has given you better health than others, know that it is given through mercy, so in health you may serve your frailer brothers."

- Saint Nikolai Velimirovic

Valuable Pearls

“One who hearkens to the word of God gathers bright understanding of all that is in him, what is near to him, and what is above him; he clarifies his obligations in all aspects of life, and holy rules, like valuable pearls, are strung onto the thread of his conscience, which then precisely and definitely indicate how and when to act so that he please the Lord.” 

- Saint Theophan the Recluse

Let Mercy Outweigh All Else

"Ever let mercy outweigh all else in you. Let our compassion be a mirror where we may see in ourselves that likeness and that true image which belong to the Divine nature and Divine essence. A heart hard and unmerciful will never be pure."

- Saint Isaac of Syria

Reference: Directions on Spiritual Training

Becoming God's Friend

"…we consider becoming God's friend the only thing worthy of honor and desire. This, as I have said, is the perfection of life.”

- Saint Gregory of Nyssa

Faith Without Love

"Just as the thought of fire does not warm the body, so faith without love does not actualize the light of spiritual knowledge in the soul."

- Saint Maximos the Confessor

What Does the Lord Require?

"He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? "

- Micah 6:8, ESV

The is No Greater Love

"There is no greater love than that a man lays down his life for his neighbor. When you hear someone complaining and you struggle with yourself and do not answer him back with complaints; when you are hurt and bear it patiently, not looking for revenge; then you are laying down your life for your neighbor."

- Abba Poemen

Never Mind the Sins

"Love every man in spite of his falling into sin. Never mind the sins, but remember that the foundation of the man is the same - the image of God."

- Saint John of Kronstadt

God is a Fire

"God is a fire that warms and kindles the heart and inward parts. And so, if we feel in our hearts coldness, which is from the devil, - for the devil is cold - then let us call upon the Lord, and He will come and warm our hearts with perfect love not only for Him, but for our neighbor as well. And from the presence of warmth the coldness of the hater of good will be driven away."

- Saint Seraphim of Sarov

God's Providence

“God's providence controls the universe. It is present everywhere. Providence is the sovereign Logos of God, imprinting form on the unformed materiality of the world, making and fashioning all things. Matter could not have acquired an articulated structure were it not for the directing power of the Logos, who is the Image, Intellect, Wisdom and Providence of God.”

- Saint Antony the Great

Reference: The Philokalia

Direct All Your Concerns

“Direct all your concern towards having God reign in you, and everything worldly will lose its binding and burdensome spell over you. Then you will conduct your affairs outwardly, but inwardly your heart will be possessed with something else. But, if on account of this, the resolution arises to cut off this outer relationship to worldly things—you will not lose out: you will come closer to the goal which the faith of Christ will give you.” 

- Saint Theophan the Recluse

To Love Christ

"To love Christ -means not to be a hireling, not to look upon a noble life as an enterprise or trade, but to be a true benefactor and to do everything only for the sake of love for God."

- Saint John Chrysostom

Covering Our Brother's Sin

"whenever we cover our brother's sin, God will cover ours; whenever we tell people about our brother's guilt, God will do the same about ours."

- Abba Poemen

The Judgement of God

"If a man commits a sin before you at the very moment of his death, pass no judgment, because the judgment of God is hidden from men."


- Saint John Climacus

The Compassion of the Creator

"Just as a strongly flowing fountain is not blocked up by a handful of earth, so the compassion of the Creator is not overcome by the wickedness of his creatures."

- Saint Isaac the Syrian

Reading Divine Scripture

“...it is best to always read Divine Scripture attentively, with discernment and sympathy, applying it to your own life, and fulfilling in your own thoughts what relates to thoughts, in your own feelings and dispositions what relates to the senses, and in your deeds what relates to deeds.”

- Saint Theophan the Recluse