You Are Unforgiven If...

“Even if all spiritual fathers, patriarchs, hierarchs, and all the people forgive you, you are unforgiven if you do not repent in action.”

- Saint Kosmas Aitolos

He Who Does Not Forgive

"The drunkard, the fornicator, the proud—he will receive God’s mercy. But he who does not want to forgive, to excuse, to justify consciously, intentionally […] that person closes himself to eternal life before God, and even more so in the present life. He is turned away and not heard."

- Elder Sampson of Russia

Reference: http://morningoffering.blogspot.com/2012/02/forgiveness-forgiveness-is-cure-for.html

Love the Trees

'Fr. Amphilochios, the geronta or "elder" on the island of Patmos when I first stayed there, would have been in full agreement. "Do you know," he said, "that God gave us one more commandment, which is not recorded in Scripture? It is the commandment "love the trees." Whoever does not love trees, so he believed, does not love God. "When you plant a tree," he insisted, "you plant hope, you plant peace, you plant love, and you will receive God's blessing."'

- Taken from an essay by Metropolitan Kallistos Ware

A Seductive Darkness of the Heart and Intellect

“We live in a kind of seductive darkness of the heart and intellect, but the Lord Jesus Christ is our enlightenment. The saints always see us by the grace of God, because they are in God and God is in them. They are one spirit with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17), and the Lord sees everything, hears everything. Therefore when, for instance, in church you look upon the images of God's saints, believe that they see you, and above all, that they see your heart.”

- Saint John of Kronstadt

Despair

"But first we must struggle with the demon of dejection who casts the soul into despair. We must drive him from our heart. It was this demon that did not allow Cain to repent after he had killed his brother, or Judas after he had betrayed his Master".

- Saint John Cassian

Binding the Demon

"He advised me: If I should understand that a demon in the form of a man has come as if to teach me, then I need to say, "If you are from God, then say along with me, 'Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner,'" for the enemy does not want to say, 'Have mercy on me.' All who have the Jesus prayer can bind the demon with it; however, the enemy nevertheless prepares many temptations for such a person, and the enemy can only be completely conquered through humility and repentance."

- Father Proclus (Niceu)

Reference: http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/47107.htm

The Deepest Peace

"Often during the day I have been a great sinner, and at night, after prayer, I have gone to rest, justified and whiter than snow by the grace of the Holy Spirit, with the deepest peace and joy in my heart! How easy it will be for the Lord to save us too in the evening of our life, at the decline of our days! O save, save, save me, most gracious Lord; receive me in Thy heavenly Kingdom! Everything is possible to Thee!"

- Saint John of Kronstadt

A Storehouse of Evil

"Do not trust a thought that would judge your neighbor: for it is the man who is a storehouse of evil that thinks evil thoughts (cf. Matt. 12:35)."

- Saint Thalassios the Libyan

Banishment of Contrary Thoughts

“Love is essentially the banishment of every kind of contrary thought, for love thinks no evil (I Cor 13:5),” wrote St John of the Ladder.

- Hieromonk Calinic (Berger)

...The Refusal to Worship and Give Thanks

"...the refusal to worship and give thanks, to offer the creation in thanksgiving back to God, is a denial of our very nature as humans."

- Metropolitan Jonah

http://preachersinstitute.com/2011/06/21/metropolitan-jonah-asceticism-and-the-consumer-society

The Glory of Christians

"The glory of Christians abides even now in their sottls, and will be manifested at the time of resurrection, and will glorify their bodies in correspondence with their piety."

- Saint Macarius the Egyptian

With Fear and Trembling

"With what fear and trembling must we work out our salvation! And how sincerely and zealously must we pray to God: Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me (Ps. 51)."

- Saint Theophan the Recluse

Make Use of Peaceful Times

"One father told me that if times are peaceful, and I use them to the glory of God, then when temptations come, I will get help from the Holy Spirit. If I do not make use of peaceful times, then a long period of temptation will come, which can be survived only through repentance, confession, and a good foundation. But we must know that for this, the spirits of vainglory attack with great force. Therefore, there is no way other than weeping. I must also have an awareness that all others are greater than me. If the thought has passed through my mind that I am better than another, then disaster has struck, and woe be to me."

- Father Proclus (Niceu)

http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/47107.htm

When We Pay Attention

"In the measure that we pay attention and take care to carry out what we hear, God will always enlighten us and make us understand His will."

- Saint Dorotheos of Gaza

Repent in Action

“Even if all spiritual fathers, patriarchs, hierarchs, and all the people forgive you, you are unforgiven if you do not repent in action.” 

- Saint Kosmas Aitolos

The Praying Soul

"When the Lord God, the Holy Spirit, visits us [he says] and comes to us in the fullness of his ineffable goodness, then we have to stop praying and refrain from prayer itself. The praying soul speaks and offers up words, but at the descent of the Holy Spirit it must be utterly silent so that it can clearly hear and truly understand the words of eternal life which the Spirit condescends to bring to it."

- Saint Seraphim of Sarov

Peace in God

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”

- John 14:27, ESV

I Die That I May Live

"We see the water of a river flowing uninterruptedly and passing away, and all that floats on its surface, rubbish or beams of trees, all pass by. Christian! So does our life...I was an infant, and that time has gone. I was an adolescent, and that too has passed. I was a young man, and that too is far behind me. The strong and mature man that I was is no more. My hair turns white, I succumb to age, but that too passes; I approach the end and will go the way of all flesh. I was born in order to die. I die that I may live. Remember me, O Lord, in Thy Kingdom!"

- Saint Tikhon of Voronezh

The Acquisition of Christian Books

"The acquisition of Christian books is necessary for those who can use them. For the mere sight of these books renders us less inclined to sin and incites us to believe more firmly in righteousness."

- Bishop Epiphanius of Cyprus

"Live and Learn"

"If in everyday affairs the saying: "live and learn" is true, then so much more it applies to prayer, which never stops and which has no limit."

- Saint Theophan the Recluse