“All who truly believe in Christ and cleave to Him with all their Soul, are changed into His image by the power of His Resurrection.”
“Do not say ‘I cannot’. This word is unChristian. The Christian word is ‘I can’. Though not by myself, but through Christ Who strengthens me.”
“You must watch after yourself.”
“You must kill egoism. If you don’t kill it yourself, then the Lord, hammer-blow after hammer-blow, shall send various misfortunes, as to crush this stone.”
“Self-pleasing and self-pity testify that in the heart abides the ego, and not the Lord.”
“Every Christian has the power to heal infirmities – not of others, but his own, and not of the body, but of the Soul – that is, sins and sinful habits – and to cast out devils, rejecting evil thoughts sown by them, and extinguishing the excitement of passions enflamed by them.”
“You ask, will the heterodox be saved… Why do you worry about them? They have a Saviour Who desires the Salvation of every human being. He will take care of them. You and I should not be burdened with such a concern. Study yourself and your own sins.”
“As it is not possible to walk without feet or fly without wings, so it is impossible to attain the Kingdom of Heaven without the fulfillment of the Commandments.”
“The help of God is always ready and near, but only given to those who seek and work.”
“All troubles come from a mental outlook that is too broad. It is better to humbly cast your eyes down toward your feet, and to figure out which step to take where. This is the truest path.”
“The enemy often pretends to be defeated so that when you have abandoned yourself to a feeling of safety, and unexpected fall will more easily overtake you.”
“Examine yourself to see whether you have within you a strong sense of your own self importance, or negatively, whether you have failed to realize that you are nothing. This feeling of self-importance is deeply hidden, but it controls the whole of our life. Its first demand is that everything should be as we wish it, and as soon as this is not so we complain to God and are annoyed with people.”
“Love covers a multitude of sins,” (I Pet. 4:8). That is, for love towards one’s neighbour, God forgives the sins of the one who loves.”
“The heart is like a sponge that has absorbed various liquids. Squeeze it and the liquid will come out. The pressures upon the heart are the life experiences and circumstances of this world, which can produce either good or evil depending on which part of the heart pressure is placed upon. Pay attention. Such thoughts can lead to a good level of self realization.”
“While it is an absolute requirement of each Christian to restore peace that has been lost in his heart, so it is required that he not permit accidental occurrences in life to trouble his peace.”
“An evident sinner will turn towards good more easily than a secret sinner, hiding under the cloak of visible virtues.”
“Make a confession minute by minute, that is, every impure and blameworthy thought, desire, feeling and movement. Confess as soon as you realize it to the All-seeing God with contrition of spirit, and ask forgiveness for it and the Strength to avoid it in the future.”
“Many are the wiles of the enemy to despoil us of inner peace, so watch.”
“[About the wise virgins] Behold, what glory they have, but they did not obtain it for nothing. How hard they worked to deserve it! They entered into it after passing through many sorrows, afflictions, and labours. But those who do not labour as they should will not enter into this Glory.”
“The most powerful sword for a soldier is the Prayer of Jesus.”
“Cutting off the will and rejecting the ego get rid of any malice from the Soul. Then purity and peace, the highest aims of life, come and reside in the heart.”
“When you turn to Christ, pay no attention to what’s going on inside you. Keep your attention focused on the Lord and beg Him for help. There’s no room for malicious thoughts in a mind focused on the Lord.”
“How did our Ascetics, Fathers, and teachers warm the spirit of Prayer inwardly, and establish themselves firmly in Prayer? Their great object was to make the heart burn unceasingly towards the Lord alone. God claims the heart because within it lies the source of life. Where the heart is, there is consciousness, attention, mind; there is the whole Soul. When the heart is in God, then the whole Soul is in God, and man remains in unceasing Worship of Him in spirit and in truth.”
“Woe to those who are rich, who are full, who laugh, and who are praised. But good shall come to those who endure every wrongful accusation, beating, robbery, or compulsory difficulty. This is completely opposite to what people usually think and feel! The thoughts of God are as far from human thoughts as heaven is from the earth. How else could it be? We are in exile; and it is not remarkable for those in exile to be offended and in sulted. We are under a penance; the penance consists of deprivations and labors. We are sick; and most useful for the sick are bitter medicines. The Saviour Himself all of His life did not have a place to lay His head, and He finished his life on the Cross – why should his followers have a better lot? The Spirit of Christ is the spirit of preparedness to suffer and bear good-naturedly all that is sorrowful. Comfort, arrogance, splendour, and ease are all foreign to its searching and tastes. Its path lies in the fruitless, dreary desert. The model is the forty-year wandering of the Israelites in the desert. Who follows this path? Everyone who sees Canaan beyond the desert, boiling over with milk and honey. During his wandering he too receives manna, however not from the earth, but from heaven; not bodily, but spiritually. All the Glory is within.”
“He who refuses to give in to his passions does the same as he who refuses to bow down and worship idols.”
“If [the disease of sin] is natural, then it cannot be cured. Thus it would remain always, no matter how hard you worked to rid yourself of it. If you accept this thought, you will lose heart, and say to yourself: this is how it is. For this is that woeful despair, which, once it has been introduced into people, they have given themselves over to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness (Ephesians 4: 19). I shall repeat again: Maintain the conviction that our disorderliness is not natural to us, and do not listen to those who say, ‘It is no use talking about it, because that is just how we are made, and you cannot do anything about it! That is not how we are made, and if we undertake to cure ourselves, then we will be able to do something about it.”
“When a man is given over to the passions, he does not see them in himself and does not fight against them, because he lives in them and by them. But when the Grace of God becomes active in him, he begins to discern the passionate and sinful in himself, acknowledge them, and to repent and decide to guard against them. A struggle begins. At first, the struggle begins with deeds, but when is released from shameful deeds, then the struggle begins with shameful thoughts and feelings. And here the struggle encounters many steps… The struggle continues. The passions increasingly are torn out of the heart. It even happens that they are entirely torn out… The sign that the passions are torn out of the heart is that the Soul begins to feel repulsion and hatred for the passions.”
“You must never be afraid, if you are troubled by a flood of thoughts, that the enemy is too strong against you, that his attacks are never ending, that the war will last for your lifetime, and that you cannot avoid incessant downfalls of all kinds.”
“Anyone who has undertaken a careful observation of what goes on in himself just during the course of a single day will acknowledge as very obvious the fact that the spirit is fallen.”
“When you turn to the Lord, don’t look at what’s happening within you. Keep your attention fixed on Him and beg for help. If a mind is paying full attention to the Lord, there’s no room for nasty thoughts.”
“When thought after thought, desire after desire – one worse than the other – begin to disturb the Soul, then everyone forgets about himself and involuntarily cries out with the Prophet: ‘The waters are come in unto my Soul. I am stuck fast in the mire of the deep. (Ps. 68:1-2) ‘O Lord, save now; O Lord, send now prosperity.’ (Ps. 117:25)”
