“Before your departure to Moscow, we agreed to carry on a correspondence.”
“God abandons no one. For Him all are children. None are stepchildren. And the hard occasions and situations – all is sent for our benefit.”
“Do not be curious about anything that does not concern your salvation, keep your eyes and hearing from all that is harmful.”
“If you want to attain Salvation, learn and keep in your heart all that the Holy Church teaches and, receiving Heavenly power from the Mysteries of the Church, walk the path of Christ’s Commandments, under the direction of lawful Pastors, and you will undoubtedly attain the Heavenly Kingdom and be saved. All of this is naturally necessary in the matter of Salvation, necessary in it entirety and for all. Whoever rejects or neglects any part of it has no Salvation.”
“If you examine your life well, you will find many instances when God showed His unmistakable Mercy to you. Trouble was brewing, but it passed you by for some reason. God delivered you. Acknowledge these and thank God, Who loves you.”
“Be patient and give thanks to God, saying: ‘This illness is for my great and countless sins.'”
“Seek courage also in remembering the patience of all the Saints, and especially that of the Martyrs.”
“Don’t look gloomily at your shortcomings. Rather, they show God’s Mercy and concern for us.”
“Ask the doctor’s help, but Pray to the Lord and His Saints to give him wisdom.”
“Enliven yourselves. Look with joy in the eyes of the disease! Let yourselves less at the whim of your imagination.”
“Entrust all to His Holy Will.”
“He alone made the doctor and his medicines.”
“Don’t allow thoughts of complaint. Everything is from God.”
“The chief end of our life is to live in communion with God. To this end the Son of God became Incarnate, in order to return us to this Divine communion, which was lost by the fall into sin. Through Jesus Christ, the Son of God, we enter into communion with the Father and thus attain our purpose.”
“Do this and you will be an apostle, a fulfiller of what the Lord chose you for, an accomplisher of your calling as messenger. When at first you succeed in all this, then perhaps the Lord will appoint you as a special ambassador – to save others after you have saved yourself; and to help those who are tempted, after you yourself pass through all temptations, and through all experiences in good and evil.”
“Be obedient to the leadership of the Spiritual Fathers – and you will avoid the temptations and mistakes on the way to the Kingdom of Heaven, but instead you will quickly and without troubles come to the Gates of Paradise”
“Reflect that the manifest beauty is the work of the unseen, most beautiful creative Spirit, with Whom is the source of all physical beauty.”
“When we are in the heart, we are at home, when we are not there, we are homeless.”
“When you have to speak, before expressing what has entered your heart and letting it pass to your tongue, examine it carefully; and you will find many things that are better not let past your lips. Know moreover that many things, which it seems to you good to express, are much better left buried in the tomb of silence.”
“Do everything for the Glory of God, and in no thing – either outwardly nor inwardly – intend anything other than this Glory. It should be the measuring stick of every endeavour and place its seal on each one.”
“Grace doesn’t begin to act within us unless we want it and seek it. God doesn’t want to trespass on the freedom He’s given us. Otherwise we’d all become saints in the blink of an eye at God’s Divine command.”
“The Lord sees your need and your efforts, and will give you a helping hand. He will support and establish you as a soldier, fully armed and ready to go into battle. No support can be better than His. The greatest danger lies in the Soul thinking that it can find this help within itself; then it will lose everything. Evil will dominate it again, eclipsing the light that as yet flickers but weakly in the Soul, and it will extinguish the small flame which is still scarcely burning. The Soul should realize how powerless it is alone; therefore, expecting nothing of itself, let it fall down in humility before God, and in its own heart recognize itself to be nothing. Then Grace – which is all powerful – will, out of this nothing, create in it everything. He who in total humility puts himself in the hand of the Merciful God, attracts the Lord to himself, and becomes strong in His strength.”
“God does not hear? God hears and sees everything. Only your desire does not find it useful for you. He threw you into the fire of temptation, to burn out of you all the wrong, and will not extinguish this fire until it is completely cleansed. You now look like bread, baking in an oven. The baker will not take the bread out of the oven until he is sure that it is baked; and the Lord will not take you out of the furnace of your sorrow until He sees that you are firmly established in good dispositions.”
“When someone, by his fear of God and the demands of his conscience already has an awakened thirst for Spiritual things, he possesses a certain sense enabling him to understand the meaning of words relating to the Spiritual sphere, although they might be clothed in the form of a parable. For such people a parable does not hide the truth, but rather reveals it even more clearly. But he who is not of this disposition does not understand any Spiritual content described in the form of a parable. Even if one were to offer him a word on these subjects that was not in the form of a parable he would only understand the words, and not comprehend the essence of the matter. It would go against all of his notions, and seem to him to be an absurdity which he would not hesitate to mock. This is precisely why the Lord talked to the people in parables. Whoever is spiritually inclined will understand a parable, whereas someone with no inclinations will not understand no matter what you say. Because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand… For this people’s heart is waxed gross (Matt. 13:12-15). Meanwhile, the parable did not deprive of needed instruction those who were capable of seeing the hidden truth: For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance.”
“What faith the centurion has! The Lord Himself marvelled. The essence of this faith is that he confessed the Lord to be the God of all things, an All-powerful Sovereign and Master of all that exists; for this reason he beseeched, speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. I believe that everything is under Your authority and everything obeys Your slightest beckoning. The Lord requires the same faith of us, as well. He who has this faith knows no lack, and whatsoever he asks, he receives. Thus has the Lord Himself promised. Oh, when will we have if only a little of such faith! But this faith is also a gift; we must ask for it as well, and ask for it with faith. Let us ask for it, with a feeling of need for it, ask for it continually, fervently, at the same time aiding its unfolding within us through corresponding thoughts, and most of all by submitting to God’s Commandments.”
“I am a Christian, you say, and content yourself with this. This is the first deceit – transferring to yourself the privileges and promise of Christianity, without any care to root true Christianity into yourself; or to ascribe to yourself that which can only be acquired by your strength and inner worthiness. Explain to yourself that it is illusory to hope in a name, that God can raise a son of Abraham from a stone and can take away your promise at any time if the conditions for participating in them are not soon fulfilled. Mainly, clarify to yourself what it means to be a Christian, unite yourself to this ideal, and you will see just how stable is this buttress to your blindness.”
“Zealous Christians have a certain technique that they apply to secure the continual remembrance of God more firmly. It is the constant repetition of a short Prayer, ordinarily either, “Lord, have mercy,” or “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner.” If you haven’t heard this, then listen now. If you have never done this, begin now.”
“When going to the Holy Mysteries, go with simplicity of heart, in full faith that you will receive the Lord within yourself, and with the proper reverence towards this. What your state of mind should be after this, leave it to the Lord Himself. Many desire ahead of time to receive this or that from Holy Communion, and then, not seeing what they wanted, they are troubled, and even their faith in the power of the Mystery is shaken. The fault lies not with the Mystery, but with superficial assumptions. Do not promise yourself anything. Leave everything to the Lord, asking a single mercy from Him – to strengthen you in every kind of good so that you will be acceptable to Him. The fruit of Communion most often has a taste of sweet peace in the heart; sometimes it brings enlightenment to thought and inspiration to one’s devotion to the Lord; sometimes almost nothing is apparent, but afterward in one’s affairs there is a noted a great strength and steadfastness in the diligence one has promised.”
