“O death, where is thy sting? O Hades, where is thy victory? Christ is Risen, and you are overthrown! Christ is Risen, and the demons are fallen! Christ is Risen and the Angels rejoice! Christ is Risen, and Life reigns! Christ is Risen, and not one dead remains in the tomb!”
Saint John Chrysostom
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“There is one thing, O Christ, that I want, one thing I desire, one thing I ask for, and that is to be with You.”
Saint Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia
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“Once while Elder Joseph the Hesychast was Praying for a departed Soul who had been condemned, he had the following vision: “As I was Praying, I saw the late Father George Karslidis in front of me. He is a contemporary Saint. I managed to meet him because he was still alive when I was in the world. Ever day, he served the Liturgy and commemorated thousands of names. Afterwards, he would go to the tombs and read Trisagion Prayers and Memorial Services for the departed, all day long. I saw him in a vision and heard him saying to me in great amazement: “Wow! Until today, I thought that the deceased were only saved with Liturgies and Memorial Services. But today I saw and realised that people in hell are also saved with Prayer Ropes.” Again he repeated with admiration: “Yes, people are also saved with Prayer Ropes.””
Abbot Haralambos Dionysiatis
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“But now that the Saviour has raised His Body, death is no longer terrible, but all those who believe in Christ tread it underfoot as nothing, and prefer to die rather than to deny their faith in Christ, knowing full well that when they die they do not perish, but live indeed, and become incorruptible through the Resurrection.”
Saint Athanasios the Great
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“Oh if you only knew what joy, what sweetness awaits a righteous Soul in Heaven!”
Saint Seraphim of Sarov
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“All my hope is in God’s Mercy.”
Saint Ephrem the Syrian
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“Our grief over the death of our close ones would be inconsolable and boundless if the Lord had not given us Eternal Life. Our life would be meaningless if it ended with death. What benefit, then, would there be from virtue or good deeds? They would be right who say, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!’ But man was created for immortality.”
Saint John Maximovich
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“God takes each person at the very best time of his life, in a particular manner, in order to save his Soul.”
Saint Paisios the Athonite
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“If God has taught you a Spiritual knowledge of created beings, you will not doubt the words of Scripture concerning the Blessings held in store.”
Saint Thalassios the Libyan
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“Christ is Risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and to those in the tombs, He is bestowing life.”
Paschal Troparion
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“Strive to be united first with the Lord, and then with the Saints, so that after death they may receive you as familiar friends into the everlasting dwellings.”
Saint Anthony the Great
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“When you are walking somewhere, think at each step that every stride takes you nearer the grave.”
Saint Theophan the Recluse
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“Don’t be sad, for we will all depart from here. We are passing travellers.”
Saint George Karslides
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“Don’t be deceived regarding the knowledge of what will be after your death: what you sow here, you will reap there. After leaving here, no one can make progress. Here is the work, there the reward; here the struggle, there the crowns.”
Saint Barsanuphius the Great
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“Beside all this, a more wonderful Grace is bestowed upon the Saints in Heaven: for they know not only them with whom they were acquainted in this world, but also those whom before they never saw, and converse with them in such familiar sort as though in times past they had seen and known one another: and therefore when they shall see the Ancient Fathers in that place of perpetual bliss, they shall then know them by sight, whom always they knew in their lives and conversation. For seeing they do in that place with unspeakable brightenss, common to all, behold God, what is there that they know not, that know Him Who knoweth all things?”
Saint Gregory the Great
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“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 did that I may live. Remember me, O Lord, in Thy Kingdom.”
Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk
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“Death does not exist. Do not fear death.”
Saint Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia
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“It is said that in the Life to Come the Angels and Saints ever increase in gifts of Grace and never abate their longing for further Blessings. No lapse or veering from virtue to vice takes place in that Life.”
Saint Gregory of Sinai
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“We were created to live on Earth unlike animals who die and disappear with time, but with the high purpose to live with God not for a hundred years or so but for Eternity.”
Saint Innocent of Alaska
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“Death teaches us to love one another as a matter of urgency, so as not to leave this life embittered with one another. A person who believes in the Resurrection of Christ considers that whilst the lights may switch off with death, this is not because all things have ended and become lost. Rather, the sweetness of a new dawn has arrived and something beautiful and new is about to commence.”
Archbishop Makarios of Australia
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