Feast Day: January 10th
The Life of Saint Theophan: He wrote about topics which others before him had not fully treated, such as how to live a Christian life, how to overcome sinful habits, and how to avoid despair. He tried to explain the steps of Spiritual perfection systematically, as one who had himself gone through these various steps…
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Prayers
Troparion – Tone 8: O guide of Orthodoxy, teacher of piety and purity, Ascetic of Vysha, Divinely wise and Holy Hierarch Theophan: By your writings you explained the Word of God, and showed the way of Salvation unto all the faithful. Entreat Christ God that our Souls may be saved.
Kontakion – Tone 4: Holy hierarch Theophan, namesake of Theophany, you enlightened many people by your teachings. Now that you stand before the Throne of the Holy Trinity together with the Angels, Pray without ceasing for us all.
“Always, in the midst of difficulties, I find Christ more easily and my Prayer is more fervent. You say you lose Him. I honestly don’t understand you. I must be a different kind of person.”
“True, one may know man’s final goal: communion with God. And one may describe the path to it: faith, and walking in the Commandments, with the aid of Divine Grace. One need only say in addition: here is the path – start walking!”
“Throw out of your head the idea that you can, through a comfortable life, become what you must be in Christ.”
“Be diligent and avoid idleness. For diligence is pleasing to God, so idleness on the contrary, as a source of every evil, is a sin very offensive to God.”
“Don’t be lazy. Descend. You will find life in your heart. There you must live.”
“Where there is Prayer and fasting, there are the demons.”
“Mercilessness to oneself, readiness to perform any favour to others and the surrender of oneself entirely to the Lord with a Prayerful abiding in Him – these are the creators of the Spiritual life.”
“The goal of true knowledge is to raise the Soul to God.”
“Nothing comes without effort. The help of God is always ready and always near, but is given only to those who seek and work, and only to those seekers who, after putting all their powers to the test, cry out with their whole heart: ‘Lord help us!'”
“You will achieve nothing by your own efforts alone; yet God will not give you anything unless you work with all your strength.”
“The object of our search is the fire of Grace which enters into the heart.”
“But your job is to work upon yourself: for this you are chosen; the rest is in the hands of God. He who humbles himself shall be exalted.”
“You should always choose those things that are hard and painful. Have no love for pleasures and comforts, which are unprofitable for the Soul… God alone should be your delight. He should be for you the most wonderful joy and everything else should be bitter by comparison.”
“The invincible weapon against all our enemies is humility.”
“A Soul untried by sorrows is good for nothing.”
“Remember that each of us has his own cross. The Golgotha of this cross is our heart: it is being lifted or implanted through a zealous determination to live according to the Spirit of God. Just as Salvation of the world is by the Cross of God, so our Salvation is by our crucifixion on our own cross.”
“Nothing good is acquired for free. Instead it is acquired later through tears and toil.”
“Pleasure is evidence of the wrong path, while sorrow is evidence of the right path. Whenever you think about this, rejoice, as crusaders of truth!”
“Destroy your wild lusts and passions, you will gratify God more, and you will work for Him more magnificently than if you scourge yourself until you issue blood or tire yourself out with fasting more than any elderly desert Hermit. For even if you redeem hundreds of Christian slaves from the unbelievers and liberate them, it will not save you, if you continue to be a slave to your passions. And no matter what work you perform, however wonderful, and with whatever labor and sacrifice you might achieve it, it will not guide you toward your goal, if you do not pay attention to your passions, allowing them the liberty to live and work in you.”
“Whatever you may be seeking, seek it with all your strength, but do not expect your own search and efforts to bear fruit of themselves. Put your trust in the Lord, ascribing nothing to yourself, and He will give you your heart’s desire.”
“At the very onset of even a slight sense of your sinfulness and the danger of remaining in it, delve ever deeper into yourself, and with even greater force of thought conquer yourself with threats and sobering ideas; using them, shake up and soften your insensitive heart, as a heavy hammer softens a rough stone.”
“Prayer of the heart comes when one makes an effort; to those who do not strive, it will not come.”
“A wise custom of the ancient Holy Fathers: when greeting each other, they didn’t ask about health or anything else, but rather about Prayer, saying ‘How is your Prayer?’ Prayer was considered by them to a be a sign of the spiritual life, and they called it the breath of the spirit. If the body has breath, it lives; if breathing stops, life comes to an end. So it is with the spirit. If there is Prayer, the Soul lives; without Prayer, there is no Spiritual life.”
“I presume that you negligently rushed to complete your Prayer rule, just to get by. Make it a rule, from now on, never to Pray negligently. Nothing is more offensive to God than this. It is better to leave out part of your Prayer rule and to complete the remainder reverently and with fear of God, than to do the whole Prayer rule, and do it negligently. It is even better to read but one Prayer, or fall on your knees and Pray in your own words, than to Pray negligently. If you Pray carelessly, there will be no fruit. Give yourself a thorough reprimand for such carelessness. Let this be clear to you: No one who prays earnestly and with attention ends Prayer without feeling the effect of Prayer. Oh, of what a blessing we deprive ourselves by allowing negligence in Prayer!”
“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. Know that our enemies, with all their wiles, are in the hands of our Divine Commander, Our Lord Jesus Christ, for Whose Honour and Glory you are waging war. Since He himself leads you into battle, He will certainly not suffer your enemies to use violence against you and overcome you, if you do not yourself cross over to their side with your will. He will Himself fight for you and will deliver your enemies into your hands, when He wills and as He wills, as it is written: ‘The Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee’ (Deut. 23:14).”
“If the righteous one is scarcely saved, where shall I, the sinner, appear? The burden and heat of the day I did not endure because of the weakness of my humanity. But, O Merciful God, count me with the fellows of the eleventh hour. For, behold, in iniquities I was conceived, and in sins my mother bore me. Therefore, I do not dare to lift up my eyes to Heaven; but rather, I rely on the abundance of Your Mercy and Love for mankind, crying out and saying, ‘God, forgive me, a sinner, and have mercy on me.'”
“Leaving the world is nothing other than cleaning up your entire external life, removing from it everything passionate and replacing it with something pure, which will not disrupt the Spiritual life, but rather aid it.”
“Fasting appears gloomy until one steps into its arena. But begin and you will see what light it brings after darkness, what freedom from bonds, what release after a burdensome life.”
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“To Pray is to descend with the mind into the heart, and there to stand before the face of the Lord, ever present, all seeing, within you.”
“The best Prayer is: ‘Lord! Thou knowest all things. Do with me as Thou Willest!'”
“The principal thing is to stand with the mind in the heart before God, and to go on standing before Him unceasingly day and night, until the end of life.”
“Turn to the Lord, drawing the down the attention of the mind into the heart, and calling upon Him there. With the mind firmly established in the heart, stand before the Lord with awe, reverence and devotion. If we would fulfil this small rule unfailingly, then passionate desires and feelings would never arise, nor would any other thought.”
“Descend with your attention into the heart, stand there before the Lord and admit nothing sinful to enter there. In this is the entire activity of inner warfare.”
“Do not rush one Prayer after another but say them with orderly deliberation, as one addressing a great person for a favour. Do not just pay attention to the words, but rather let the mind be in the heart, standing before the Lord in full awareness of His presence, in full consciousness of His greatness and Grace and justice.”
“Attention to that which transpires in the heart and proceeds from it – this is the chief activity of the proper Christian life.”
“A Christian without zeal is a poor Christian.”
“When a soldier is attacked by the enemy, should he just run away? Of course not. He should fight. And we have to fight, too. As soon as the devil, the enemy, bares his teeth, through the little problems he creates for us, we have to fight back.”
“Stand before the Lord with the attention in the heart, and call to Him: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me!’ The essential part of this is not in the words, but in faith, contrition, and self-surrender to the Lord. With these feelings one can stand before the Lord even without any words, and it will still be Prayer.”
“Walking into Church we walk into a completely different world, are influenced by it, and change according to it.”
“We grow cold within when our heart is distracted, when it cleaves to something other than God, worrying about different things, getting angry and blaming someone, – when we are discontented and pander to the flesh, wallowing in luxury and wandering thoughts. Guard against these things, and the coldness will diminish.”
“The Spiritual life is such a realm into which the wisdom of this world does not penetrate.”
“The Lord is on the Cross. Stand in front of Him in your thoughts and ponder, how would the Lord meet you once He comes down from the Cross? Keep thinking about this for some time, and your conscience will clearly tell you the truth.”
“During the Prayer, the enemy always will try to bring into your mind things that may seem extremely important, and then removes these thoughts and leads you further astray. It is vital to instill in your hearts a strong conviction and decisiveness in order to be able to choose God as opposed to anything else, at least during Prayer.”
“Comprehension or the ability to see certain Spiritual things can happen during Prayer. But the Prayer that is simply read will not give you this. You can only get this from a brief, personal Prayer, where you continuously keep God within yourself.”
“When you finished your Prayer, do not think that it is all over. Act as if you are attending the Liturgy. Always have a sober mind and keep your thoughts chaste.”
“Get out of the mind and into the heart.”
“A person who has repented will first only see his sins, but once the inner self begins to settle, a person can start seeing passions that surround the Soul. Someone who has said before: ‘O Lord have mercy on me a sinner’, will now add the following: ‘God, cleanse me a sinner’ or ‘heal my Soul.'”
“But how can it be that our Good Shepherd, Who for three years sought the sheep which had wandered amiss, crying out so loudly that His throat was parched, and following roads so worn and full of thorns that He shed every drop of His blood and delivered His very life. How can it be, I say again, that now, if His sheep should follow after Him, turning to Him with love and calling out to Him for help with hope, He would decline to cast His eyes on the sheep that had gone astray. How could He not take it into His Divine embrace and, put it among the Angels of Heaven, and prepare a welcoming banquet for it?”
“The work of God is simple: it is Prayer – children talking with their Father.”
“You must gather yourself together within your heart and stand there before the Lord. This will show up any speck of dust. Pray, and may God grant your Prayer.”
“Although prayer is a habitual action for us, it needs preparation. For anyone who knows how to read and write, what is more usual than reading and writing? Yet if we sit down to read and write we do not do so suddenly, we first get ourselves into the mood for what we are going to do. This kind of preparation is all the more necessary before we start to Pray, particularly if our occupation immediately beforehand was very different from Prayer. So, morning or evening, immediately before you begin to repeat your Prayers, stand awhile, sit for awhile, or walk a little and try to steady your mind and turn it away from all worldly activities and objects. After this, think who He is to Whom you turn in Prayer, then recollect who you are; who it is who is about to start this invocation to Him in Prayer. Do this in such a way as to awake in your heart a feeling of humility and reverent awe that your are standing in the presence of God. It is the beginning of Prayer, and a good beginning is half the complete task.”
“Prayer is the test of everything; Prayer is also the source of everything; Prayer is the driving force of everything. If there is no success in Prayer, then there will be no success in anything.”
“To Pray is quite straightforward. Stand with the mind in the heart before the face of the Lord and cry: ‘Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me’, or just: ‘Lord have mercy’, Most Merciful Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner’ – or with any other words. The power is not in the words, but in the thoughts and feelings.”
“It is a good Prayer that ends with your falling down before God with the feeling that Thou Who knowest the hearts, save me.”
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“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)”
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“The body at work but the thought with God – such should be the state of a true Christian.”
“Whatever you are doing, with whomever you are speaking, whether you are going somewhere or sitting, let your mind be with the Lord.”
“Vain fussing about is not made up of many tasks, but of the manner in which they are carried out. When one is being carried out and hundreds jostle in your head. You must chase all those out, and carry out the one task, and do it with your hands at that, while with your mind abide in your place.”
“Pursue daily affairs as tasks assigned by God, and done for Him. This way, no worldly task will distract from God, rather draw you closer to Him.”
“Some Icons are Miraculous because God wants it so. The power here is not in the Icon and not in the people who come running, but in God’s Mercy.”
“All Christians are called; chosen are those Christians who believe and live in a Christian manner.”
“Love not only those close to you and your benefactors, but even your enemies, so that you might thereby pacify them, correct them, and make them good people.”
“One must ensure that the Soul does not only make petition to God when standing in Prayer, but during the whole day, as much as possible, one must unceasingly ascend to Him and remain with Him. In order to begin this task, one must first, during the course of the day, cry out to God more often, even if only with a few words, according to need and the work of the day. Beginning anything, for example, say ‘Bless, O Lord!’ When you finish something, say, ‘Glory to Thee, O Lord’, and not only with your lips, but with feeling in your heart. If passions arise, say, ‘Save me, O Lord, I am perishing.’ If the darkness of disturbing thoughts comes up, cry out: ‘Lead my Soul out of prison!’ If dishonest deeds present themselves and sin leads you to them, Pray, ‘Set me, O Lord, in the way’, or ‘do not give up my feet to stumbling.’ If sin takes hold of you and leads you to despair, cry out with the voice of the publican, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ Do this in every circumstance, or simply say often, ‘Lord, have mercy’, ‘Most Holy Theotokos save us’, ‘Holy Angel, my guardian, protect me’, or other such words. Say such Prayers as often as possible, always making the effort for them come from your heart, as if squeezed out of it. When we do this, we will frequently ascend to God in our hearts, making frequent petitions and Prayers. Such increased frequency will bring about the habit of mental conversation with God.”
“Accustom the mind to living in the presence of God. Let him force himself to ceaselessly behold God, for He is near; and let him ascend to the feeling that he is seen by God. This practice is the doorway to God, the opening of Heaven to the mind.”
“Worry disturbs our thoughts and does not even allow us to focus on the task at hand. I suggest, therefore, that you look into this, and if you find that such worry occasionally overwhelms you, try to drive it out and do not give it any ground. Have enthusiasm for your work and, performing it with utmost care, expect success from God, dedicating the task itself to Him, no matter how small it is, and you will get rid of worry.”
“The Lord chose the Apostles, that they should be with Him, and that he might send them forth to preach, and to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils.”
“God arranges for us to meet certain people so that we could pass on the good given to us by God and enriched each other Souls. The devil will try to do everything to make sure these meeting become useless and even harmful. Keep this in mind!”
“Remembrance of God is something that God Himself grafts upon the Soul, but the Soul must also force itself to persevere and to toil. Work, making every effort to attain the unceasing remembrance of God. And God, seeing how fervently you desire it, will give you this constant recollection of Himself.”
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“Of all Holy works, the education of children is the most Holy.”
“The chief evil with relation to the body is love for the body and pitying it. This takes away all the Soul’s authority over the body and makes the Soul the slave of the body. And on the contrary, one who does not spare the body will not be disturbed in whatever he does by apprehensions born of blind love of life. How fortunate is one who is trained to this from childhood!”
“The goal of human freedom is not in freedom itself, nor it is in man, but in God. By giving man freedom, God has yielded to man a piece of His Divine authority, but with the intention that man himself would voluntarily bring it as a sacrifice to God, a most perfect offering.”
“If we compare our nature to copper, then copper in conjunction with silver is still the same nature but one that is now embellished in the Holy Baptism.”
“Learn about the teachings of the Orthodox Christian Church and hold onto them in your heart – and you will see the way to the Kingdom of Heaven.”
“Knowing what is contained in the Holy Mysteries of the Church, be a communicant of the Mysteries as often as possible, with Faith and with the Holy Tradition of the Church. Then the Divine Power of God, will not weaken and direct to the the Kingdom of Heaven.”
“Make sure you live within the framework of the Church because then you will live in a Spiritual atmosphere and you will be fenced off from temptation, and your strength will never weaken in your path to Salvation, and no temptation will be able to leave you at difficult crossroads.”
“I will declare to you plainly, the highest and most perfect matter one hopes to attain is to draw near to God, and abide as one with Him.”
“The enemy is cunning, but the Angel of God is stronger than him: he will swing the sword, and all the spiderwebs of the enemy will scatter like dust, and be swept up by the wind.”
“Christian life is zeal, and the strength to remain in communion with God by means of an active fulfillment of His Holy Will, according to our Faith in Our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the help of the Grace of God, to the Glory of His Most Holy Name.”
“It is well known how powerfully corrupt images act upon the Soul, no matter in what form they may touch it! How unfortunate is the child who, closing his eyes, or being left alone and going within himself, is stifled by a multitude of improper images -vain, tempting, breathing of the passions. This is the same thing for the Soul as smoke is for the head.”
“When the child begins to understand, the general means of fighting passions can be used. One must arm oneself against the passions from the beginning, and persecute them thereafter for the whole time of upbringing, so that the child might be able and might become accustomed to mastering them; for their disturbing attacks will not cease to the end of one’s life.”
“It is necessary that in the gaze of the parents there should be not only love, which is so natural, but also the faith that in their arms there is something more than a simple child. The parents must have the hope that He Who gave them this treasure under their watch as a vessel of Grace might furnish them also with sufficient means to preserve him. And finally, there should be ceaseless Prayer performed in the spirit, aroused by hope according to faith.”
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“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.”
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