“Brothers and Sisters! The All-Merciful God desires happiness for us both in this life and in the life to come. To this end He established His Holy Church, so that she might cleanse us from sin, Sanctify us, reconcile us with Him and give us a Heavenly Blessing. The embrace of the Church is always open to us. Let us all hasten there more quickly, we whose consciences are burdened. Let us hasten, and the Church will lift the weight of our burdens, give us boldness before God, and fill our hearts with happiness and blessedness.”
Saint Nektarios of Aegina
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“Enter into the Church and wash away your sins. For there is a hospital for sinners and not a court of law.”
Saint John Chrysostom
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“God has set up Churches like harbours along the coast, so that you may take refuge there out of the swirl of earthly cares and find peace and quiet.”
Saint John Chrysostom
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“The Church is an endless source of Miracles. It takes water and makes it Holy Water; it takes bread and wine and makes the Holy Eucharist; it takes man made of dirt and makes him a god! But many people do not see the Miracles.”
Saint Paisios the Athonite
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“Divine Providence has wonderfully arranged it that there should be in the Church both holy poor and good rich people, who in turn benefit each other from their very diversity. In order for the eternal and incorruptible rewards to be gained, those receiving give thanks to God, and those distributing give thanks to God.”
Saint Leo the Great
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“The Church is a mystery. Whoever enters the Church doesn’t die, he is saved, is eternal.”
Saint Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia
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“In the Church we find the health, the consolation, the hope and Salvation of our Souls.”
Saint Iakovos Tsalikis of Evia
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“The ringing of bells is a call to converse with God, of children with their Father – a call to appear before Him.”
Saint John of Kronstadt
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“Within the Church it is possible to live the Mystery of the Cross and the Resurrection of Christ.”
Saint Sophrony of Essex
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“The Holy Church is a place of Angels, a place of Archangels, the Kingdom of God, Heaven itself!”
Saint John Chrysostom
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“As bees go and gather nectar from here and there and then they come together to create the honey, that’s what the Church is aswell. Each and every one of us have the gifts that God has given us, and that gift is different. And we need to understand that, we need to recognise it and also believe it aswell – that all of us have a gift. But that gift isn’t for us to take and to hide it and bury it in the sand; that gift is to be used for the benefit of the Church and the spreading of the Gospel of Christ. That’s what we’ve been called to do. And so in order to do that we need to grow within the Church….”
Fr Demosthenes Nicolaou
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“What is the Orthodox Church? It is the Risen Christ Who lives forever. So we who live in it continually overcome sin, death and the devil through the Risen Lord.”
Saint Justin Popovich
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“We stand with awe at the doors of the fearsome Great Lent. It is fearsome, not because it imposes on us superhuman exercises, but because of the awesome things the Grace of this period performs in the heart of the faithful. In the bosom of the Church, the atmosphere is stirred up Spiritually, and the Grace that permeates it is so tangible and abundant that it would be terrifying to lose it.”
Archimandrite Zacharias Zacharou
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“The Church is a ship. Some may sleep on it, some may do nothing, some may battle the waves. But it still continues its journey, and all the passengers sail forward with it. The main thing is to be inside the Church. Therefore, try not to miss Divine Services and visit the Temple more often.”
Saint Paisios of Mount Athos
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“It would be a great lie to tell searching Souls: ‘Go to Church, because there you will find peace.’ The opposite is true. The Church tells those who are at peace and asleep: ‘Go to Church, because there you will feel real anguish for your sins, for your perdition, for the world’s sins and perdition. There you will feel an unappeasable hunger for Christ’s Truth. There, instead of becoming lukewarm, you will be set on fire; instead of pacified, you will become alarmed; instead of learning the wisdom of this world you will become fools for Christ.”
Saint Maria Skobtsova of Paris
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“Your accord and harmonious love is a Hymn to Jesus Christ… in perfect harmony, and taking your pitch from God, you may sing in unison and in one voice to the Father through Jesus Christ.”
Saint Ignatius of Antioch
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“On my own I am not the Church, but together with you. All together we are the Church. All are incorporated in the Church.”
Saint Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia
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“When you go to Church, think that you are going to the house of the King of Heaven, where with fear and joy one ought to stand as in Heaven before the King of Heaven.”
Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk
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“The Church has been planted as a Paradise in this world.”
Saint Irenaeus of Lyons
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“A man who is growing cold towards God begins first of all to flee attending Church. At first he tries to come to Services later, and then he ceases altogether to visit God’s Temple… Here in the Skete we even make the rounds of the Cells on Feast Days, so that no one evades Church Services.”
Saint Barsanuphius of Optina
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“We are strengthened by Holy Water and Prosphoros. They should be taken with Faith.”
Saint Gabriel, the New Confessor of Georgia
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“Unite and be like one Soul. Do everything for God and repeat after Saint John Chrysostom, “Glory to God for all things”.”
Saint Elizabeth the New Martyr of Russia
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“The Church is a public hospital which heals all sinners who have been wounded by the devil. Just as those who have injuries to the body are obliged to go to the doctor to heal their wounds so that they do not die, so those Christians who are injured with the Spiritual wounds of the [sinful] passions and of sin find themselves in urgent need to go to the public hospital of the Church to show their wounds to a Spiritual Father and to receive from him the appropriate medicine and dressings [bandages] in order to be healed. Because if they disdain to do so and fail to go, their wounds will fester and will lead to their Spiritual and eternal death.”
Saint Nikodemus the Athonite
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“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.”
Saint Theophan the Recluse
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“When thoughts are choking me like so many thorns, I enter the Church, the hospital of Souls. The beauty of the Icons delight my vision like a verdant meadow, and without my noticing it stirs my Soul to praise God.”
Saint John of Damascus