“When someone offends you, Pray for them, it’s medicine or your Soul.”
Saint Paisios the Athonite
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“When you are angry with someone, say. ‘Lord, have mercy on this person as You have mercy on me.’ And here your distress is transformed into Prayer.”
Elder Ephraim of Arizona
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“I ask you to try something. If someone grieves you, or dishonours you, or takes something of yours, then Pray like this: “Lord, we are all Your creatures. Pity your servants, and turn them to repentance,” and then you will perceptibly bear Grace in your Soul. Induce your heart to love your enemies, and the Lord, seeing your good will, shall help you in all things, and will Himself show you experience. But whoever thinks evil of his enemies does not have love for God and has not known God.”
Saint Silouan the Athonite
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“If you are remembering evil against someone, then Pray for him; and through your Prayer, you will remove the pain of the remembrance of the evil he has done, and you will stop the advance of the passions.”
Saint Maximos the Confessor
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“Bear it in silence when an enemy offends you, and open your heart to the Lord.”
Saint Seraphim of Sarov
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“To you He has given charge simply to Pray for the one who has injured you; but how to deal with him, He has ordered you to leave for Himself.”
Saint John Chrysostom
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He said to a certain pilgrim about a dispute: “He did this to you, you did this to him, he did this to you, and again you did this to him. These things never end. You should not have continued to return the evil.”
Saint George Karslides
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“We need to be careful not to harbour any resentment against those who harm us, but rather to Pray for them with love. Whatever any of our fellow men does, we should never think evil of him. We need always to have thoughts of love and always to think good of others. Look at Saint Stephen the first Martyr. He Prayed, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. We need to do the same.”
Sain Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia
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“Do not take vengeance upon anyone yourself, not by a single thought or intention.”
Saint John of Kronstadt
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“Have you been treated very unjustly and been deprived of much because of someone else… slandered and damaged in very serious matters… leave things to God, He will take care of things much better than you yourself can; to you He simply gave the Commandment to Pray for the person who has grieved you.”
Saint John Chrysostom
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Certain of the clergy, scandalized by the behaviour of Saint Vitalis, reported him to the Holy Patriarch John the Merciful. But the Patriarch did not believe the informers and he said, “Cease to judge, especially Monks. Don’t you know what happened at the First Council of Nicea? Some of the Bishops and the Clergy brought letters of denunciation against each other to the Emperor Saint Constantine the Great. He commanded that a burning candle be brought, and not even reading the letters, he burned them and said, ‘If I had seen with my own eyes a Bishop sinning, or a Priest, or a Monk, then I would have veiled such with his garb, so that no one might see his sin.’”
Saint John the Merciful
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“By Praying for those who wrong us we overthrow the devil; opposing them we are wounded by him.”
Saint Mark the Ascetic
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“Love does not know how to lose its temper.”
Saint Isaac the Syrian
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“If you see a man who has sinned and you do not pity him, the Grace of God will leave you. Whoever curses bad people, and does not Pray for them, will never come to know the Grace of God.”
Saint Silouan the Athonite
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“Conquer evil men by your gentle kindness, and make zealous men wonder at your goodness. Put the lover of legality to shame by your compassion. Love all men, but keep distant from all men.”
Saint Isaac the Syrian
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“”But I say to you,” the Lord says, “love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, Pray for those who persecute you.” Why did He Command these things? So that he might free you from hatred, sadness, anger and grudges, and might grant you the greatest possession of all, perfect love, which is impossible to possess except by the one who loves all equally in imitation of God.”
Saint Maximus the Confessor
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“Look, when someone is steaming with anger, no matter what you say, it will come to nothing. It is better to keep quiet and say the Jesus Prayer. With Prayer, he’ll calm down, and you can then communicate with him. You see, even fishermen don’t go fishing unless the sea is calm; they wait patiently for the storm to pass.”
Saint Paisios the Athonite
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“Never identify a person with the wrong way in which he is treating you, but see Christ in his heart.”
Saint Gavrilia, the Ascetic of Love
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“Compassion for others and sympathy for their failings will bring the heart closer to the heart of God than any form of judging.”
Saint Hesychius of Jerusalem
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“You must bear the Spiritual infirmities of your brother gladly, and without annoyance. For when someone is physically ill, we are not only not annoyed with him, but we are exemplary in our care of him; we should also set an example in cases of Spiritual illness.”
Saint Moses of Optina
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“Tolerate each other’s failures and imperfections, for therein lies Salvation. Fire is not extinguished by fire, but by water. Likewise, evil is vanquished only by love.”
Saint Sebastian of Optina
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“Remembrance of the Lord’s Passion will heal your Soul of resentment by making it ashamed of itself when it remembers the patience of the Lord.”
Saint John Klimakos
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“Wickedness never eradicates wickedness. If someone does evil to you, do good to them, and your goodness will conquer their wickedness.”
Saint Poemen the Great
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“The therapeutic method is to leave aside the brother who has wronged us and to begin a conversation with God. We say: “My God, it’s my fault. I am unworthy to be loved by people…” Then repentance and weeping begin, and this cures the negative psychological phenomenon and makes it Spiritual. We see this in the life of Christ. The Apostle Peter was preventing Christ from going to the Cross, but Christ had steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, to Golgotha. His crucifiers were howling, but He had His nous turned towards God’s Will and was Praying to His Father. He did not engage in a dialogue with people but with God. In this way we become healthy and are cured. This is a kind of ‘struggle’ with God.”
Saint Sophrony of Essex
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“Do not say then, ‘I am hated, and that is why I do not love.’ For this is why you ought to love most.”
Saint John Chrysostom
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A brother whom another brother had wronged came to see Abba Sisoes and said to him, ‘My brother has hurt me and I want to avenge myself.’ The old man pleaded with him saying, ‘No, my child, leave vengeance to God.’ He said to him, ‘I shall not rest until I have avenged myself.’ The old man said, ‘Brother, let us Pray.’ Then the old man stood up and said, ‘God, we no longer need you to care for us, since we do justice for ourselves.’ Hearing these words, the brothers fell at the old man’s feet, saying, ‘I will no longer seek justice from my brother; forgive me, Abba.’
Saint Sisoes the Great
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“O Lord, as Thou Thyself didst Pray for Thine enemies, so teach us, too, by Thy Holy Spirit, to love our enemies. O Lord, all peoples are the work of Thy hands – turn them from enmity and malice to repentance, that all may know Thy love.”
Saint Silouan the Athonite
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Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.
Enemies have driven me into Your embrace more than friends have.
Friends have bound me to Earth, enemies have loosed me from Earth and have demolished all my aspirations in the world.
Enemies have made me a stranger in worldly realms and an extraneous inhabitant of the world. Just as a hunted animal finds safer shelter than an unhunted animal does, so have I, persecuted by enemies, found the safest sanctuary, having ensconced myself beneath Your tabernacle, where neither friends nor enemies can slay my Soul.
Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.
They, rather than I, have confessed my sins before the world.
They have punished me, whenever I have hesitated to punish myself.
They have tormented me, whenever I have tried to flee torments.
They have scolded me, whenever I have flattered myself.
They have spat upon me, whenever I have filled myself with arrogance.
Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.
Whenever I have made myself wise, they have called me foolish.
Whenever I have made myself mighty, they have mocked me as though I were a dwarf.
Whenever I have wanted to lead people, they have shoved me into the background.
Whenever I have rushed to enrich myself, they have prevented me with an iron hand.
Whenever I thought that I would sleep peacefully, they have wakened me from sleep.
Whenever I have tried to build a home for a long and tranquil life, they have demolished it and driven me out.
Truly, enemies have cut me loose from the world and have stretched out my hands to the hem of Your garment.
Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.
Bless them and multiply them; multiply them and make them even more bitterly against me:
so that my fleeing to You may have no return;
so that all hope in men may be scattered like cobwebs;
so that absolute serenity may begin to reign in my Soul;
so that my heart may become the grave of my two evil twins, arrogance and anger;
so that I might amass all my treasure in Heaven;
ah, so that I may for once be freed from self-deception, which has entangled me in the dreadful web of illusory life.
Enemies have taught me to know what hardly anyone knows, that a person has no enemies in the world except himself.
One hates his enemies only when he fails to realize that they are not enemies, but cruel friends.
It is truly difficult for me to say who has done me more good and who has done me more evil in the world: friends or enemies.
Therefore bless, O Lord, both my friends and enemies.
A slave curses enemies, for he does not understand. But a son blesses them, for he understands.
For a son knows that his enemies cannot touch his life.
Therefore he freely steps among them and Prays to God for them.
Saint Nikolai Velimivoric
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