Words from the Saints -- September 5, 2017
Gerald Largent
"Do not stop praying as long as, by God's grace, the fire and the water [i.e. fervor and tears] have not been exhausted, for it may happen that never again in your whole life will you have such a chance to ask for the forgiveness for your sins." --St. John Climacus
"If one becomes angry with one's neighbor on account of riches, fame or pleasure, one does not yet realize that God orders all things with justice." --St. Mark the Ascetic
"Anyone who truly wants to follow God must be free from the bonds of attachment to this life. To do this we must make a complete break with our old way of life. Indeed, unless we avoid all obsession with the body and with the concerns of this world, we shall never succeed in pleasing God. We must depart as it were to another world in our way of thinking, as the Apostle said: 'Our citizenship is in heaven.'"
--St. Basil the Great
"Born as a son, led forth as a lamb, sacrificed as a sheep, buried as a man, He rose from the dead as a God, for He was by nature God and Man. He is all things: He judges, and so He is Law; He teaches, and so He is Word; He saves, and so He is Grace; He begets, and so He is Father, He is begotten, and so He is Son; He suffers, and so He is Sacrifice; He is buried, and so He is Man; He rises again, and so He is God. This is Jesus Christ, to Whom belongs Glory for all ages." --St. Melito of Sardis
"Remembrance of Jesus' passion will heal your soul of resentment, by making it ashamed of itself when it remembers the patience of the Lord. Some people have wearied themselves and suffered for a long time in order to extract forgiveness. By far the best course, however, is to forget the offenses, since the Lord says: 'Forgive at once and you will be forgiven in generous measure' (cf. Luke 6:37-38)."
--St. John Climacus
"Some of the things given to us by God for our use are in the soul, others are in the body and others relate to the body. In the soul are its powers; in the body are the sense organs and other members; relating to the body are food, money, possessions and so on. Our good or bad use of these things given us by God, or of what is contingent upon them, reveals whether we are virtuous or evil."
--St. Maximos the Confessor