Words from the Saints -- February 6, 2025

"When the devil sees a soul protected by virtues, he dare not come near it, fearing the strength and power given to it by prayer." --St. John Chrysostom

"To yield and give way to our passions is the lowest slavery, even as to rule over them is the only liberty." --St. Justin Martyr

"If a man tries to overcome temptations without prayer and patient endurance, he will become more entangled in them instead of driving them away." --St. Mark the Ascetic

"As a man whose head is under water cannot inhale pure air, so a man whose thoughts are plunged into the cares of this world cannot absorb the sensations of that new world." --St. Isaac the Syrian

"Impel your intellect continually to prayer and you will destroy the evil thoughts that beset your heart." --St. Thalassios the Libyan

Words from the Saints -- January 30, 2025

"If we knew at what time we were to depart from this world, we would be able to select a season for pleasure and another for repentance. But God, who has promised pardon to every repentant sinner, has not promised us tomorrow. Therefore we must always dread the final day, which we can never foresee. This very day is a day of truce, a day for conversion. And yet we refuse to cry over the evil we have done! Not only do we not weep for the sins we have committed, we even add to them. . . If we are, in fact, now occupied in good deeds, we should not attribute the strength with which we are doing them to ourselves. We must not count on ourselves, because even if we know what kind of person we are today, we do not know what we will be tomorrow. Nobody must rejoice in the security of their own good deeds. As long as we are still experiencing the uncertainties of this life, we do not know what end may follow... we must not trust in our own virtues." --St. Gregory the Great

"Thus it is we ought to love our enemies. This is to love God, Who hath enjoined it, Who hath given it as His law. To imitate Him is to love our enemy. Consider it is not thine enemy thou art benefiting, but thyself; thou art not loving him, but art obeying God. Knowing therefore these things, let us confirm our love one to another, that we may perform this duty perfectly, and attain those good things that are promised in Christ Jesus our Lord, with Whom to the Father, together with the Holy Ghost, be glory, might, and honor, now, and forever and ever. Amen." --St. John Chrysostom

"Sometimes men are tested by pleasure, sometimes by distress or by physical suffering. By means of His prescriptions the Physician of souls administers the remedy according to the cause of the passions lying hidden in the soul." --St. Maximos the Confessor

"The forceful practice of self-control and love, patience and stillness, will destroy the passions hidden within us." --St. Thalassios the Libyan

"Do not be double-tongued, saying one thing when your conscience says another. For Scripture places such people under a curse." --St. Mark the Ascetic

Words from the Saints -- January 23, 2025

"Remember that the Lord is in every Christian. When your neighbor comes to you, always have great respect for him, because the Lord is in him, and often expresses His will through him. 'It is God which works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure' (Philippians 2:13). Therefore, do not grudge anything to your brother, but do to him as to the Lord; especially as you do not know in whom the Lord will come and visit you; be impartial to all, be kind to all, sincere and hospitable. Remember that sometimes God speaks even through unbelievers, or disposes their hearts towards us, as it happened in Egypt when the Lord gave Joseph favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison (Genesis 39:21)." --St. John of Kronstadt

"Having read Holy Scripture very carefully, you should also read the holy Fathers who interpret the Scriptures. You will receive no less delight from reading the Fathers than you do from the Scriptures. The Fathers develop the hidden meanings in Scripture and with their own writings help us to understand what we did not before. Because of that philosophic axiom that all men by nature seek knowledge, we must say that great delight follows naturally when we learn about hidden and unknown matters. This is why there will be ineffable joy and gladness that will come to your soul from the interpretations and the words of the holy Fathers. You too will be shouting, ad did David, those enthusiastic words in the Psalms." --St. Nicodemos of the Holy Mountain

"What is the will of God that St. Paul urges and invites each of us to attain (1 Thessalonians 4:3)? It is total cleansing from sin, freedom from the shameful passions and the acquisition of the highest virtue. In other words, it is the purification and sanctification of the heart that comes about through fully experienced and conscious participation in the perfect and divine Spirit." --St. Makarios of Egypt

"Just as those whose sense of smell is healthy can tell who has hidden perfumes, so the pure soul can recognize in others both the fragrance which he himself has obtained from God, and the stench from which he has been freed." --St. John Climacus

"Fire makes iron impossible to touch, and likewise frequent prayer renders us more forceful in our warfare against the enemy. That is why the demons strive with all their strength to make us slothful in attentiveness to prayer, for they know that prayer is our invincible weapon against them." --St. John of Karpathos

Words from the Saints -- January 16, 2025

"The tongue of a back-biting soul is three-pronged: it injures the speaker, the listener and sometimes the person being maligned." --St. Thalassios the Libyan

"If the poison of pride is swelling up in you, turn to the Eucharist; and that Bread, Which is your God humbling and disguising Himself, will teach you humility. If the fever of selfish greed rages in you, feed on this Bread; and you will learn generosity. If the cold wind of coveting withers you, hasten to the Bread of Angels; and charity will come to blossom in your heart. If you feel the itch of intemperance, nourish yourself with the Flesh and Blood of Christ, Who practiced heroic self-control during His earthly life; and you will become temperate. If you are lazy and sluggish about spiritual things, strengthen yourself with this heavenly Food; and you will grow fervent. Lastly, if you feel scorched by the fever of impurity, go to the banquet of the Angels; and the spotless Flesh of Christ will make you pure and chaste." --St. Cyril of Alexandria

"Hence it is very clear that disturbing urges are not always aroused in us by other people's faults. Rather, we are to blame -- we who have stored up within ourselves the causes of our offenses and the seeds of our vices that, when the rain shower of temptation drenches our mind, at once break forth into buds and fruits." --St. John Cassian

"The New Man of grace is the result of prayer." --St. Isaac the Syrian

"There is still time for endurance, time for patience, time for healing, time for change. Have you slipped? Rise up. Have you sinned? Cease. Do not stand among sinners, but leap aside." --St. Basil the Great

Words from the Saints -- January 9, 2025

"There are many differing methods of prayer. No method is harmful; if it were, it would be not prayer but the activity of Satan." --St. Mark the Ascetic

"The person who truly wishes to be healed is he who does not refuse treatment. This treatment consists of the pain and distress brought on by various misfortunes. He who refuses them does not realize what they accomplish in this world or what he will gain from them when he departs this life." --St. Maximos the Confessor

"Without contrition of the heart it is altogether impossible to rid ourselves of evil. Now the heart is made contrite by threefold self-control: in sleep, in food and in bodily relaxation. For excess of these three things leads to self-indulgence; and this in turn makes us accept evil thoughts, and is opposed to prayer and to appropriate work." --St. Kosmas Aitolos

"True hope seeks the one Kingdom of God and is sure that everything necessary for this mortal life will surely be given. The heart cannot have peace until it acquires this hope. This hope pacifies it fully and brings joy to it. The most holy lips of the Savior spoke about this very hope: 'Come to Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest'" (Matthew 11:28).” --St. Seraphim of Sarov

"No one in this world is happy unless he has opened wide the gates of his spiritual Jerusalem—his soul—and received God into himself. A godless man feels lonely to despair. The society of others does not make his loneliness go away, but only increases it. However he who has taken God into his soul will never feel lonely even in a desert. No one dies an eternal death other than one in whom God has died." --St. Nikolai Velimirovich

Words from the Saints -- January 2, 2025

"No other book so glorifies God as does the Psalter (Book of Psalms). It profits the soul; it glorifies God together with the angels." --St. Basil the Great

"Without sorrows there is no salvation. On the other hand, the Kingdom of God awaits those who have patiently endured. And all the glory of the world is nothing in comparison." --St. Seraphim of Sarov

"Seek to learn on earth those truths which will remain ever valid in Heaven." --St. Jerome

"A true Christian is made by faith and love toward Christ." --St. Herman of Alaska

"Every single one of the saints acquired humility from the fulfillment of the Commandments. No one can explain how this comes about, how humility is generated in the soul. Unless a man learns this by experience, he cannot learn it by verbal teaching." --St. Dorotheos of Gaza