SO GOOD QUOTES

Category: FAITH

  • “Just as a man with fever has no right to commit suicide, so till our very last breath we must never give up hope.”

    —St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent

  • God always helps. He always comes in time, but patience is necessary. He hears us immediately when we cry out to Him, but not in accordance with our own way of thinking. You think that your voice did not immediately reach the saints, our Panagia, and Christ. On the contrary, even before you cried out, the saints rushed to your aid, knowing that you would call upon them and seek their God-given protection. However, since you do not see beyond what is apparent and do not know how God governs the world, you want your request to be fulfilled like lightning. But this is not how things are. The Lord wants patience. He wants you to show your faith. You cannot just pray like a parrot. It is necessary also to work towards whatever one prays for, and then to learn to wait. You see that what you longed for in the past has finally happened. However, you were harmed because you didn’t have the patience to wait, in which case you would have gained both the one and the other: both the temporal and the eternal.

    —Elder Joseph the Hesychast

  • “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.”

    —St. Theophan the Recluse

  • St. Barsanuphius recounts that his disciple, “Abba Seridos was gravely ill one day, afflicted with a high fever that would not subside. Nevertheless he did not ask God to heal him or even to lessen his suffering. He asked only that God would grant him endurance and a spirit of thanksgiving.”

    —Jean-Claude Larchet, The Theology of Illness

  • …God never abandons us; we are the ones who forget and abandon Him. When man does not live spiritually, he is no entitled to divine help. But when he does live spiritually and is near God, he is entitled to it.

    …We sit for hours on end in vain, trying by ourselves to find solution to a problem, using all of our inexperience. Our head spins, our eyes burn, sleep escapes us, because the little demon has hooked us with obsessive thoughts. We may finally find a solution, but later God will found for us a better solution, which we had not thought of, leaving us with the headaches and the sleepless nights. No matter how right our thought might be, if God is not foremost, the head will tire and ache, while prayer with trust in God brings restfulness. For this reason, we can leave to God those activities which are difficult to achieve by human means and not be dependent upon our human efforts, reassured that God will do what is best.

    —Saint Paisios the Athonite

  • There is one person particular I knew who, the two words that would be constantly reiterated is, “Thank God.”  

    No matter what the question was, no matter what the situation was, “How are you feeling?”  

    “Thank God.”  

    “That’s not what I’m asking.  Are you well?”  

    “Thank God.”  

    “But, that’s not what I’m asking, that’s not the answer to my question.”  

    And then as you know the person more and more, you realize, well actually, it is the answer to my question. We say it in the Prayer of Thanksgiving every day. We thank You for every condition, concerning every condition, and in every condition.

    How can you be thankful for illness? Because it’s been given to me. Because I know that everything I have is either from God’s hand or by His permission. Either from His hand directly or by His permission. If it’s from His hand directly, it must be good. And if it’s by His permission, it can’t harm me.

    —H.G. Bishop Angaelos – How obstacles become stepping stones

  • “He who has died to all things remembers death, but whoever is still tied to the world does not cease plotting against himself.”

    —St. John Climacus

  • How many times have you suffered from severe tribulations and vowed before God that if He saves you, you will do such and such? Do you abide by the pledges which you vow before God during your affliction?

    —H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Characteristics of the Spiritual Path

  • Even at the Hour of Death! There was a very devout woman who was ill with cancer. She turned to God with prayers, and Communion and fasts were held for her. The cancer entered a very critical stage and when her final hour approached she called for me. At that time I was a bishop, and was able to visit people more than I can now, so I went to her and stood beside her bed listening to her complaints. She told me, “I am very sad because many doubts are going round in my thoughts about whether prayer, fasting and Communion are of any value, and where is God’s mercy and response?! So often I have prayed for these thoughts to leave me but they persist and I get anxious and say, ‘Shall I lose my life now, and lose my chance of eternal life too, because of these doubts?… So I said to her, “Do not be anxious, for they are not your thoughts. They are just doubts which the Devil casts into your mind. Your prayers prove that you do not accept them and that these thoughts are not from you. God will not allow a good woman like you to suffer here and in eternity as well. You are like Lazarus who received his full share of misfortunes on earth, but was deemed worthy to go to the arms of Abraham on his way to a happy eternity with God… If God wants to take you to Him, this is not against His mercy nor against prayer, for eternity is a delight which the Saints eagerly desire.” Then I read an absolution for her and she relaxed and departed, to the amazement of the devils who fight the Saints even at the hour of death!

    —H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Experiences in Life

  • But how unhappy are those poor, weak souls, who are divided between God and the world! They will and they do not will; they are lacerated at once by their passions and their remorse; they are afraid of the judgments of God and of the opinions of men; they dislike the evil, but are ashamed of the good.

    —Francois Fenelon, Spiritual Progress