“Temptations come so that hidden passions may be revealed and so that it will be possible to fight them, and so that the soul may be rid of them. They are also a sign of God’s mercy. So give yourself with trust into God’s hands and ask his help, so that he will strengthen you in your struggle. God knows how much each one can bear and allows temptations according to the measure of our strength. Remember that after temptation comes spiritual joy, and that the Lord protects them that endure temptations and suffering for the sake of His love.”
—Saint Nektarios of Aegina
Category: GRACE
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St. Isaac the Syrian in his seventy-second homily tells us, “As soon as Grace sees that a little self-esteem has begun to steal into a man’s thoughts, and that he has begun to think great things of himself, She [Grace] immediately permits the temptations opposing him to gain in strength and prevail, until he learns his weakness…and seeks refuge with God in humility.”
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Temptations come not to test us to see if we will be good; rather, temptations come to show us that we are not good and that we need to flee in humility to God for refuge. Temptations come because we think we can make it through the day without God’s constant help. Temptations come because we think a comfortable life is normal, rather than a gift from God.
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St. Isaac tells us, “all thoughts that dismay and frighten you will take flight from you, since these are customarily engendered in men by thoughts that look to comfort.”
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The advice of St. Isaac is not the advice you get in the world. The world teaches us the opposite. The world teaches us that a comfortable life is normal, that it is normal to be fulfilled, content and satisfied. And the world teaches us that if you are not experiencing such a happy life, it’s someone’s fault, and probably not yours. And even though it’s not your fault, the world teaches us, that it is up to you to do something about it, to affix blame on someone, to fight for your rights, your right to a normal life as the world defines it.
Overcoming Temptations Through Low Expectations
Fr. Michael Gillis, Praying in the Rain -
Has a glutton, a great eater and drinker, become abstinent, temperate, not through illness or any consciousness of the harmfulness of intemperance to the body, but from the consciousness of a moral, higher purpose—he has become so by the power of grace. Has anyone that was previously full of hatred, rancour and revenge suddenly become benevolent, loving even his enemies, his ill-wishers and revilers, not remembering any offences—he has become so by the regenerating, changing, and renewing power of grace. Has anyone that was formerly cold towards God, towards the temple, the Divine service, to prayer, and in general to the Sacraments of religion, which cleanse and strengthen our souls and bodies, suddenly changed in his soul, and become fervent towards God, to Divine service and prayer, reverent towards the Sacraments—he has become so by the action of the saving grace of God. From this it is evident that many live without grace, not recognising its importance and indispensability, and do not seek it, although the word of the Lord says: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” Many live in plenty and ease, enjoy blooming health, eat with pleasure, drink, walk, amuse themselves, write or work in the various branches of human activity, but they have not the grace of God in their hearts, that priceless treasure of the Christian, without which no one can be a true Christian and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven.
My Life in Christ
St. John of Kronstadt -
CHAPTER IV: How vainglory attacks a monk on the right had and on the left. For where the devil cannot create vainglory in a man by means of his well-fitting and neat dress, he tries to introduce it by means of a dirty, cheap, and uncared-for style. If he cannot drag a man down by honour, he overthrows him by humility. If he cannot make him puffed up by the grace of knowledge and eloquence, he pulls him down by the weight of silence. If a man fasts openly, he is attacked by the pride of vanity.
John Cassian, Institutes
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If your weakness is cognitive, grace can fix that.
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It is a grace. It is not that person’s intellect—it is God has gifted them of seeing with real sight — he graced them, he gifted them with something that doesn’t belong to them by nature.
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God does not immediately grant the grace and the refreshment and rejoicing of the Spirit, being patient with them,” in the sense of Luke 18: 7, i. e., being willing to spend time over the business, instead of hurrying it on, “and reserving the gift. This He does not idly, nor unseasonably, nor at random, but with unspeakable wisdom, for the testing of their free will, to see whether they have counted God faithful and true who promised” (XXIX. 2, cp. XLVII. 13).
Fifty Spiritual Homilies of Saint Macarius the Egyptian
Introduction
A.J. MASON, D.D. -
He arranges for the afflictions which make a man think of giving up the world. Then He teaches him that there is an inward renunciation to be made, as well as the outward. “And when thou deemest thyself to have done all by renouncing, the Lord taketh account with thee. ‘Why dost thou boast? Did not I create thy body and thy soul? Did not I make the gold and silver? What hast thou done?’ The soul begins to make confession, and to beseech the Lord and say, ‘All things are Thine. The house I am in is Thine. My clothes are Thine. From Thee is my food, and of Thee am I supplied for every need.’
Fifty Spiritual Homilies of Saint Macarius the Egyptian
Introduction
A.J. MASON, D.D.
SO GOOD QUOTES 