Let us suppose that you want God to save you from the habit of being quick-tempered. If you have read influential books by the most famous psychologists, and have made use of unfailing exercises, and have strengthened your determination to the uttermost, yet have not asked for the grace and help of God, you will certainly fail. Nevertheless, if you abide by the following steps, the Lord, through His grace, will crown your struggle with success.
—H.E. Metropolitan Youssef, How to Pray
Category: GRACE
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the power which, in our disordered, fallen nature, draws us towards sin, is not entirely exterminated in baptism, but it is only placed in a condition in which it has no power over us, no dominion over us, and we do not serve it. But it is still in us, it lives and acts, only not as a lord. The primacy from now on belongs to the grace of God and to the soul that consciously gives itself over to it.
—St. Theophan the Recluse, Raising Them Right: A Saint’s Advice on Raising Children p.21
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On the spirit of Pride
CHAPTER XIII: The teaching of the elders on the method of acquiring purity. WHEREFORE it is now time to produce, in the very words in which they hand it down, the opinion of the Fathers; viz., of those who have not painted the way of perfection and its character in high-sounding words, but rather, possessing it in deed and truth, and in the virtue of their spirit, have passed it on by their own experience and sure example. And so they say that no one can be altogether cleansed from carnal sins, unless he has realized that all his labours and efforts are insufficient for so great and perfect an end; and unless, taught, not by the system handed down to him, but by his feelings and virtues and his own experience, he recognizes that it can only be gained by the mercy and assistance of God. For in order to acquire such splendid and lofty prizes of purity and perfection, however great may be the efforts of fastings and vigils and readings and solitude and retirement applied to it, they will not be sufficient to secure it by the merits of the actual efforts and toil For a man’s own efforts and human exertions will never make up for the lack of the divine gift, unless it is granted by divine compassion in answer to his prayer.
—St. John Cassian, Institutes
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CHAPTER XI
FOR if we recall that thief who was by reason of a single confession admitted into paradise, we shall feel that he did not acquire such bliss by the merits of his life, but obtained it by the gift of a merciful God. Or if we bear in mind those two grievous and heinous sins of King David, blotted out by one word of penitence, we shall see that neither here were the merits of his works sufficient to obtain pardon for so great a sin, but that the grace of God superabounded, as, when the opportunity for true penitence was taken, He removed the whole weight of sins through the full confession of but one word.
Institutes
St. John Cassian -
‘There is no remedy in this tempest but to wait for the mercy of God.’
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It took Teresa 20 years to master this, but for another person she said it might take just a day. That’s up to God.
How to find inner peace like Saint Teresa of Ávila -
If I were to try to find “value” in “mistakes” (again, a goal that I instinctively find suspect), the only one that has ever made sense to me is the fact that you might eventually be able to talk to someone else who thinks they’ve made their life worthless — that their human selfishness or stupidity is unprecedented in the history of the world — and say, well, look, I did that too, and I’m still here.
cruel optimism new year
rayne fisher-quann -
Sometimes showed more love and gave more grace to strangers than to the people closest to me
cruel optimism new year
rayne fisher-quann -
Those who pray, read the Bible, and work and sleep, will be given enlightenment at a moment of God’s grace.
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Those who are carried by grace might not need spiritual
practices.
But the majority of people are stopped by obstacles from
natural dispositions and traditions, as well as obstructions by
external effects. They need an inward struggle within
themselves and a struggle against the wars that come from
the outside.
If one trained himself practically to be on the good path and
followed it, he then has to stabilise himself and not to turn to
his old behaviour. The love of good will then become part of
his nature. That needs time and work of grace.
—H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Words of Spiritual Benefit Vol. IV
SO GOOD QUOTES 