SO GOOD QUOTES

Category: GRACE

  • ​​”Do not say, ‘I have kept the commandments but have not found the Lord’… Those who rightly seek him will find peace. Peace is the deliverance from the passions. Peace, as the holy Apostle says, is not found except through the workings of the Holy Spirit.”

    —Mark the Ascetic

  • I was becoming more miserable, and Thou nearer. Thy right hand was continually ready to pluck me out of the mire, and to wash me thoroughly.

    —St. Augustine, Confessions

  • We must not seek to know God, or anything else from or about God. We must rather humble ourselves. God will then come to us and give us that which we desire. If you don’t humbly acknowledge your spiritual poverty, you won’t be able to ask God to give you the treasures of His grace. But through humility and prayer, God pours out the riches of His knowledge, granting us communion in His life. But rather than being filled with knowledge of God, we normally live with a void at the center of our existence. There is a hole in our heart, into which crawl all the cares and worries of life. We work ourselves to exhaustion in pursuit of success and happiness. We struggle to improve our position in society, to attend the right schools, and move in the right kind of circles. But the void within us is always on the increase. Nothing in the world can fill it, because it can only be filled with God. But we mustn’t despair, because despair itself is a sign of pride, and thus will take us even further away from the humble God. Avoid that road. Resist temptation, struggle, take up your cross, and God will come and find you, wherever you are.

    —Elder Aimilanos of Simonopetra

  • To despond is also most foolish, for by the help of God’s grace the Christian can always change for the better if he wishes.

    —St. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ

  • The divine grace that is everywhere-present and fills all things directly inspires the spirit of man, impressing thoughts and feelings upon it that turn it away from all finite things and toward another better, albeit invisible and mysterious world. The general characteristics of such arousals are dissatisfaction with oneself and everything pertaining to oneself, and anguish over something. The person is not satisfied by anything around him; not by his accomplishments or possessions, even if he has incalculable wealth; and he walks around as if heart-broken. Because he finds no consolation in visible things, he turns to the invisible, and receives it with a readiness to acquire it for himself sincerely and to give himself over to it.

    —St. Theophan the Recluse, The Path to Salvation: A Manual of Spiritual Transformation

  • If God’s grace is lacking, a man can be placed in the most beautiful place, surrounded by all the benefits of the world, and he will still be unhappy.

    —Metropolitan Onuphry

  • Nevertheless, as powerful as despondency can be, he is convinced that she can overcome it, through the power of her own will, working in cooperation with God’s grace—and inspired by his ardent desire and will for her to be free from his affliction.

    —Saint John Chrysostom, Letters to Saint Olympia

  • “You can’t rescue a brother who needs to save himself.”

    —Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way

  • Our various trials and weaknesses and disadvantages are perfectly in proportion to our callings and our given abilities—those gifts, that grace has put into each of us to handle our life circumstances so we can succeed in fulfilling God’s purpose for us.

    —Dee Pennock, God’s Path to Sanity

  • No one should be burdened with the “failure” label just for playing their hand in the grand game of life. It’s undeniable that some people have the fortune to start with a strong hand, graced with physical beauty, social grace, or remarkable talents. Or, perhaps, they simply emerged from the right door, under the right star.

    Bimbo Ubermensch
    The Ocean