Category: GRACE

  • A person who through the grace of God partakes of divine blessings is under an obligation to share them ungrudgingly with others. For Scripture says, ‘Freely you have received, freely give’ (Matt. 10:8). He who hides the gift in the earth accuses the Lord of being hard-hearted and mean (cf. Matt. 25:24), and in order to spare the flesh he pretends to know nothing about holiness; while he who sells the truth to enemies, and is then revealed as avid for self-glory, hangs himself, unable to bear the disgrace (cf. Matt. 26:15; 27:5).

    —St Maximos the Confessor

  • “Make firm my soul which has become corrupted by my laziness and apathy, O You who raises the lowly and rescues the afflicted. You know how apathetic and pitiful I am. You know how many wily and wicked thoughts fight against me. You see the enmity of the enemy and the many schemes which are employed against me. Be a help to me on account of your great mercy. Make me serious and watchful, animate me, and deliver me by Your grace.”

    —prayer from St. Ephraim the Syrian

  • God will teach you more than the most experienced Christians, and better than all the books that the world has ever seen. And what is your object in such an eager chase after knowledge? Are you not aware that all we need is to be poor in spirit, and to know nothing but Christ and Him crucified? Knowledge puffeth up; it is only charity that can edify. (1 Cor. viii. 1.) Be content with charity, then, alone. What! is it possible that the love of God, and the abandonment of self for his sake, is only to be reached through the acquisition of so much knowledge? You have already more than you use, and need further illuminations much less than the practice of what you already know. O how deceived we are, when we suppose we are advancing, because our vain curiosity is gratified by the enlightenment of our intellect! Be humble, and expect not the gifts of God from man.

    —François Fénelon, Spiritual Progress

  • You’re only where you are by grace.

    —Fr. Antony Paul

  • One of the best ways to lose grace – if you want a guaranteed loss of grace – judge people.

    —Fr. Antony Paul

  • “She had accepted the limitations of her life. It was this anguish, this contentment which created her grace.”

    Light Years
    James Salter

  • “That is the general characteristic. Here are the particulars for a person who lacks grace: Once he has turned away from God, the person dwells on himself, and makes self the main goal of his life and activity. This is because at this point, after God, there is for him nothing higher than self, especially because, having previously received every abundance from God and having now forgotten Him, he hurries and takes care to fill himself up with something. The emptiness that has formed inside him because of his falling away from God causes an unquenchable thirst inside him that is vague but constant. The person has become a bottomless abyss. He makes every effort to fill this abyss, but he cannot see or feel it getting full. Thus, he spends his entire life in sweat, toil and great labors; he busies himself with various occupations in which he hopes to find a way to quench his unquenchable thirst. These occupations take up all his attention, all his time and all his activity. They are the highest good, in which he lives with his whole heart. Thus, it is clear why a person who makes self his exclusive goal is never himself; instead, everything is outside him, in things either created or acquired by vanity. He has fallen away from God, Who is the fullness of everything. He himself is empty; it remains for him to seemingly pour himself out into an endless variety of things and live in them. Thus, the sinner thirsts, fusses, and troubles himself with occupations and numerous things outside himself and God. This is why a characteristic trait of sinful life is, in its disregard for salvation, the care and trouble about many things (cf. Lk 10:41).”

    —St. Theophan the Recluse

  • ​​”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