Category: GRACE

  • 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

  • However, I know that it is not because of your strength, your long hours of studying, or your own understanding that you passed this milestone, but it was through God’s great strength and blessings that you succeeded. Do you also believe this?

    —Fr. Mina the Hermit (Pope Kyrillos VI) to his nephew Hegumen Philemon Labib

    via Pope Kyrillos: The Patron and Beloved of the Children, Fr. Rafael Ava Mina

  • …and he changed them all. By what means? By means of the earnest. How was he sufficient for these things?

    By the grace of the Spirit. Unskilled, ill-clothed, ill-shod he was upheld by Him Who also has given the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore he says, “And who is sufficient for these things?” (2 Cor. 2:16). “But our sufficiency is of God, who has made us sufficient as ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter but of the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:5-6).

    —Saint John Chrysostom, On the Vanity of Riches
    HOMILY Two
    After Eutropios, having been found outside the church, was taken captive

  • What does “enduring because of conscience toward God” mean? While you can talk back politely to the one speaking with you, or you can answer “eye for eye, and tooth for tooth,” or you can ignore them completely and not answer them, or any other kind of reaction, here however he is saying to you: “For this is commendable, if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully” Then he continues, saying, “For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently?” That is to say, if I did something wrong, and then someone yelled at me, and I remain silent and endure it, here I deserve it because I had done something wrong. Then he goes on to say, “But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God,” meaning that, if I am walking uprightly, and then someone rebukes me or yells at me, and I take it patiently, this is commendable before God.

    —H.E. Metropolitan Youssef, How to Endure Injustice