“Good beginnings are not everything… for their strength lies in their continuing till the end, even till death”
—H.H. Pope Shenouda III
Category: JUDGMENT
-
We should not always say about somebody that he is evil, and that we are not able to deal with him.
But if we looked at him as a person who has [both] the good and bad, then we are able to deal with him.
—H.E. Metropolitan Youssef, How to Develop Your Personality
-
Horrible is the approach of death to those who are passionate, wicked and weak, who have not attempted to live purely in this vain world.
Those who toil, and successful contestants of devoutness, delight at the hour of their departure.
They see before their eyes the great work of their fight, watchfulness, fasting, prostrations, prayer, weeping and sackcloth.
Their souls are glad when they are summoned away from their bodies to go into their rest.
But leaving this life is a cause for great sorrow for the sinner, who sees in front of his eyes his apathy and its caustic fruits.
What repentance will then take hold of the heart of the one who has here ignored his salvation.
O my soul, Woe to you, why do you neglect your life?
Suddenly your call will come and what will you do there if you have been neglectful here?
What will you do in front of the throne of the just Judge?
How is it that the foe robs you, but you do not realize it?
How is it that the foe robs you of heavenly wealth, but you are so preoccupied that you do not even realize it.
Have mercy on me, O long-suffering Son of God and sinless Christ.
O my Savior, allow me to ponder the coming life, so that I will do Your will.
When I get old at very least let me partake of Your grace, so that I finish my unfortunate life with a profitable end.
How will I who am careless stand in front of Your fearful throne?
How will I who am impatient and unprofitable enter into the company of those who have here brought forth the fruits of goodness?
By what characteristics will they recognize me when the saints and the upright on their heavenly beds perceive each other by their works?
No, you have no grounds to laud yourself.
The upright, the pure and the humble will walk in the unattainable light, but the sinful, the lazy, the arrogant, the proud and those who heedlessly live for their own satisfaction like me, will find themselves in the everlasting and inextinguishable fire.
O my soul, be alert, and pray with tears.
Call out with all your heart that before the end comes you might be converted and make a good beginning.
O Lord, grant this to us, through the prayers of our spotless Lady the Theotokos and all Your saints, for You are blessed forever.
—St. Ephraim the Syrian
-
If God is the Father of every human, then there is no doubt that every man, whoever he may be, is my brother, and every woman or girl is my sister; consequently I behaved very foolishly if I treated some people as strangers, and did not find them deserving of even a glance or word , or considered them the kind of people to whom I do not owe any love. I acted very foolishly, and I must correct myself, otherwise I must not dare to pray using this Lord’s Prayer, and therefore, must not consider myself as belonging to the number of true children of the Father God.
—Metropolitan Gregory (Postnikov) of St. Petersburg
How to Live a Holy Life p.133 -
But how unhappy are those poor, weak souls, who are divided between God and the world! They will and they do not will; they are lacerated at once by their passions and their remorse; they are afraid of the judgments of God and of the opinions of men; they dislike the evil, but are ashamed of the good.
—Francois Fenelon, Spiritual Progress
-
Conversely, the vices of the soul are much worse than the passions of the body, both in the actions they produce and in the punishments they incur. I do not know why, but most people overlook this fact. They treat drunkenness, unchastity, adultery, theft and all such vices with great concern, avoiding them or punishing them as something whose very appearance is loathsome to most men. But the passions of the soul are much worse and much more serious then bodily passions. For they degrade men to the level of demons and lead them, insensible as they are, to the eternal punishment reserved for all who obstinately cling to such vices. These passions of the soul are envy, rancor, malice, insensitivity, avarice – which according to the apostle is the root of all evil (cf. 1 Tim. 6:10) – and all vices of a similar nature.
—St. John of Damaskos -
To the extent that you pray with all your soul for the person who slanders you, God will make the truth known to those who have been scandalized by the slander.
-
You have not yet acquired perfect love if your regard for people is still swayed by their character.
—Saint Maximos the Confessor -
Have you ever found yourself in the presence of someone who fills you with light and good? In that presence, have you perhaps simultaneously felt somehow exposed and ashamed? You don’t even have to exchange words with someone like that, to know that you are in the presence of holiness. People—or places—that are pure, transparent, holy can simultaneously inspire and expose us. They give us an inkling of what it might feel like to experience the presence of God. Can we endure that degree of love and beauty?
—Peter Bouteneff, How to Be a Sinner
SO GOOD QUOTES 