SO GOOD QUOTES

Category: PRAYER

  • “Virtues are formed by prayer. Prayer preserves temperance. Prayer suppresses anger. Prayer prevents emotions of pride and envy. Prayer draws into the soul the Holy Spirit, and raises man to Heaven.” 

    —St. Ephraim the Syrian

  • “I have often prayed and asked God for what seemed good in my own estimation. Like a fool, I kept on at God to grant me this; I would not leave it to him to arrange as he knows best for me. Then, having obtained the thing I had prayed for so stubbornly, I have often been sorry that I did not leave it to the will of God,for the reality often turned out very different from the way I had imagined.

    —Evagrios of Pontus

  • “If you do not want to be distracted during prayer, do not expose yourself to distracting matters when not praying.”

    —St. Isaiah of Shiheet

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

    —Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way

  • “We want God in addition to so many other things we have, we want His help, but simultaneously we are trying to get help wherever we can, and we keep God in store for our last push.”

    —Met. Anthony Bloom, Beginning to Pray

  • Prayer is not a mindless recitation of printed symbols, but a devotion of mind and heart.  When we read or hear about the prayer of the mind that enters the heart, we are faced with the rejection of a purely mechanical recitation of words. We would find it unacceptable to offer a mindless recitation of words to our friends and loved ones; how dare we offer it to God day after day?!

    …

    If prayer is the breath of life, then it is impossible to live just by breathing for a few minutes twice a day.  Apostle Paul instructs us to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17).  Many have said that this is impossible: how can one do anything without ceasing?  But do we not breathe without ceasing?  The saints who devoted their lives to God found that not only it is possible to pray without ceasing, but that it is unceasing prayer that makes life in God possible.  The more we allow our soul to breathe prayer, the more alive in God it becomes.

    —Fr. Sergei Sveshnikov, On the Importance of Prayer

  • Q4. How does one know what is the gift that God has given them? Is there something that is supposed to be revealed at a certain time? Is there anything one can do to speed up the process of finding our gift?

    Yes, you can pray about it and God will help you, to reveal your gift to you. Also, you can listen to the feedback other people give you. For example, people will say to you, “You have leadership qualities”;

    “You know, when I talk to you, I feel comfortable,” so perhaps your gift is counseling, or you may be good at administration. So listen to the feedback from other people.

    —H.E. Metropolitan Youssef, How to Know the Will of God

  • It can be one or two questions, or more; write all of them and then sit in silence waiting for God to speak to you. Be assured that when you train yourself, then an idea or a thought will come to your mind, which you have never thought about, and it will give you peace.

    —H.E. Metropolitan Youssef, How to Know the Will of God

  • Pray each day, and each time you pray, ask God, “Lord, what do you want me to do?” I assure you that if you pray faithfully and sincerely, God will reveal His will to You.

    —H.E. Metropolitan Youssef, How to Know the Will of God

  • There are virtues of the body and virtues of the soul. Those of the body include fasting, vigils, sleeping on the ground, ministering to people’s needs, working with one’s hands so as not to be a burden or in order to give to others (cf. 1 Thess. 2:9, Ephes. 4:28). Those of the soul include love, long-suffering, gentleness, self-control, and prayer (cf. Gal, 5:22). If as a result of some constraint or bodily condition, such as illness or the like, we find we cannot practice the bodily virtues mentioned above, we are forgiven by the Lord because He knows the reasons. But if we fail to practice the virtues of the soul, we shall not have a single excuse, for it is always within our power to practice them.

    —St Maximos the Confessor, Four Hundred Texts on Love