This trial from the hand of God, will be far more serviceable to you, than the self-sought sweetness of prayer. You know very well that constant retirement is not necessary, in order to love God. When He gives you the time, take it and profit by it, but until then, wait in faith, well persuaded that what He orders is best.
—François Fénelon, Spiritual Progress
Category: PRAYER
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Anyone who is sick should seek the prayer of others, that they may be restored to health; that through the intercession of others the enfeebled form of the body and the wavering footsteps of our deeds may be restored to health….Learn, you who are sick, to gain health through prayer. Seek the prayer of others, call upon the Church to pray for you, and God, in His regard for the Church, will give what He might refuse to you.
—St. Ambrose -
St. Barsanuphius recounts that his disciple, “Abba Seridos was gravely ill one day, afflicted with a high fever that would not subside. Nevertheless he did not ask God to heal him or even to lessen his suffering. He asked only that God would grant him endurance and a spirit of thanksgiving.”
—Jean-Claude Larchet, The Theology of Illness -
When we pray, and God delays in hearing (our prayer), He does this for our benefit, so as to teach us longsuffering; wherefore we need not become downcast, saying: “We prayed, and were not heard.” God knows what is profitable for a man.
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If we have a burden beyond our bearing, we must turn to the Lord immediately — like this: ‘O Lord, I cannot even bear my own infirmities, yet now I must bear the burden of so-and-so. I cannot cope with all this responsibility. I cannot do this myself, and – because I feel I have no desire to cope either – all this weighs even more heavily on my conscience. I wish to help my fellow man, but I don’t have the means. My neighbors think that I don’t want to help, and that is an additional burden to me.
—Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica
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Let me not be deceived by my own insecurity and weakness which would make me hurt another as I try desperately to help myself.
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So should the one inflamed with anger not pray at all? By no means! But instead of reaching for what is unattainable and even dangerous on account of his passionate condition, he should resort to those “short and intense” invocations of Christ, mentioned everywhere in the early monastic literature: those “short prayers” (as Augustine calls them), out of which the well-known “Jesus Prayer” developed.
If you want to put the enemy to flight, pray without ceasing.
These “concise,” “terse,” “repeated,” indeed “ceaseless” short prayers are the daily bread of whoever is tempted—even of him who is tempted directly by the demon of anger.
Dragon’s Wine and Angel’s Bread: The Teaching of Evagrius Ponticus on Anger and Meekness
Gabriel Bunge -
The ability to tolerate one’s neighbor is the wisdom of life. One should perceive one’s neighbor as he is. Do you want him to be better? Pray for him. God can make him better. This is how Christian patience manifests itself.
—Metropolitan Onuphry -
You seem unduly distressed about your relations’ disapproval of your actions. Why this great agitation? Since in all conscience you are certain of not being responsible for their hostile attitude to you, and since you are sure you have done nothing to induce them to feel or think as they do, be at peace. Be at peace and pray for them. We cannot persuade all that our actions are right, our motives pure. Everyone has his own way of approaching life, his own ideas on most things.
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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.
SO GOOD QUOTES 