• We have to realize the importance of the time in which we are living, so that we do not waste days and years, and have to submits ourselves to grace and truth, until we have removed all the obstacles of growth, because the time of visitation will end and the door will be shut, and we will suddenly find ourselves before the judgment. Time for each person is the present moment, because he cannot ensure the next moment; therefore, Paul the Apostle says, “And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep.” (Romans 13:11)

    —H.E. Metropolitan Youssef, How to Develop Your Personality

  • “It may seem like many are on a path driving away from God, and many are for sure, but little do they know that all roads lead to God. Even the ones that are extremely against His will. You can run from God, but God will confront you.”

    —Fr. David Hanna

  • Sometimes we do not give thanks because we feel that it is too small or insignificant of a matter to give thanks for. Here, we mention one of the sayings of the spiritual fathers, “He is a liar who claims that he gives thanks for much, when he does not give thanks for the little.” Perhaps, we view it as something natural or ordinary and therefore do not feel the need to be thankful for it.

    —H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Characteristics of the Spiritual Path

  • Mercy is not getting what we deserve. Grace is getting what we do not deserve.

  • “You were within me, but I was outside myself.”

    —St. Augustine

  • “Believe me, if God discloses the calamities we were exposed to and those He cast away from us, if He uncovers these, our whole life will not be enough to thank Him.”

    —H.H. Pope Shenouda III

  • Happy work is best done by the man who takes his long-term plans somewhat lightly and works from moment to moment “as to the Lord.” It is only our daily bread that we are encouraged to ask for. The present is the only time in which any duty can be done or any grace received.

    —C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

  • If there is a time for everything under heaven, as the Preacher says, and by the word ‘everything’ must be understood what concerns our holy life, then if you please let us look into it and let us seek to do at each time what is proper for that occasion. For it is certain that for those who enter the lists there is a time for dispassion (I say this for the combatants who are serving their apprenticeship); there is a time for tears, and a time for hardness of heart; there is a time for obedience, and there is a time to command; there is a time to fast, and a time to partake; there is a time for battle with our enemy the body, and a time when the fire is dead; a time of spiritual storm, and a time of spiritual calm; a time for heartfelt sorrow, and a time for spiritual joy; a time for teaching and a time for listening; a time of pollutions, perhaps on account of conceit, and a time of cleansing by humility; a time for struggle, and a time for safe relaxation; a time for quiet, and a time for undistracted distraction; a time for unceasing prayer, and a time for sincere service. So let us not be deceived by proud zeal and seek prematurely what will come in its own good time; that is, we should not seek in winter what comes in summer, or at seed time what comes at harvest; because there is a time to sow labours, and a time to reap the unspeakable gifts of grace. Otherwise we shall not receive even in season what is proper to that season.

    —St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent

  • For the Lord demands of you that you be angry with yourself and engage in battle with your mind, neither consenting to nor taking pleasure in wicked thoughts. The uprooting of sin and the evil that is so embedded in our sinning can be done only by divine power. For it is impossible and outside man’s competence to uproot sin. To struggle, yes, to continue to fight, to inflict blows and to receive setbacks is in your power. To uproot, however, belongs to God alone. If, indeed, you could have done it on your own, what would have been the need for the coming of the Lord? For just as an eye cannot see without light, just as one cannot speak without a tongue, nor hear without ears, nor walk without feet, nor carry out one’s works without hands, so you cannot be saved, nor enter into the kingdom of heaven without Jesus. 

    (St Macarius the Great,Homilies 3.3,4, in Spiritual Homilies)

  • Growth and change take time, but one of the wonderful things is that the person does not know how growth takes place. The Lord Christ spoke about the changes that happen in the life of a person, and mentioned the following parable. “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head.” (Mark 4:26-28) The statement “he himself does not know how,” means that when a person places himself under grace, and with divine truth, he will grow and change, yet he himself does not know how; but he has to begin now.

    —H.E. Metropolitan Youssef, How to Develop Your Personality