• It is not possible or within a man’s

    competence to root out sin by his own

    power. To wrestle against it, to fight

    against it, to give and receive blows, is

    thine; to uproot is God’s.

    —Saint Macarius

  • But on the other hand, from the divine perspective, nothing a human being can do forces God’s hand or makes God reveal Himself. When the time is right, when everything is ready, then God comes to us. God comes to us very seldom as a rushing wind or a bright light, but God comes to us most often as a gentle breeze, as an apprehension of some profound beauty resonating deeply in our psyche, in our souls. God comes to us and if we are ready, we perceive Him in some small way, in a way that we can never forget or deny, but almost always in a way that we cannot explain or defend.

    A Small Affliction Born For God’s Sake
    ARCHPRIEST MICHAEL GILLIS

  • Once you have grace, you are free. Without it, you cannot help doing the things you know you should not do, and that you know you don’t really want to do.

    —Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain

  • But on the other hand, from the divine perspective, nothing a human being can do forces God’s hand or makes God reveal Himself. When the time is right, when everything is ready, then God comes to us. God comes to us very seldom as a rushing wind or a bright light, but God comes to us most often as a gentle breeze, as an apprehension of some profound beauty resonating deeply in our psyche, in our souls. God comes to us and if we are ready, we perceive Him in some small way, in a way that we can never forget or deny, but almost always in a way that we cannot explain or defend.

    A Small Affliction Born For God’s Sake
    ARCHPRIEST MICHAEL GILLIS

  • Overcoming a deep-rooted struggle needs time and patience, so be patient with the weak until God’s grace visits and delivers them.

    —Pope Shenouda III, Life of Hope

  • “I honestly have no idea what happened. One day I was just done with it.”

    —Julia E Hubbel

  • Until God’s grace visits you, it is impossible for you to change for the better.

    —St. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ

  • “He alone knows himself in the best way possible who thinks of himself as being nothing.”

    —St. John Chrysostom

  • St. Antony sought knowledge from every available source. That was his first quality as a student. He did not seek knowledge just from great teachers, but from everything and everybody, from every event, every person and even from sinners.

    He learned his first lesson from a dead man. Isn’t it amazing that he gets his first lesson in monasticism not from a living person but from a dead man, and that dead man was his father? When his father died he looked at his body and learned something from it. He looked at his dead father who owned 300 acres of the best farm land in upper Egypt and who had the wealth, power, and influence and said, “Where is your power, your greatness and your might? You have departed from this world not by your choice; I however, will leave it by my choice before I am forced out.” That was his first lesson about dying to the world. “Behold that great rich man filling the world with power and influence, now lies motionless with no control over his own body!”

    —H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Contemplations on the Life of St. Antony the Great

  • So those who wish to live virtuously should not hanker after praise, be involved with too many people, keep going out, or abuse others (however much they deserve it), or talk excessively, even if they can speak well on every subject.

    —St. Diadochus