• A home is a Christian one, when all the members of the household bear each other’s burdens, and when each one condemns only himself.

    Letters of Elder Macarius of Optina

  • We are often indifferent to our brethren who are distressed or upset, on the grounds that they are in this state through no fault of ours. The Doctor of souls, however, wishing to root out the soul’s excuses from the heart, tells us to leave our gift and to be reconciled not only if we happen to be upset by our brother, but also if he is upset by us, whether justly or unjustly; only when we have healed the breach through our apology should we offer our gift.

    —St. John Cassian, Philokalia, Vol. 1 p.84

  • The drunkard, the fornicator, the proud – he will receive Gods mercy. But he who does not want to forgive, to excuse, to justify conciously, intentionally … that person closes himself to eternal life before God, and even more so in the present life. He is turned away and not heard.

    —Elder Sampson Sievers of Russia

  • As long as Fr. Faltaous had even the slightest sense that there was a monk who was upset with him, or someone who had some hard feelings towards him, or even if he felt that he had upset anyone in any way, he would instantly go to apologize to him – before the setting of the sun.

    The Star of the Sheheet Desert
    Fr. Faltaous El Souriany

  • ‘If you are ashamed of your sins you will never repent and if you confess them to gain sympathy you will never be healed’

    THE TEACHINGS OF ABBA PHILEMON

  • He bore guilt and shame so that you can be free. That even when the devil wants to beat you up into your guilt and make you feel defeated of sins that I have confessed, of sins that I have repented and the devil is telling me, “No, don’t think that it just goes away that easy” yes it does, by the blood of Jesus. That when the devil tells you, “Don’t forget what you did last week or last year or when you were a teenager; don’t forget that”, you say, “I don’t know who you are talking about. I died with Christ. It is no longer me. You are no longer talking to me, i am not that person. And even if i were to look for him, i would never be able to find him because i am new in Christ because he died on the cross. The cross breaks the chain of our emotional bondness.

    —Fr. Paul Girguis

  • I’ve seen lives changed on the sick bed, monsters turn into babies on the sick bed—monsters—people that no one can talk to, and they’re babies, holding the hands of their loved ones, saying, “Forgive me, I know I was difficult. I’m sorry—you endured a lot from me. I caused you a lot of pain, and I was a monster, and I was a terrible person, and I hope God can forgive me.”

    —Fr. Paul Girguis

  • Repeatedly dwelling upon something that has offended us, say the saints, will greatly increase our anger, and can produce a despondency that’s very hard to overcome. The ways of those who preserve the recollection of wrongs are towards death, says Scripture (Prov. 12: 28 LXX).

    —Dee Pennock, God’s Path to Sanity

  • A man’s life or death comes from his neighbor.

    —St. Antony the Great

  • If we hide the faults of our brother, God will also hide our faults. If we expose our brothers’ faults, God will also expose ours.

    —Abba Poemen