So when you feel a cooling for spiritual things and occupations and generally for all divine things, enter deeply into yourself and examine carefully why it has happened; and, if it is your fault, hasten to eliminate and efface it, not so much because you are anxious for the return of spiritual delights, but rather because you want to destroy in yourself all that is unfitting and not pleasing to God. If you find nothing of this kind, submit to God’s will, saying to yourself: ‘God has so decided: let Thy will be done on me, O Lord, weak and unworthy as I am.’ Then be patient and wait, never allowing yourself to deviate from the habitual order of your spiritual life and spiritual works and exercises. Overcome the lack of taste for them, which has assailed you, by forcibly making yourself practice them, paying no attention to thoughts which try to distract you from your efforts by suggesting that this occupation is useless; drink willingly your cup of bitterness, saying to the Lord: ‘See my humility and my efforts, O Lord, and deprive me not of Thy mercy,’ and let your efforts be inspired by the faith that this cup comes from God’s love for you, because He desires you to attain a greater spiritual perfection.
—Lorenzo Scupoli, Unseen Warfare
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The best prayer is: “Lord! Thou knowest all things. Do with me as Thou willest!”
—St. Theophan the Recluse -
“It is not freedom when we say to people that everything is permitted. That is slavery.”
—Saint Paisios the Athonite
“Whatever you perceive as joy or freedom sometimes is slavery.”
—Fr. Paula Balamon -
“When you perceive in yourself something worthy of praise, and you feel a desire to tell others about it, try immediately to destroy this desire with the thought that you will not receive any benefit from relating it, but only harm.”
— Metropolitan Gregory (Postnikov) of St. Petersburg, How to Live a Holy Life
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Not every spiritual father is appropriate for everyone seeking to grow in their faith and in their spiritual knowledge, very few priests or bishops or monks are suitable guides to everyone. The spiritual exercise that brings salvation to one might create only pride or depression or nothing at all in another.
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Salvation comes to those who seek and ask and knock. There would be no seeking if the first door one knocked on opened right away.
—Fr. Michael Gillis
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“This is not optimal, but it is what works for me.”
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There was this that set him above many [others]: if he were asked about a phrase in Scripture or some spiritual matter, he did not answer immediately, but would say he did not know the answer. And if he were pressed further, he would not give an answer.
—Abba Pambo
Give Me a Word: The Alphabetical Sayings of the Desert Fathers -
Flatterers are our greatest enemies. They blind our eyes, do not let us see our many defects, and thus hinder us upon the way to perfection, especially if we ourselves are self-loving and not far-seeing. This is why we must always stop those who natter us, or avoid them. Woe unto him who is surrounded by flatterers! Happy is he who is surrounded by simple-hearted people who do not hide the truth, although it may be unpleasant!
—St. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ
SO GOOD QUOTES 