…he shut all the doors of the world within himself—the desires and the needs—he gave up everything…he neglected the bodily needs so that they no longer had any authority over him. After he had tasted, participated, and lived with Christ…what need did he have for anything else?
A Silent Patriarch: Kyrillos VI (1902 -1971), Life and Legacy
Fr. Daniel Fanous
-
-
“A bad day doesn’t need to mean bad deeds. A stressful day doesn’t need to mean bad reactions. We all have stressful days. We all have bad days. And these are the days we are supposed to deal with properly. A good tree does not suddenly bring forth bad fruit because there is a storm—it’s still a good tree. Whatever happens around us, whatever happens within us, it should never be a justification to a bad result.”
—Bishop Angaelos -
“There are no bad days and good days, but there are days of prayer and days without prayer.”
—Pope Kyrillos VI -
After the gratifications of brutish appetites are past, the greatest pleasure then is to get rid of that which entertained it.
—Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote -
“Lying is a delightful thing, for it leads to truth.”
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky -
Where there is great love there is often little display of it.
—Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra -
Anger squanders knowledge,
Forbearance gathers it in.
—Evagrius Ponticus -
I decided quite a long time ago that when I write, I will only write that which is meaningful to me personally. If it happens to be meaningful to someone else, this is encouraging and provides the reason for continuing to maintain this blog.
—Fr. Sergei Sveshnikov, Putting My Mouth Where My Writing Is
-
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 -
Has a glutton, a great eater and drinker, become abstinent, temperate, not through illness or any consciousness of the harmfulness of intemperance to the body, but from the consciousness of a moral, higher purpose—he has become so by the power of grace. Has anyone that was previously full of hatred, rancour and revenge suddenly become benevolent, loving even his enemies, his ill-wishers and revilers, not remembering any offences—he has become so by the regenerating, changing, and renewing power of grace. Has anyone that was formerly cold towards God, towards the temple, the Divine service, to prayer, and in general to the Sacraments of religion, which cleanse and strengthen our souls and bodies, suddenly changed in his soul, and become fervent towards God, to Divine service and prayer, reverent towards the Sacraments—he has become so by the action of the saving grace of God. From this it is evident that many live without grace, not recognising its importance and indispensability, and do not seek it, although the word of the Lord says: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” Many live in plenty and ease, enjoy blooming health, eat with pleasure, drink, walk, amuse themselves, write or work in the various branches of human activity, but they have not the grace of God in their hearts, that priceless treasure of the Christian, without which no one can be a true Christian and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven.
My Life in Christ
St. John of Kronstadt
SO GOOD QUOTES 