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Life Here and Beyond
"Life in this world is like writing on tablets: whenever someone wishes to do so, he can add to them or subtract from them, or make changes in the seal. But the future life is like writing on clean rolls sealed by the royal seal, where no adding or subtracting is allowed. Therefore, while we are still in the midst of change, let us pay attention to ourselves; and while we have power over the record of our life, which we write with our own hand, let us strive to add to it with right living and erase from it the defects of a former life. For while we are in this world, God does not affix His seal either to what is good, or what is evil, up to the very moment of our exit from this life. "
- St. Isaac of Syria
Being Right Minded
"If you make provision for the desires of the flesh (cf. Rom. 13:14) and bear a grudge against your neighbor on account of something transitory, you worship the creature instead of the Creator. "
- St. Maximus the Confessor
The Holy Scriptures
"Through the Holy Scriptures we are trained to action that is pleasing to God, and untroubled contemplation. For in these we find both exhortation to every virtue and dissuasion from every vice."
- St. John of Damascus
On God's Image and His Likeness
"Everyone is made in God's image; but to be in His likeness is granted only to those who through great love have brought their own freedom into subjection to God. For only when we do not belong to ourselves do we become like Him who through love has reconciled us to Himself.
No one achieves this unless he persuades his soul not to be distracted by the false glitter of this life.
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- St.Diadochos of Photiki
Failure to Trust in God
"As soon as you turn away—however slightly— from God, and no longer place your trust in Him, things go awry; for then the Lord withdraws, as though saying: 'You have put your trust in something else—very well, rely on that instead.' And whatever it may be it proves to be utterly worthless. "
- Saint Theophan the Recluse
Two Thoughts from the Fathers on Suffering
"If a man has a friend and he is absolutely certain that his friend loves him, and if that friend does something to cause him suffering, or be troublesome to him, he will be convinced that his friend acts out of love and he will never believe that his friend does it to harm him. How much more ought we to be convinced about God who created us, who drew us out of nothingness to existence and life, and who became a man for our sake and died for us, and who does everything out of love for us? "
- Abba Dorotheas
"Again you enumerate your troubles, M. They are still the same and in them I find nothing particularly terrible or dreadful or hopeless. You have simply lost your wits, and all kinds of awful things are befalling you—despair, despondency...Now I have told you that the Jesus Prayer cannot be strong without strong afflictions. But you don't even want to hear about this—you don't want either Jesus or Paradise or anyone in the world: all you want is to run away from your troubles. Once more I repeat God's word to you, and not for the first time or for the second, We must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God (Acts 14:22). As Saint Mark the Ascetic says: 'The mercy of God is hidden in sufferings.' "
- St. Anthony of Optina to one of his spiritual children
Concerning the Virgin Birth
"According to the Law, 'Every male child that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord.' Only with Christ did this literally occur. He Himself opened the womb of the Virgin at birth, while all other wombs which have born a child have first been opened by a man. "