St. Symeon the New Theologian Orthodox Church

My Grace is Sufficient for you...

If a trial benefited the Apostle Paul — as he said: ‘A thorn in the flesh was given to me, an angel of Satan to torment me, lest I be exalted above measure’ (2 Cor 12:7)—how much more will trials benefit us when we bear them patiently?
The Apostle Paul was a chosen vessel, the mouth of Christ, dead to the world, one in whom the Holy Trinity dwelt. And even though the trial hindered his apostolic preaching, and even though he entreated God so much to take away the trial, God, looking after the benefit of his soul, did not fulfill his prayer — although he besought Him three times — but he received the answer, ‘My grace is sufficient for you: for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ (2 Cor 12:9). My grace, He said to him, is sufficient for your consolation; you will have this trial in order to benefit by acquiring more humility.
Therefore, my children, bear with joy whatever trial God sends you, whether it be grief or ferocity of the passions, for God sends them to us for our benefit, in order that patience in all these things may be considered as an ascesis which we are otherwise unable to do. So thank God! Glorify Him with your mouth and heart, because the consolation of grace will come after the trial when we bear it with patience and thanksgiving.
Is there anyone who has entered paradise by a different path, a path without temptations, whom we can imitate? No. All the Saints passed through fire and water, through various temptations and afflictions, and they glorified God with their patience and received crowns of eternal glory!
Do not lose courage in the struggle; our Christ is invisibly standing by, observing the struggle of each one of us. Therefore, struggle patiently; call out the name of our Jesus, so that it may be implanted within your heats and so that you may become rich in the grace of God. Struggle to acquire a pure intellect, so that you may feel the grace of the Holy Resurrection. "

- Elder Ephraim

Glorifing God

"Let us consider how we should glorify God. We cannot glorify Him in any way other than that in which He was glorified by the Son; for in the same way as the Son glorified the Father, the Son in turn was glorified by the Father. Let us, then, diligently use these same means to glorify Him who allows us to call Him ‘our Father in heaven’, so that we may be glorified by Him with the glory that the Son possesses with the father prior to the world (cf. Jn. 17:5). These means are the Cross, or death to the whole world, the afflictions, the trials and the other sufferings undergone by Christ. If we endure them with great patience, we imitate Christ’s sufferings; and through them we glorify our Father and God, as His sons by grace and coheirs of Christ. "

- -St. Symeon the New Theologian

Repentence

"A trait of true repentance is that it opens your eyes to your sinfulness and to sin in general. "

-St. Nikon of Optina