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A Few Thoughts for the Beginning of Lent
"Through repentance the filth of our foul actions is washed away. After this, we participate in the Holy Spirit, not automatically, but according to the faith, humility and inner disposition of the repentance in which our whole soul is engaged... For this reason it is good to repent each day... "
- St. Symeon the New Theologian
"Christians should judge no one, neither an open harlot, nor sinners, nor dissolute people, but should look upon all with simplicity of soul and a pure eye. Purity of heart, indeed, consists in seeing sinful and weak men and having compassion for them and being merciful. "
- St. Macarius the Great of Egypt
"It is enough if you will often repeat from your whole heart, 'Lord, as it pleases Thee and as Thou knowest, have mercy on me!' And if temptation comes upon you: 'Lord, help me!' The Lord knows what is profitable for us and has mercy on us. "
- St. Macarius the Great of Egypt
"Anger is tamed and becomes transformed into benevolence only through courage and mercy... "- Abba Evagrius the Monk
"There is no higher virtue than love, and there is no vice or passion worse than hatred, which - to someone who is not attentive to himself - seems of little importance; but in spiritual significance, it is likened to murder (I John 3:15). Kindness...to your neighbors, and forgiveness of their shortcomings, is the shortest path to salvation. "
- St. Gregory of Sinai
"If you want to pray properly, do not let yourself be upset or you will run in vain. "
- Abba Nilus
A Few Thoughts for Forgiveness Sunday
"Do we forgive our neighbors their trespasses? God also forgives us in His mercy. Do we refuse to forgive? God, too, will refuse to forgive us. As we treat our neighbors, so also does God treat us. The forgiveness, then, of your sins or unforgiveness, and hence also your salvation or destruction, depend on you yourself, man. For without forgiveness of sins there is no salvation. "
- St. Tikhon of Zadonsk
"Before we enter the Lenten fast, we are reminded that there can be no true fast, no genuine repentance, no reconciliation with God, unless we are at the same time reconciled with one another. A fast without mutual love is the fast of demons...We do not travel the road of Lent as isolated individuals but as members of a family. "
- His Grace Bishop Kallistos (Ware) of Oxford
"The value of fasting consists not in abstinence only from food, but in a relinquishment of sinful practices, since he who limits his fasting only to an abstinence from meat is he who especially disparages it. The change in our way of life during these blessed days will help us to gain holiness. Therefore we should let our soul rejoice during the fast. "
- St. John Chrysostom
"For I know, yea I know many, not merely fasting and making a display of it, but neglecting to fast, and yet wearing the masks of them that fast, and cloaking themselves with an excuse worse than their sin. "
- St. John Chrysostom
"One must in every way flee from judging, and pray in secret for those who have sinned. 'This form of love is pleasing to God.' Judging is bound up with impudence and is incompatible with true repentance: 'To judge is to impudently appropriate to oneself the rank of God.' "
- St John Climacus
"Spiritual deiight is not enjoyment found in things that exist outside the soul. "
- St. Isaac of Syria
If the Son of God had not descended...
"Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to this earth in order to return to us our lost capacity to spend eternity in the blissful presence of God. He revealed to people that all their evil lies in sin and that no one through their own efforts can overcome the evil within themselves and attain communion with God. Sin, ingrained in our nature since the Fall, stands between us and God like a high wall. If the Son of God had not descended to us through His mercy for us, had not taken on our human nature, and had not by His death conquered sin, all mankind would have perished forever! Now, thanks to Him, those who wish to cleanse themselves from evil can do so and return to God and obtain eternal bliss in the Kingdom of Heaven. "
- St. Innocent of Alaska
On Sorrows
"The Apostle Paul did not boast that he healed the sick, raised the paralytics, resurrected the dead, chased out demons from people, but he boasted in his many illnesses. All the Saints in this temporal life had afflictions, distresses, illnesses, persecutions, troubles, but they did not complain, because they hoped and believed, that with these temporal afflictions they would gain eternal life, the Kingdom of Heaven. So henceforth rejoice in afflictions. Prefer the narrow and grievous path which leads to the kingdom of the heavens, and do not desire the wide and spacious one, which leads to perdition. Have patience, faith, courage, hope and love. He who forebears until the end shall be saved, and 'in your patience you shall gain your soul.' "
- Elder Philotheos Zervakos
On Fasting
"Do you fast? Give me proof of it by your works. If you see a poor man, take pity on him. If you see a friend being honored, do not envy him. Do not let only your mouth fast, but also the eye, and the ear, and the feet, and the hands, and all the members of our bodies. Let the hands fast, by being free of avarice. Let the feet fast, by ceasing to run after sin. Let the eyes fast, by disciplining them not to glare at that which is sinful...let the ear fast by not listening to evil talk and gossip...let the mouth fast from foul words and unjust criticism. 'For what good is it if we abstain from birds and fishes, but bite and devour our brothers?', St. John the Chrysostom. Long ago, the Lover of mankind, Himself, as though to an affectionate mother, furnished man, who had been misled, With the command for fasting, as a teacher. If man cherished it, he found his life above with the angels. But if he disregarded it, he found distress and death, the harshest of prickly plants, and the tribulation of a burdensome life. But if fasting is shown to be an aid to Paradise, how much the more valuable is it that we may have eternal life? "
- St. Romanes the Melodist, Kontakia, Vol. II, On Fasting
"With the word 'fasting' we mean abstinence from food, but also from all evil desires so that the Christian may communicate his prayers to God with peace and fervor, kill his evil desires and acquire the grace of God. The fast is a work of virtue for it bridles the desires of the flesh, strengthens the will, assists in repentance and thus is a means of salvation. At the same time it is also a liturgical action, an effort that glorifies God, when it is done for Him, for it is a sacrifice which originates from our love and reverence for God. "
- Elder Cleopa (+1998) - The Truth of our Faith
"Fasting, neither above nor below your ability, will help you in your vigil. One should not ponder divine matters on a full stomach, say the ascetics. For the well-fed, even the most superficial secrets of the Trinity lie hidden. Christ Himself set the example with His long fast; when He drove out the devil, He had fasted for forty days. Are we better than He? 'Behold, angels came and ministered unto him (Matt. 4:11).' They are waiting to minister to you, too. "
-Tito Colliander - Way of the Ascetics
"And finally, did not the Lord Jesus Himself begin His divine ministry of the salvation of mankind with a long, forty day fast? And did not He, in this way, clearly show that we must make a serious beginning to our life as Christians with fasting? First, the fast, and then all the rest comes together with, and through, the fast. "
- St. Nikolai Velimirovich