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A Life of Fasting — the Natural Way
"A life of fasting, properly understood as general self-limitation and abstinence, to the annual practice of which the Church always calls us with the Great Lent, is really that bearing of the cross and self-crucifixion which is required of us by our calling as Christians. And anyone who stubbornly resists this, wanting to live a carefree, happy, and free life, is concerned for sensual pleasures and avoids sorrow and suffering that person is not a Christian. Bearing one's cross is the natural way of every true Christian, without which there is no Christianity. "
- + Archbishop Averky of Syracuse
Sermon on the Feast of the Annunciation
"Our present gathering in honour of the Most Holy Virgin inspires me, brethren, to say of Her a word of praise, of benefit also for those come unto this churchly solemnity. It comprises a praise of women, a glorying of their gender, which (glory) is brought it by Her, She Who is at one same time both Mother, and Virgin. 0 desired and wondrous gathering! Celebrate, 0 nature, that wherein honour be rendered to Woman; rejoice, 0 human race, that wherein the Virgin be glorified. "For when sin did abound, grace did superabound" (Rom 5:20). The Holy Mother of God and Virgin Mary hath gathered us here, She the pure treasure of virginity, the intended paradise of Second Adam - the locus, wherein was accomplished the co-uniting of natures, wherein was affirmed the Counsel of salvific reconciliation.
.. If perchance this Mother did not remain a Virgin, then that born of Her might be a mere man, and the birth wouid be no wise miraculous; but since She after birth remained a Virgin, then how is He Who is born indeed "
- St. Proclus
Wisdom from the Fathers
"The help of God is always ready and always near, but is given only to those who seek and work, and only to those seekers who, after putting ail I their powers to the test, then cry out with their whole heart: ‘Lord, help us.’ "
- St. Theophan the Recluse - The Way of God is a Daily Cross
"If you wouid be victorious, taste the suffering of Christ in your person, that you may be chosen to taste His glory. For if we suffer with Him, we shall also be glorified with Him. Blessed are you if you suffer for righteousness' sake. Behold, for years and generations the way of God has been made smooth through the Cross and by death. The way of God is a daily Cross. The Cross is the gate of mysteries. "
- St. Isaac the Syrian
"As bodily food fattens the body, so fasting strengthens the soul; imparting it an easy flight, it makes it able to ascend on high, to contemplate lofty things and to put the heavenly higher than the pleasant and pleasurable things of life. "
- St. John Chrysostom
"The Lord wishes the disciples to be kept in a state of unity by maintaining a like-mindedness and an identity of will, being mingled together as it were in soul and spirit and in the law of peace and love for one another. He wishes them to be bound together tightly with an unbreakable bond of love, that they may advance to such a degree of unity that their freely chosen association might even become an image of the natural unity that is conceived to exist between the Father and the Son. That is to say, he wishes them to enjoy a unity which is inseparable and indestructible, which may not be enticed away into a | dissimilarity of wills by anything at all that exists in the world or any pursuit of pleasure, but rather preserves the power of love in the unity of devotion and holiness, which is what actually happened. For as we read in Acts, 'the company of those who believed were of one heart and soul' (Acts 4:32), that is, in the unity of the Spirit."
- St. Cyril of Alexandria
Have Confidence in Her
"When you are about to pray to our Lady, be firmly assured that you will not depart from her without mercy. It is meet and right so to think, so to have confidence in her. She is the all-merciful Mother of the all-merciful God, and her merciful gifts - incalculably great, innumerable - have been declared from all ages by the Church. To pray to her without such assurance would be foolish and insolent, for such doubt would offend her goodness, just as God's goodness is offended when people pray to Him without hoping to get what they pray for. "