St. Symeon the New Theologian Orthodox Church

Take Up Your Cross

"It is a Christian's duty is to 'take up his cross.' The word Cross means sufferings, sorrows and adversities. To take up one's cross means to bear without grumblings everything unpleasant, painful, sad, difficult and oppressive that may happen to us in life, without expecting any earthly reward in return, but bear it all with love, with joy and with courageous strength. "

- St. Innocent of Alaska

Wise Counsels of Elder Ambrose of Optina

"In order to give the necessary understanding about the power and importance of repentance, Staretz Ambrose would say: 'What times have befallen us! Before, when somebody sincerely repented his sins, he changed his sinful lifestyle and lived chastely. But now it often happens, that during confession a person would detail all his sins and then continue his lifestyle unchanged.'
Staretz imparted another instructional narrative: A demon in the appearance of a human was sitting and dangling his feet. Seeing him with his spiritual eyes, he asked him: 'Why aren't you doing something?' The demon replied: 'Well there is nothing for me to do but to dangle my legs, because people are doing everything better than me.'
'It happens,' Batushka used to say, 'that although our sins are forgiven through repentance, our conscience does not cease to reproach us. As a comparison, the reposed Staretz Macarius used to show his finger that was cut a long time ago: the pain had long gone but the scar remains. That is exactly the same that after repentance, the scars remain, i.e., admonitions of the conscience.'
Although God forgives the sins of those repenting, every sin demands a cleansing punishment. For example, after Christ said to the wise thief: 'Today you will be with Me in Paradise,' his knees were broken. And what was it like to hang on his hands only, with broken kneecaps, for some three hours? It meant that he had to cleanse himself through suffering. The cleansing of those sinners who die immediately after repentance, is done through the prayers of the Church and those present, while those living, have to cleanse themselves through a change in their lifestyles and charity that would cover their sins. "

The Cross, the Fountain of Life

"'He gave His Only-begotten Son,' not a servant, not an Angel, not an Archangel. And yet no one would show such anxiety for his own child, as God did for His ungrateful servants ... He who giveth life to others, much more to Himself doth He well forth life ... For He calls the Cross the fountain of life; which reason cannot easily allow, as the heathens now by their mocking testify. But faith which goes beyond the weakness of reasoning, may easily receive and retain it. "

- St. John Chrysostom

Pulling that String

"Once, there was a monk from the Monastery of St. Paul who had gone to the Church of St. Gerasimos on the island of Cephallonia. During the Divine Liturgy, he stood in the Altar area and was praying with his komboskini (prayer rope) the Prayer of the Heart - 'Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner' - while the others were chanting. They had also brought a possessed person into the church to be cured by St. Gerasimos. While the monk was saying the prayer in the Altar, the demon was being seated outside and was shouting, 'Stop working that string, will you, monk; it is burning me!'
The priest heard it too, and said to the monk, 'Pray with your komboskini as much as you can, my brother, so that God's creature can be freed of the demon.' The demon then shouted in great anger, 'You, rotten priest, you. What are you telling him to pull that string for? It is burning me!'
The monk then prayed with his komboskini with even greater effort and the possessed man was delivered from the demon. "

- Elder Paisios of Mt. Athos, Athonite Fathers and Athonite Matters

Confession

"For Holy Communion, the confession of our sins to a father confessor is needed; whereas for our communication with God, the confession our weaknesses before Him is necessary. When we pray with pain for our fellow men, then our kind God abundantly gives us His grace. When someone celebrates his name day, wish him thus: May you live many years which will be pleasing to God. "

- Elder Paisios

Bearing One's Cross

"Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me."
Matthew 16:24

"One cannot go after the Lord, the Crossbearer, without a cross; and all who go after Him, without fail go with a cross. What then is this cross? All kinds of discomforts, burdens, and sorrows pressing from within and from without on the path of conscientious fulfillment of the Lord's commandments in life according to the spirit of His instructions and demands. Such a cross is so united with a Christian that where a Christian is, there also is this cross, but where this cross is not, there also a Christian is not. All manner of indulgence and a life of pleasure do not become a true Christian. His task is to cleanse and reform himself. He is like a sick person on whom it is necessary to perform now a cauterization now an amputation, but how is this to be without a struggle and wounds? He must go counter to all the customs surrounding him, but how is he to endure this without discomfort and embarrassment? But rejoice, feeling upon yourself the cross, for that is the sign that you are following the Lord on the path of salvation to paradise. Endure a little. Just ahead lies the end and the crown. "

- From Thoughts for Each Day of the Year by Bishop Theophan the Recluse

Which Cross?

"What is the significance of the two crosses found together with the Cross of Christ? None, it would seem. In fact, however, we have something to learn here.
Each of you, brethren, has two crosses: either the Cross of the Lord or the cross of the thief. If a man suffers not on account of his own fault, his own sins, but on account of some misfortune or through the unsearchable ways of God's Providence, and he bears his sufferings in patience, without grumbling, then he is carrying the Cross of the Lord and he will be rewarded for this burden in the life of the age to come. But if a man has fashioned his cross himself, through his wickedness and bad behavior, then this is the cross of the thief.
How can we exchange the thief s cross for the Cross of the Lord? Through faith, prayer, good deeds, unmurmuring patience and perfect hope in Divine Providence. Be assured, brethren: the time will come when, at the sound of the trumpet, the living and the dead will gather in one place and they will see the Son of Man in glory, with the Cross, coming to grant every man according to his deeds. Strive, while there is still time, to earn the Cross of the Lord, for this time is passing, never to be regained. "

- Archbishop Innocent of Kherson

Redemption and Deification

"He who would love God is always in converse with Him as with his Father, turning away from all passionate thought. If you wish to pray as you ought, do nothing that is opposed to prayer, in order that God may draw near and descend to you. "

- St. Nilus of Sinai

Staretz Silouan of Mt Athos

"It is a great good to give oneself up to the will of God. Then the Lord alone is in the soul. No other thought can enter in, and the soul feels God's love, even though the body be suffering. When the soul is entirely given over to the will of God, the Lord Himself takes her in hand and the soul learns directly from God. Whereas, before, she turned to teachers and to the Scriptures for instruction. But it rarely happens that the soul's teacher is the Lord Himself through the grace of the Holy Spirit, and few there are that know of this, save only those who live according to God's will.
The proud man does not want to live according to God's will: he likes to be his own master and does not see that man has not wisdom enough to guide himself without God. And I, when I lived in the world, knew not the Lord and His Holy Spirit, nor how the Lord loves us-1 relied on my own understanding; but when by the Holy Spirit I came to know our Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God. "

- St. Justin Popovich