Quotes

A collection of scriptural meditations from Saints and Fathers of the Church.

Self-Knowledge

Self-knowledge is a true idea of one's spiritual growth, and an unbroken remembrance of one's slightest sins.

St. John Climacus

Fasting

If you have promised Christ to go by the strait and narrow way, restrain your stomach, because by pleasing it and enlarging it, you break your contract. Attend and you will hear Him who says: 'Spacious and broad is the way of the belly that leads to the perdition of fornication, and many there are who go in by it; because narrow is the gate and strait is the way of fasting that leads to the life of purity, and few there be that find it.'

St. John Climacus

Self-Criticism

Increasing self-criticism is the sign of increasing humility. Indeed, there is no clearer sign.

St. John Climacus

Humility

As with the appearance of light, darkness retreats; so, at the fragrance of humility, all anger and bitterness vanishes.

St. John Climacus

Solitude

A fish swiftly escapes a hook and a sensual soul shuns solitude.

St. John Climacus

Love

Love and humility form a holy pair; what the first builds, the second binds, thus preventing the building from falling asunder.

St. John Climacus

Ascetical Efforts

Do not be surprised that you fall every day; do not give up, but stand your around courageously. And assuredly the angel who guards you will honor your patience, while a wound is still fresh and warm it is easy to heal, but old, neglected and festering ones are hard to cure, and require for their care much treatment, cutting, plastering and cauterization. Many from long neglect become incurable. But with God all things are possible...

St. John Climacus

Blasphemy

No one in the face of blasphemous thoughts need think that the guilt lies within him, for the Lord is the Knower of hearts, and He is aware that such words and thoughts do not come from us but from our foes.

St. John Climacus

Anger

He who has put a stop to anger has also destroyed remembrance of wrongs; because childbirth continues only while the father is alive.

St. John Climacus

Demons

The demons, murderers as they are, push us into sin. Or if they fail to do this, they get us to pass judgment on those who are sinning, so that they may defile us with the stain which we ourselves are condemning in another.

St. John Climacus

Sleep

Just as over-drinking is a matter of habit, so too from habit comes over-sleeping. Therefore we must struggle with the question of sleep, especially in the early days of obedience, because a long-standing habit is difficult to cure.

St. John Climacus

Fear

Fear is a rehearsing of danger beforehand; or again, fear is a trembling sensation of the heart, alarmed and troubled by unknown misfortunes. Fear is a loss of assurance.

St. John Climacus

Ascetical Efforts

Do not trust that because of abstinence you will not fall. One who had never eaten was cast from Heaven.

St. John Climacus

Repentance

Painstaking repentance, mourning cleansed of all impurity, and holy humility in beginners, are as different and distinct from each other as yeast and flour from bread. By open repentance the soul is broken and refined; it is brought to a certain unity, I will even say a commingling with God, by means of the water of genuine mourning. Then, kindled by the fire of the Lord, blessed humility becomes bread and is made firm without the leaven of pride. Therefore, when this holy three-fold cord or, rather, heavenly rainbow, unites into one power and activity, it acquires its own effects and properties. And whatever you name as an indication of one of them, is a token also of another. The first and paramount property of this excellent and admirable trinity is the acceptance of indignity with the greatest pleasure, when the soul receives it with outstretched hands and welcomes it as something that relieves and cauterizes diseases of the soul and great sins. The second property is the loss of all bad temper, and humility as its subsiding. The third and highest degree is a true distrust of one’s good qualities and a constant desire to learn.

St. John Climacus

Humility

Love and humility form a holy pair; what the first builds, the second binds, thus preventing the building from falling asunder.

St. John Climacus

Meekness

Meekness is an unchangeable state of mind, which remains the same in honor and dishonor.

St. John Climacus

Patience

Patience is an unbroken labor of the soul which is never shaken by deserved or undeserved blows.

St. John Climacus

Self-Criticism

A sign of deliverance from our falls is the continual reckoning of ourselves as debtors.

St. John Climacus

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Self-knowledge is a true idea of one's spiritual growth, and an unbroken remembrance of one's slightest sins.

Increasing self-criticism is the sign of increasing humility. Indeed, there is no clearer sign.

As with the appearance of light, darkness retreats; so, at the fragrance of humility, all anger and bitterness vanishes.

A fish swiftly escapes a hook and a sensual soul shuns solitude.

Love and humility form a holy pair; what the first builds, the second binds, thus preventing the building from falling asunder.

No one in the face of blasphemous thoughts need think that the guilt lies within him, for the Lord is the Knower of hearts, and He is aware that such words and thoughts do not come from us but from our foes.

He who has put a stop to anger has also destroyed remembrance of wrongs; because childbirth continues only while the father is alive.

The demons, murderers as they are, push us into sin. Or if they fail to do this, they get us to pass judgment on those who are sinning, so that they may defile us with the stain which we ourselves are condemning in another.

Just as over-drinking is a matter of habit, so too from habit comes over-sleeping. Therefore we must struggle with the question of sleep, especially in the early days of obedience, because a long-standing habit is difficult to cure.

Fear is a rehearsing of danger beforehand; or again, fear is a trembling sensation of the heart, alarmed and troubled by unknown misfortunes. Fear is a loss of assurance.

Do not trust that because of abstinence you will not fall. One who had never eaten was cast from Heaven.

Love and humility form a holy pair; what the first builds, the second binds, thus preventing the building from falling asunder.

Meekness is an unchangeable state of mind, which remains the same in honor and dishonor.

Patience is an unbroken labor of the soul which is never shaken by deserved or undeserved blows.

A sign of deliverance from our falls is the continual reckoning of ourselves as debtors.

"Love giving hospitality, my child, for it opens the gates of Paradise. In this you also offer hospitality to angels. 'Entertain strangers so that you won't be a stranger to God.'"

Elder Amphilochios Makris

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