Quotes

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

Body

The man who pets a lion may tame it, but the man who coddles the body makes it ravenous.

St. John Climacus

Obedience

Obedience is to give up one's own judgment but to do it with wise consultation.

St. John Climacus

Sleep

Let us observe and we shall find that the spiritual trumpet serves as an outward signal for the gathering of the brethren, but it is also the unseen signal for the assembly of our foes. So some of them stand by our bed, and when we get up urge us to lie down again: 'Wait,' they say, 'till the preliminary hymns are finished; then you can go to church.' Others plunge those standing at prayer into sleep. Some produce severe, unusual pains in the stomach. Others urge us on to make conversation in church. Some entice the mind to shameful thoughts. Others make us lean against the wall as though from fatigue. Sometimes they involve us in fits of yawning. Some of them bring on waves of laughter during prayer, thereby desiring to stir up the anger of God against us. Some force us to hurry the reading or chanting merely from laziness; others suggest that we should chant more slowly for the pleasure of it; and sometimes they sit at our mouths and shut them, so that we can scarcely open them. He who reckons with feeling of heart that he stands before God in prayer shall be an unshakeable pillar, and none of the aforesaid demons will make sport of him.

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

Salvation

Just as gold is found, washed out of a great amount of sand and it amounts to very small grains like millet, so also out of many human beings few will be approved. For those who seek the kingdom are clearly manifested, while those who merely wear its word as a beautiful ornament are the ones most conspicuous. For the same reason those are manifested who are seasoned with the heavenly salt and who speak out of the Spirit's treasures. The vessels appear in whom God is pleased and to whom He gives His grace. There are also others, who, with much patience, receive the sanctifying power in many different ways, as God wishes.

St. Macarius the Great

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

Obedience

The fathers have laid down that psalmody is a weapon, and prayer is a wall, and honest tears are a bath; but blessed obedience in their judgment is confession of faith, without which no one subject to the passions will see the Lord.

St. John Climacus

Praise

It is a great work to shake from the soul the praise of men, but to reject the praise of demons is greater.

St. John Climacus

Community

As galloping horses race one another, so a good community excites mutual fervor.

St. John Climacus

Obedience

Those who live in obedience are strangers to love of money. For where even the body has been given up, what is left to be one's own? Only in one way can they be harmed, namely by being ready and quick to go from place to place. I have seen material possessions make monks patient to remain in one place. But I praise those who are pilgrims for the Lord.

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

Patience

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

St. John Climacus

Neighbors

If we keep remembering the wrongs which men have done us, we destroy the power of the remembrance of God...

St. Macarius the Great

Self-Criticism

I wish I could persuade spiritual persons that the way of perfection does not consist in many devices, nor in much cogitation, but in denying themselves completely and yielding themselves to suffer everything for the love of Christ. And if there is failure in this exercise, all other methods of walking in the spiritual way are merely a beating about the bush, and profitless trifling, although a person should have very high contemplation and communication with God.

St. John Climacus

Mind

When a man gives God his secret things, that is, his mind and thoughts, not occupying himself elsewhere, nor wandering away, but putting constraint upon himself, then the Lord deems him worthy of mysteries, in greater sanctity and purity, and gives him heavenly food and spiritual drink

St. Macarius the Great

Self-Criticism

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

St. John Climacus

Criticism

He who refuses to accept a criticism, just or not, renounces his own salvation, while he who accepts it, hard or not though it may be, will soon have his sins forgiven.

St. John Climacus

Desires

Control your appetites before they control you.

St. John Climacus

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The man who pets a lion may tame it, but the man who coddles the body makes it ravenous.

Obedience is to give up one's own judgment but to do it with wise consultation.

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

The fathers have laid down that psalmody is a weapon, and prayer is a wall, and honest tears are a bath; but blessed obedience in their judgment is confession of faith, without which no one subject to the passions will see the Lord.

It is a great work to shake from the soul the praise of men, but to reject the praise of demons is greater.

As galloping horses race one another, so a good community excites mutual fervor.

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.

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

If we keep remembering the wrongs which men have done us, we destroy the power of the remembrance of God...

When a man gives God his secret things, that is, his mind and thoughts, not occupying himself elsewhere, nor wandering away, but putting constraint upon himself, then the Lord deems him worthy of mysteries, in greater sanctity and purity, and gives him heavenly food and spiritual drink

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

He who refuses to accept a criticism, just or not, renounces his own salvation, while he who accepts it, hard or not though it may be, will soon have his sins forgiven.

Control your appetites before they control you.

"Prayers at home are an introduction, a preparation for prayers in Church. Thus he who is not accustomed to pray at home can seldom pray diligently in Church. Experience bears witness to this: anyone can observe it for himself."

St. John of Kronstadt

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