Quotes

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

Mourning

As the gradual pouring of water on a fire completely extinguishes the flame, so the tears of mourning are able to quench every flame of anger and irritability. Therefore, we place this next in order. (after mourning).

St. John Climacus

Desires

Control your appetites before they control you.

St. John Climacus

Prayer

When you are praying, don’t rack your brains to find words. On many occasions the simple, monotonous stammering of children has satisfied their Father who is in heaven. Don’t bother to be loquacious lest the mind is bewildered in the search for words. The tax-collector gained the Lord’s forgiveness with a single sentence, and a single word charged with faith was the salvation of the robber. Loquacity in prayer often fills the head with foolish fancies and provokes distractions. Brevity on the other hand - sometimes only one word is enough - in general favors recollection.

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

Mourning

Mourning according to God is sadness of soul and the disposition of a sorrowing heart, which ever madly seeks that for which it thirsts; and when it fails in its quest, it painfully pursues it, and follows in its wake grievously lamenting. Or thus: mourning is a golden spur in a soul which is stripped of all attachment and of all ties, fixed in a soul which is stripped of all attachment and of all ties, fixed by holy sorrow to watch over the heart.

St. John Climacus

Indignity

Most of us call ourselves sinners, and perhaps really think it; but it is indignity that tests the heart.

St. John Climacus

Tears

Lying is wiped out by the tortures of superiors; but it is finally destroyed by an abundance of tears.

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

Mourning

Let your very dress urge you to the work of mourning, because all who lament the dead are dressed in black. If you do not mourn, mourn for this cause. And if you mourn, lament still more that, by your sins, you have brought yourself down from a state free of labors to one of labor.

St. John Climacus

Repentance

Repentance raises the fallen, mourning knocks at the gate of Heaven, and holy humility opens it.

St. John Climacus

Forgiving

Some, for the sake of forgiveness, give themselves up to labors and struggles, but a man who is forgetful of wrongs excels them. If you forgive quickly, then you will be generously forgiven.

St. John Climacus

Pride

Where a fall has overtaken us, there pride has already pitched its tent; because a fall is an indication of pride.

St. John Climacus

Thanksgiving

Before all else, let us list sincere thanksgiving first on the scroll of our prayer. On the second line, we should put confession and heartfelt contrition of soul. Then let us present our petition to the King of all. This is the best way of prayer, as it was shown to one of the brethren by an angel of the Lord.

St. John Climacus

Mourning

If you possess the gift of mourning, hold on to it with all your might. For it is easily lost when it is not firmly established. And just as wax melts in the presence of fire, so it is easily dissolved by noise and bodily cares, and by luxury, and especially by talkativeness and levity.

St. John Climacus

Passions

It is not safe to swim in one's clothes, nor should a slave of passion touch theology.

St. John Climacus

Judging

Do not condemn, even if you see with your eyes, for they are often deceived.

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

Slothfulness

We must not think that anyone slips and comes to ruin by a sudden fall; it is rather that he has been deceived by the beginnings of evil habits, or else, by prolonged mental negligence, virtue has little by little withdrawn from him, and vices have thereby grown stronger, and he has come thus to a miserable fall. For Pride goeth before destruction, and the spirit is lifted up before a fall (Prov.16:18 LXX). Just as a house never falls in ruin by a sudden shock unless there has been some long-standing fault in the foundations, or by the prolonged carelessness of the tenants, little driblets at first penetrate through and slowly undermine the walls, which, inconsequence of the old neglect, open in ever wider apertures and crumble away, and then let in the tempest of rain and storm in torrents. For by slothfulness a building shall be brought down, and through the weakness of hands the house shall drop through (Ecclus. 10:19 LXX).

St. John Climacus

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As the gradual pouring of water on a fire completely extinguishes the flame, so the tears of mourning are able to quench every flame of anger and irritability. Therefore, we place this next in order. (after mourning).

Control your appetites before they control you.

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

Most of us call ourselves sinners, and perhaps really think it; but it is indignity that tests the heart.

Lying is wiped out by the tortures of superiors; but it is finally destroyed by an abundance of tears.

Let your very dress urge you to the work of mourning, because all who lament the dead are dressed in black. If you do not mourn, mourn for this cause. And if you mourn, lament still more that, by your sins, you have brought yourself down from a state free of labors to one of labor.

Repentance raises the fallen, mourning knocks at the gate of Heaven, and holy humility opens it.

Some, for the sake of forgiveness, give themselves up to labors and struggles, but a man who is forgetful of wrongs excels them. If you forgive quickly, then you will be generously forgiven.

Where a fall has overtaken us, there pride has already pitched its tent; because a fall is an indication of pride.

If you possess the gift of mourning, hold on to it with all your might. For it is easily lost when it is not firmly established. And just as wax melts in the presence of fire, so it is easily dissolved by noise and bodily cares, and by luxury, and especially by talkativeness and levity.

It is not safe to swim in one's clothes, nor should a slave of passion touch theology.

Do not condemn, even if you see with your eyes, for they are often deceived.

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

St. Barsanuphius the Great and St. John the Prohpet, Guidance Toward Spiritual Life

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