Quotes

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

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

Judging

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

St. John Climacus

Mourning

A characteristic of those who are still progressing in blessed mourning is temperance and silence of the lips; and of those who have made progress – freedom from anger and patient endurance of injuries; and of the perfect – humility, thirst for dishonors, voluntary craving for involuntary afflictions, non- condemnation of sinners, compassion even beyond one’s strength. The first are acceptable, the second laudable; but blessed are those who hunger for hardship and thirst for dishonor, for they shall be filled with the food whereof there can be no satiety.

St. John Climacus

Commandments

Struggle until death to fulfill the commandments: purified through them, you will enter into life.

St. Thalassios the Libyan

Abstinence

Stint your stomach and you will certainly lock your mouth, because the tongue is strengthened by an abundance of food. Struggle with all your might against the stomach and restrain it with all sobriety. If you labor a little, the Lord will also soon work with you.

St. John Climacus

Desires

Fear of the Lord conquers desire, and distress that accords with God's will repulses sensual pleasure.

St. Thalassios the Libyan

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

Patience

Patient endurance is the soul's struggle for virtue; where there is struggle for virtue, self-indulgence is banished.

St. Thalassios the Libyan

Mourning

He who really keeps account of his actions considers as lost every day in which he does not mourn, whatever good he may have done in it.

St. John Climacus

Chastity

Offer to the Lord the weakness of your nature, fully acknowledging your own powerlessness, and imperceptibly you will receive the gift of chastity.

St. John Climacus

Spiritual Warfare

It is, indeed, impossible for the mind not to be troubled by thoughts, but accepting them or rejecting them is possible for everyone who makes an effort...therefore we practice the frequent reading of Scripture, so that we may be open to a spiritual point of view. For this reason we frequently chant the psalms, so that we may continually grow in compunction. For this reason we are diligent in vigils, fasting, and praying, so that the mind which has been stretched to its limits may not taste earthly things but contemplate heavenly ones. When these things cease because negligence has crept in again, then, it is inevitable that the mind, by the accumulated filth of the vices, will soon turn in a carnal direction and fall.

St. John Cassian

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

Abstinence

As long as the flesh is in full health, let us observe abstinence at all times and in every place. When it has been tamed (which I do not suppose is possible this side of the grave), then let us hide our accomplishment.

St. John Climacus

Spiritual Warfare

The enemy is within ourselves. An invisible war is taking place within us. If interior evil is defeated, then the external, weaker, foe will surrender.

St. John Cassian

Self-Control

Self-control and strenuous effort curb desire; stillness and intense longing for God wither it.

St. Thalassios the Libyan

Prayer

A servant of the Lord is he who in body stands before men, but in mind knocks at Heaven with prayer.

St. John Climacus

Anger

Of the Only Case in Which Anger is Good... But we have a use for anger most properly planted within us, and for this use alone it is profitable and healthful for us to entertain it, namely, when we burn with wrathful indignation against the lustful motions of our own hearts, and are enraged to find that those things which we should be ashamed to do or to speak of before men have found admittance into the secret places of our minds. We may then well dread and fear exceedingly the presence of the Angels and the Omnipresence of God Himself, and His all-seeing Eye from which no secrets of our hearts can lie hid.

St. John Cassian

Possessions

A man who has embraced poverty offers up prayer that is pure, while a man who loves possessions prays to material images.

St. John Climacus

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

Struggle until death to fulfill the commandments: purified through them, you will enter into life.

Stint your stomach and you will certainly lock your mouth, because the tongue is strengthened by an abundance of food. Struggle with all your might against the stomach and restrain it with all sobriety. If you labor a little, the Lord will also soon work with you.

Fear of the Lord conquers desire, and distress that accords with God's will repulses sensual pleasure.

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

Patient endurance is the soul's struggle for virtue; where there is struggle for virtue, self-indulgence is banished.

He who really keeps account of his actions considers as lost every day in which he does not mourn, whatever good he may have done in it.

Offer to the Lord the weakness of your nature, fully acknowledging your own powerlessness, and imperceptibly you will receive the gift of chastity.

As long as the flesh is in full health, let us observe abstinence at all times and in every place. When it has been tamed (which I do not suppose is possible this side of the grave), then let us hide our accomplishment.

The enemy is within ourselves. An invisible war is taking place within us. If interior evil is defeated, then the external, weaker, foe will surrender.

Self-control and strenuous effort curb desire; stillness and intense longing for God wither it.

A servant of the Lord is he who in body stands before men, but in mind knocks at Heaven with prayer.

A man who has embraced poverty offers up prayer that is pure, while a man who loves possessions prays to material images.

St. Gregory the Great

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