Quotes

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

Body

Keep the body properly slim so that you reduce the burden of the heart's warfare, with full benefit to yourself.

St. Philotheus of Sinai

Compunction

Compunction comes when you consider how much you have grieved God Who is so good, so sweet, so merciful, so kind, and entirely full of love; Who was crucified and suffered everything for us. When you meditate on these things and other things the Lord has suffered, they bring compunction.

St. Joseph the Hesychast

Poor

Do not shun poverty and afflictions, these wings of buoyant prayer.

St. Nilus of Sinai

Body

Break the bonds of your friendship for the body and give it only what is absolutely necessary.

St. Thalassios the Libyan

Body

Keep the body properly slim so that you reduce the burden of the heart's warfare, with full benefit to yourself.

Elder Ieronymos of Aegina

Body

Self-love -- that is, friendship for the body -- is the source of evil in the soul.

St. Thalassios the Libyan

Body

You are accustomed to look upon your body as upon your own inalienable property, but that is quite wrong, because your body is God's edifice.

St. John of Kronstadt

Body

When the flesh flourishes, the soul fades; when the flesh has full liberty, the soul is straitened; when the flesh is satiated, the soul hungers; when the flesh is adorned, the soul is deformed; when the flesh overflows with laughter, the soul is surrounded by misfortune; when the flesh is in the light, the soul is in darkness...

St. John of Kronstadt

Body

You were commanded to keep the body as a servant, not to be unnaturally enslaved to its pleasures.

St. Thalassios the Libyan

Body

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

St. John Climacus

Poor

Love the poor, and through them you will find mercy.

St. Isaac the Syrian

Body

Let work humble the body, and when the body is humbled the soul will be humble with it, so that it is truly said that bodily labors lead to humility.

St. Dorotheus of Gaza

Compunction

The way to attain compunction is an attentive life. ‘The beginning of repentance comes from the fear of God and attention,’ as the holy martyr Boniface says.

St. Ignatius Brianchaninov

Body

Charity, temperance, contemplation, and prayer please God; gluttony, licentiousness, and what multiplies them, please the flesh. Therefore they who are in the flesh cannot please God. And they that are Christ’s have crucified their flesh with the passions and concupiscences.

St. Maximus the Confessor

Poor

The feeding of the needy is the purchase money of the heavenly kingdom and the free dispenser of things temporal is made the heir of things eternal.

St. Leo the Great

Poor

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

Body

It is an insult to the intelligence to be subject to what lacks intelligence and to concern itself with shameful desires.

St. Thalassios the Libyan

Body

Having guarded ourselves against distractions and worries, let us turn our attention to our body on which mental vigilance is completely dependent. Human bodies differ widely from one another in strength and health. Some by their strength are like copper and iron; others are frail like grass. For this reason everyone should rule his body with great prudence, after exploring his physical powers. For a strong and healthy body, special fasts and vigils are suitable; they make it lighter, and give the mind a special wakefulness. A weak body should be strengthened by food and sleep according to one's physical needs, but on no account to satiety. Satiety is extremely harmful even for a weak body; it weakens it, and makes it susceptible to disease. Wise temperance of the stomach is a door to all the virtues. Restrain the stomach, and you will enter Paradise. But if you please and pamper your stomach, you will hurl yourself over the precipice of bodily impurity, into the fire of wrath and fury, you will coarsen and darken your mind, and in this way you will ruin your powers of attention and self-control, your sobriety and vigilance…

St. Ignatius Brianchaninov

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Keep the body properly slim so that you reduce the burden of the heart's warfare, with full benefit to yourself.

Compunction comes when you consider how much you have grieved God Who is so good, so sweet, so merciful, so kind, and entirely full of love; Who was crucified and suffered everything for us. When you meditate on these things and other things the Lord has suffered, they bring compunction.

Do not shun poverty and afflictions, these wings of buoyant prayer.

Break the bonds of your friendship for the body and give it only what is absolutely necessary.

Keep the body properly slim so that you reduce the burden of the heart's warfare, with full benefit to yourself.

Self-love -- that is, friendship for the body -- is the source of evil in the soul.

You are accustomed to look upon your body as upon your own inalienable property, but that is quite wrong, because your body is God's edifice.

You were commanded to keep the body as a servant, not to be unnaturally enslaved to its pleasures.

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

Love the poor, and through them you will find mercy.

Let work humble the body, and when the body is humbled the soul will be humble with it, so that it is truly said that bodily labors lead to humility.

The way to attain compunction is an attentive life. ‘The beginning of repentance comes from the fear of God and attention,’ as the holy martyr Boniface says.

Charity, temperance, contemplation, and prayer please God; gluttony, licentiousness, and what multiplies them, please the flesh. Therefore they who are in the flesh cannot please God. And they that are Christ’s have crucified their flesh with the passions and concupiscences.

The feeding of the needy is the purchase money of the heavenly kingdom and the free dispenser of things temporal is made the heir of things eternal.

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

It is an insult to the intelligence to be subject to what lacks intelligence and to concern itself with shameful desires.

St. John of Damascus, On the Holy Images

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