Quotes

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

Pascha

Paschal joy is a foretaste of eternal joy in the approaching kingdom of Christ.

St. John Maximovitch of Shanghai and San Francisco

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

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

St. John Climacus

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

Scriptures

Holy Scripture is presented to the mind’s eye like a mirror in which the appearance of our inner being can be seen.

St. Gregory the Great

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

Body

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

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.

St. Philotheus of Sinai

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

Dejection

Just as a moth devours clothing and a worm devours wood, so dejection devours a man’s soul.

St. John Cassian

Scriptures

If you love the Sender, then also love the letter which is sent from Him to you. For the word of God is given by God to me, to you, and to everyone, so that everyone who desires to be saved may receive salvation through it.

St. Tikhon of Zadonsk

Scriptures

God in His mercy gave us the Holy Scriptures that we might read them, and reading them we might fulfill what is sent by God to man, revealing His Holy Will and teaching us how to live. Consider with what attention and willingness that we ought to read God's letter to us. If an earthly king...wrote to you a letter, would you not read it with great joy? Certainly, with great rejoicing and careful attention. The King of Heaven has sent a letter to you, an earthly and mortal man; yet you almost despise such a gift, so priceless a treasure. Whenever you read the Gospel, Christ Him self is speaking to you. And while you read, you are praying and talking with Him. God speaks to man, the King of Heaven talks with the corruptible creature, the Lord holds converse with the servant. What can be more pleasant... more instructive?

St. Tikhon of Zadonsk

Scriptures

Whoever is experienced in the spiritual interpretation of Scripture knows that the simplest passage is of a significance equal to that of the most abstruse passage, and that both are directed to the salvation of man.

St. Peter of Damascus

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

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

St. Thalassios the Libyan

Scriptures

A humble and spiritually active man, when he reads the Holy Scripture, will refer everything to himself and not to another.

St. Mark the Ascetic

Scriptures

The Holy Fathers teach us how to become familiar with the Gospel, how to read it and how to understand it, what helps and what opposes its understanding. Therefore, at first you must devote more time to reading the Holy Fathers...

St. Ignatius Brianchaninov

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Paschal joy is a foretaste of eternal joy in the approaching kingdom of Christ.

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

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

Holy Scripture is presented to the mind’s eye like a mirror in which the appearance of our inner being can be seen.

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

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

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

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.

Just as a moth devours clothing and a worm devours wood, so dejection devours a man’s soul.

If you love the Sender, then also love the letter which is sent from Him to you. For the word of God is given by God to me, to you, and to everyone, so that everyone who desires to be saved may receive salvation through it.

Whoever is experienced in the spiritual interpretation of Scripture knows that the simplest passage is of a significance equal to that of the most abstruse passage, and that both are directed to the salvation of man.

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.

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

A humble and spiritually active man, when he reads the Holy Scripture, will refer everything to himself and not to another.

The Holy Fathers teach us how to become familiar with the Gospel, how to read it and how to understand it, what helps and what opposes its understanding. Therefore, at first you must devote more time to reading the Holy Fathers...

St. Joseph of Volokalamsk

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