Quotes

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

Commandments

Unless a man keeps the commandments of God, he cannot progress, even in a single virtue.

Abba Agathon

Scriptures

Ignorance of the scriptures is a precipice and a deep abyss.

St. Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis

Commandments

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

St. Thalassios the Libyan

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

Mourning

Mourning has a twofold action: like water tears extinguish all the fire of passions and wash the soul clean of their foulness; and, again, through the presence of the Holy Spirit, it is like fire bringing life, warming the heart, and inciting it to love and desire God.

St. Symeon the New Theologian

Resurrection

Everything has already begun, and everything always begins anew for the Church, with the Resurrection of our Lord.

His Beatitude, Patriarch Ignatius IV

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

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

Mourning

The man who follows Christ in solitary mourning is greater than he who praises Christ amid the congregation of men.

St. Isaac the Syrian

Commandments

The roof of any house stands upon the foundations and the rest of the structure. The foundations themselves are laid in order to carry the roof. This is both useful and necessary, for the roof cannot stand without the foundations and the foundations are absolutely useless without the roof-- no help to any living creature. In the same way the grace of God is preserved by the practice of the commandments, and the observance of these commandments is laid down like foundations through the gift of God. The grace of the Spirit cannot remain with us without the practice of the commandments, but the practice of the commandments is of no help or advantage to us without the grace of God.

St. Symeon the New Theologian

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

Scriptures

The Scriptures were not given merely that we might have them in books, but that we might engrave them on our hearts.

St. John Chrysostom

Mourning

The man who follows Christ in solitary mourning is greater than he who praises Christ amid the congregation of men.

Abbot Nazarius

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

Scriptures

Put aside bodily considerations when you stand in prayer, lest the bite of a flea, a gnat or a fly deprive you of the greatest gain afforded by prayer.

St. Nilus of Sinai

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. Symeon, Archbishop of Thessalonica

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

Mourning

I consider those fallen mourners more blessed than those who have not fallen and are not mourning over themselves; because as a result of their fall, they have risen by a sure resurrection.

St. John Climacus

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Unless a man keeps the commandments of God, he cannot progress, even in a single virtue.

Ignorance of the scriptures is a precipice and a deep abyss.

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

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.

Mourning has a twofold action: like water tears extinguish all the fire of passions and wash the soul clean of their foulness; and, again, through the presence of the Holy Spirit, it is like fire bringing life, warming the heart, and inciting it to love and desire God.

Everything has already begun, and everything always begins anew for the Church, with the Resurrection of our Lord.

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.

The man who follows Christ in solitary mourning is greater than he who praises Christ amid the congregation of men.

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.

The Scriptures were not given merely that we might have them in books, but that we might engrave them on our hearts.

The man who follows Christ in solitary mourning is greater than he who praises Christ amid the congregation of men.

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.

Put aside bodily considerations when you stand in prayer, lest the bite of a flea, a gnat or a fly deprive you of the greatest gain afforded by prayer.

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.

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).

I consider those fallen mourners more blessed than those who have not fallen and are not mourning over themselves; because as a result of their fall, they have risen by a sure resurrection.

"Patience is love and obedience."

St. Raphael of Lesvos, St. Nicholas of Lesvos and St. Irene of Lesvos, Modern Orthodox Saints

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