Quotes

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

Prayer

'If our prayer is not in harmony with our deeds, we labor in vain,' Abba Moses often told the young monks. 'How are we to accomplish such harmony?' they asked him one day. 'When we make that which we seek fitting to our prayer,' explained the saint. 'Only then can the soul be reconciled with its Creator and its prayer be acceptable, when it sets aside all of its own evil intentions.'

St. Moses the Black

Prayer

Prayers at home are an introduction, a preparation for prayers in Church. Thus he who is not accustomed to pray at home can seldom pray diligently in Church. Experience bears witness to this: anyone can observe it for himself.

St. John of Kronstadt

Prayer

Prayer requires the inseparable presence and cooperation of the attention. With attention, prayer becomes the inalienable property of the person praying; in the absence of attention, it is extraneous to the person praying. With attention, it bears abundant fruit; without attention, it produces thorns and thistles. The fruit of prayer consists in illumination of mind and compunction of heart; in the quickening of the soul with the life of the Spirit. Thorns and thistles are a sign of deadness of soul and pharisaical self-esteem which springs from the hardening of a heart which is contented and elated by the quantity of the prayers and the time spent in reciting those prayers.

St. Ignatius Brianchaninov

Prayer

The prayers of those who hold grudges is sowing on stone.

St. Isaac the Syrian

Prayer

When you pray fervently, watch, for there will be temptations. This happens to everyone.

St. Ambrose of Optina

Prayer

Whether you pray with brethren or alone, try to pray not simply as a routine, but with conscious awareness of your prayer. Conscious awareness of prayer is concentration accompanied by reverence, compunction and distress of soul as it confesses its sin with inward sorrow.

St. Evagrius the Solitary

Prayer

It is natural for the poor man to beg, and it is natural for man made poor by the fall into sin to pray.

St. Ignatius Brianchaninov

Dejection

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

St. John Cassian

Prayer

The joint prayer of husband and wife is a great force.

St. Macarius of Optina

Prayer

O man, learn the humility of Christ and the Lord will give you to taste of the sweetness of prayer. And if you would pray cleanly, be humble and temperate, confess yourself thoroughly, and prayer will feel at home in you. Be obedient, submit with a good conscience to those in authority; be content with all things, and your mind will be cleansed of vain thoughts. Remember that the Lord sees you, and be fearful lest you anywise offend your brother, whom neither dispraise nor grieve, even by a look, and the Holy Spirit will love you and will Himself be your help in all things.

St. Silouan of the Holy Mountain

Prayer

Tedium is the granddaughter of despondency, and the daughter of slothfulness. In order to drive it away, labor at your work, and do not be slothful in prayer. The tedium will pass, and zeal will come. And if to this you add patience and humility, then you will be rid of all misfortunes and evils.

St. Ambrose of Optina

Prayer

Ask the angels and the saints to intercede for you, just as you'd ask people who are alive. Stand face to face with them, in the belief that they are also standing face to face with you.

St. John of Kronstadt

Prayer

Do not shun poverty and affliction, the fuel that gives wings to prayer.

St. Evagrius the Solitary

Prayer

There is yet another reason that may cause our prayer to go unanswered: namely, that though we pray we yet continue in sin.

St. John Chrysostom

Prayer

Before the war begins, seek out your ally; before you fall ill, seek out your physician; and before grievous things come upon you, pray, and in the time of your tribulations you will find Him, and He will listen to you.

St. Isaac the Syrian

Prayer

Do not attempt to assess the quality of your prayer. God alone can judge its value. To us, our own prayer must always appear so poor an effort, so inadequate an achievement, that the cry of the publican spontaneously rises from our lips.

St. Macarius of Optina

Prayer

Your prayer must have four constituent parts, says Basil the Great: adoration, thanksgiving, confession of sin and petition for salvation.

Tito Colliander

Prayer

The soul of prayer is attentiveness. As the body without a soul is dead, so prayer without attentiveness is dead.

St. Ignatius Brianchaninov

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Prayers at home are an introduction, a preparation for prayers in Church. Thus he who is not accustomed to pray at home can seldom pray diligently in Church. Experience bears witness to this: anyone can observe it for himself.

The prayers of those who hold grudges is sowing on stone.

When you pray fervently, watch, for there will be temptations. This happens to everyone.

Whether you pray with brethren or alone, try to pray not simply as a routine, but with conscious awareness of your prayer. Conscious awareness of prayer is concentration accompanied by reverence, compunction and distress of soul as it confesses its sin with inward sorrow.

It is natural for the poor man to beg, and it is natural for man made poor by the fall into sin to pray.

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

The joint prayer of husband and wife is a great force.

Tedium is the granddaughter of despondency, and the daughter of slothfulness. In order to drive it away, labor at your work, and do not be slothful in prayer. The tedium will pass, and zeal will come. And if to this you add patience and humility, then you will be rid of all misfortunes and evils.

Ask the angels and the saints to intercede for you, just as you'd ask people who are alive. Stand face to face with them, in the belief that they are also standing face to face with you.

Do not shun poverty and affliction, the fuel that gives wings to prayer.

There is yet another reason that may cause our prayer to go unanswered: namely, that though we pray we yet continue in sin.

Before the war begins, seek out your ally; before you fall ill, seek out your physician; and before grievous things come upon you, pray, and in the time of your tribulations you will find Him, and He will listen to you.

Do not attempt to assess the quality of your prayer. God alone can judge its value. To us, our own prayer must always appear so poor an effort, so inadequate an achievement, that the cry of the publican spontaneously rises from our lips.

Your prayer must have four constituent parts, says Basil the Great: adoration, thanksgiving, confession of sin and petition for salvation.

The soul of prayer is attentiveness. As the body without a soul is dead, so prayer without attentiveness is dead.

"A Christian has great difficulty in attaining three things: grief (over sins), tears, and the continual memory of death. Yet these contain all of the other virtues."

Abba Isaiah the Solitary

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