Quotes

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

Possessions

A lover of riches is never satisfied, no matter how many possessions he accumulates, but the more he acquires daily, the more his appetite increases; and a person forcibly pulled away from a stream of pure water before he has quenched his thirst feels even more thirsty. In a similar way, once one has experienced the taste of God, one can never be satisfied or have enough of it, but however much one is enriched by this wealth one still feels oneself to be poor. Christians do not set great store by their own lives, but regard themselves rather as rightly set at nought by God and as everyone’s servants.

St. Macarius the Great

Possessions

Go, sell all that belongs to you and give it to the poor and taking up the cross, deny yourself; in this way you will be able to pray without distraction.

St. Nilus of Sinai

Possessions

How destructive to the heart is even momentary attachment for anything earthly.

St. John of Kronstadt

Possessions

The desire for possessions is dangerous and terrible, knowing no satiety; it drives the soul which it controls to the heights of evil. Therefore, let us drive it away vigorously from the beginning. For once it has become master it cannot be overcome.

St. Isidore of Pelusium

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

Possessions

Rivalry over material possessions has made us forget the counsel of the Lord, who urged us to take no thought for earthly things, but to seek only the kingdom of heaven (cf. Matt. 6:33).

St. Nilus of Sinai

Solitude

The arrows of the enemy cannot touch one who loves quietness; but he who moves about in a crowd will often be wounded.

St. Nilus of Sinai

Possessions

All other possessions do not really belong to the one who has them or to the one who has acquired them for they are exchanged back and forth like a game of dice. Only virtue among our possessions cannot be taken away, but remains with us when we live and when we die.

St. Basil the Great

Resurrection

The Resurrection of the Lord is the renewal of human nature, and the renewal, re-creation and return to immortality of the first Adam who was swallowed up by death because of sin, and through death went back to the earth from which he was formed.

St. Gregory Palamas

Possessions

We must resist and avoid like deadly poison the desire to possess earthly goods.

St. Nilus of Sora

Solitude

Solitude offers us an excellent opportunity for calming our passions and giving our reason time to remove them thoroughly from our soul. For just as wild animals can be soothed by being stroked, so all our anger, fear and stress, which poison and disrupt our soul, can be soothed by an atmosphere of peace where the freedom from constant disturbance ensures that our soul can be brought more easily under the power of reason.

St. Basil the Great

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

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

Possessions

The fathers say that a man who sets store by the gold and silver he can amass does not believe that there is a God who provides for him.

St. Nilus of Sora

Solitude

Nothing so fills the heart with contrition and humbles the soul as solitude embraced with self-awareness, and utter silence.

St. Gregory of Sinai

Possessions

The more you love money, the more securely you close the Kingdom of God.

St. Basil the Great

Resurrection

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

His Beatitude, Patriarch Ignatius IV

Possessions

As earth thrown over it extinguishes a fire burning in a stove, so worldly cares and every kind of attachment to something, however small and insignificant, destroys the warmth of the heart which was there at first.

St. Symeon the New Theologian

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Go, sell all that belongs to you and give it to the poor and taking up the cross, deny yourself; in this way you will be able to pray without distraction.

How destructive to the heart is even momentary attachment for anything earthly.

The desire for possessions is dangerous and terrible, knowing no satiety; it drives the soul which it controls to the heights of evil. Therefore, let us drive it away vigorously from the beginning. For once it has become master it cannot be overcome.

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.

Rivalry over material possessions has made us forget the counsel of the Lord, who urged us to take no thought for earthly things, but to seek only the kingdom of heaven (cf. Matt. 6:33).

The arrows of the enemy cannot touch one who loves quietness; but he who moves about in a crowd will often be wounded.

All other possessions do not really belong to the one who has them or to the one who has acquired them for they are exchanged back and forth like a game of dice. Only virtue among our possessions cannot be taken away, but remains with us when we live and when we die.

The Resurrection of the Lord is the renewal of human nature, and the renewal, re-creation and return to immortality of the first Adam who was swallowed up by death because of sin, and through death went back to the earth from which he was formed.

We must resist and avoid like deadly poison the desire to possess earthly goods.

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.

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

The fathers say that a man who sets store by the gold and silver he can amass does not believe that there is a God who provides for him.

Nothing so fills the heart with contrition and humbles the soul as solitude embraced with self-awareness, and utter silence.

The more you love money, the more securely you close the Kingdom of God.

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

As earth thrown over it extinguishes a fire burning in a stove, so worldly cares and every kind of attachment to something, however small and insignificant, destroys the warmth of the heart which was there at first.

St. John Maximovitch

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