Quotes

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

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

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

Sin

All sin is due to sensual pleasure, all forgiveness to hardship and distress.

St. Thalassios the Libyan

Sin

Believe me, brethren, the more we are now in earnest to keep ourselves free from sin, the more confident shall we then be in His Presence.

St. Gregory the Great

Sin

'And forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors.' For we have many sins. For we offend both in word and in thought, and very many things we do worthy of condemnation; and 'if we say that we have no sin' (I Jn. 1:8), we lie, as John says...The offenses committed against us are slight and trivial, and easily settled; but those which we have committed against God are great, and need such mercy as His only is. Take heed, therefore, lest for the slight and trivial sins against you, you shut out for yourself forgiveness from God for your very grievous sins.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem

Sin

He who does not consciously choose to distance himself from a cause for sin, will be drawn to sin, even against his will.

St. Isaac the Syrian

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

Sin

Do not stir up a memory that will cover your prayer with mud, do not root around in the soil of your old sins.

Tito Colliander

Sin

Woe is he who knowingly chooses to sin with the intention to repent when morning comes, for he knows not what the coming day or the night that precedes it will bring.

St. Ephraim the Syrian

Sin

It is vain that some unenlightened people seek the greatest evil for man somewhere else, rather than in sin. Some consider disease to be the greatest evil, others - poverty, and others - death. But neither disease, nor poverty, nor death, nor any other earthly disaster can be such a great evil for us as sin is. These earthly misfortunes do not separate us from God if we are seeking Him sincerely, but, on the contrary, they bring us closer to Him.

Archimandrite Seraphim Aleksiev

Possessions

It is impossible for the soul to be liberated from turbulent thoughts without the virtue of non-possessiveness. And without peace of the bodily senses it is impossible for the soul to have a peaceful intellect. And if it does not come into temptations it will not acquire wisdom of the Holy Spirit. And without laborious and persistence in reading, it will not come to the discernment of thoughts. And without the stillness of thoughts, the intellect cannot move to seek the hidden mysteries of God.

St. Isaac the Syrian

Sin

For never is a man forced into sin by another’s fault, unless he have, stowed away in his heart, matter for evil deeds. Nor is a man to be held a victim of sudden deception if at the sight of a woman’s beauty he fall into an abyss of vile lust. Rather is it that diseases of soul, deeply hidden away and lost to view, come then to the surface on the occasion of the sight.

St. John Cassian

Sin

Just as desire and rage multiply our sins, so self-control and humility erase them.

St. Thalassios the Libyan

Scriptures

Reading the scriptures is a great safeguard against sin.

St. Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis

Sin

The man who has come to loathe sin has mounted the first rung of the heavenly ladder.

St. Silouan of the Holy Mountain

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

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

Possessions

Do not the angels differ from us in this respect, that they do not want so many things as we do? Therefore the less we need, the more we are on our way to them; the more we need, the more we sink down to this perishable life.

St. John Chrysostom

Parish

Faith

Ministries

News

Calendar

Contact

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.

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

All sin is due to sensual pleasure, all forgiveness to hardship and distress.

Believe me, brethren, the more we are now in earnest to keep ourselves free from sin, the more confident shall we then be in His Presence.

He who does not consciously choose to distance himself from a cause for sin, will be drawn to sin, even against his will.

Do not stir up a memory that will cover your prayer with mud, do not root around in the soil of your old sins.

Woe is he who knowingly chooses to sin with the intention to repent when morning comes, for he knows not what the coming day or the night that precedes it will bring.

Just as desire and rage multiply our sins, so self-control and humility erase them.

Reading the scriptures is a great safeguard against sin.

The man who has come to loathe sin has mounted the first rung of the heavenly ladder.

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.

Do not the angels differ from us in this respect, that they do not want so many things as we do? Therefore the less we need, the more we are on our way to them; the more we need, the more we sink down to this perishable life.

St. John of Karpathos

Join our Parish Mailing List