Quotes

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

Sorrows

Most people desire and seek after prosperity in this life, and they strive to avoid sorrows. While that seems very good and pleasant, constant prosperity and good fortune do a person harm. He falls into a variety of passions and sins, and angers the Lord, while those who live a life of sorrow come closer to the Lord and more readily attain unto salvation, for the Lord called the life of happiness the broad path. The wide gates and the broad way lead to destruction, and many there be who take that way (Matthew 7:13). It is the narrow way and the strait gate which lead to life eternal, and few there be who find it (Matthew 7:14). Thus, according to His love for us, seeing the possible benefit [of sorrows] to those who are worthy, the Lord moves many off the broad road and puts them on the narrow, sorrowful path, so that in [their] patient endurance of sickness and sorrow, He might effect their salvation and grant them life eternal.

St. Macarius of Optina

Solitude

Nothing is better for rendering the heart penitent and the soul humble than wise solitude and complete silence.

St. Gregory of Sinai

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

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

Sorrows

Sorrows cleanse and polish a person.

Archimandrite Ioannikios Kotsonis

Solitude

Every man that loves God loves a quiet life.

St. Isaac the Syrian

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

Resurrection

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

His Beatitude, Patriarch Ignatius IV

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

Sorrows

As too many sticks often choke a fire and put it out, while making a lot of smoke, so excessive sorrow often makes the soul smoky and dark, and dries the stream of tears.

St. John Climacus

Solitude

A fish swiftly escapes a hook and a sensual soul shuns solitude.

St. John Climacus

Sorrows

Without sorrows there is no salvation. On the other hand, the Kingdom of God awaits those who have patiently endured. And all the glory of the world is nothing in comparison.

St. Seraphim of Sarov

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Nothing is better for rendering the heart penitent and the soul humble than wise solitude and complete silence.

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

Sorrows cleanse and polish a person.

Every man that loves God loves a quiet life.

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

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

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.

As too many sticks often choke a fire and put it out, while making a lot of smoke, so excessive sorrow often makes the soul smoky and dark, and dries the stream of tears.

A fish swiftly escapes a hook and a sensual soul shuns solitude.

Without sorrows there is no salvation. On the other hand, the Kingdom of God awaits those who have patiently endured. And all the glory of the world is nothing in comparison.

"He who is not indifferent to fame and pleasure, as well as to love of riches that exists because of them and increases them, cannot cut off occasions for anger. And he who does not cut these off cannot attain perfect love."

St. Maximus the Confessor

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