Ponder deeply on the angelic honor of which you have been found worthy and, whatever the rank to which you have been called, strive through virtue and purity to keep yourself unsullied. For you know from what height Lucifer fell on account of his pride. Do not dream up great ideas about yourself and suffer the same fate.
Regard yourself as dust and ashes (Gen. 18:27), or as refuse, or as some cur-like creature; and lament continuously, for it is only on account of God’s inexpressible compassion and kindness that you are permitted to handle the holy things at the celebration of the dread mysteries, and so are called to communion and kinship with Him.
– St. Theognostos, “On the Practice of the Virtues, Contemplation, and the Priesthood.” Philokalia, Vol. 2
Featured image: At the Moscow Theological Academy. source
