St. Gregory of Sinai – Alana Nickels

Quotes on Orthodoxy / St. Gregory of Sinai

“How close the vices are to the path of virtue.”

Many who practice the commandments think they are following the spiritual path. But they have not yet reached the city, and in fact remain outside it. For they travel foolishly, deviating unawares from the straight highway into side-roads, not realizing how close the vices are to the path of virtue.
For the true fulfillment of the commandments demands that we do neither too little nor too much but simply pursue a course acceptable to God and in accordance with His will. Otherwise we labor in vain and do not make straight the paths of the Lord (cf. Isa. 40:3). For in everything we do we must be clear about the goal we are pursuing.

– St. Gregory of Sinai, Philokalia, Vol. 4

Featured image: Sinai desert. Photographer Bernhard Moritz, 1914. Library of Congress.

Quotes on Orthodoxy / St. Gregory of Sinai

“We must exercise great discrimination and not try to pre-empt things that come in their own good time.”

We must exercise great discrimination and not try to pre-empt things that come in their own good time, or reject what we already possess and dream of something else. For by nature the intellect readily invents fantasies and illusions about the high spiritual states it has not yet attained, and thus there is no small danger that we may lose what has already been given to us and destroy our mind through repeated self-deception, becoming a day-dreamer and not a hesychast.

– St. Gregory of Sinai, Philokalia, Vol. 4

Featured image: Ruins of an ancient church dedicated to the Prophet Moses, Sinai.

Quotes on Orthodoxy / St. Gregory of Sinai

“Nothing so fills the heart with contrition and humbles the soul as solitude.”

Nothing so fills the heart with contrition and humbles the soul as solitude embraced with self-awareness, and utter silence.
And nothing so destroys the state of inner stillness and takes away the divine power that comes from it as the following six universal passions: insolence, gluttony, talkativeness, distraction, pretentiousness and the mistress of the passions, self-conceit.
Whoever commits himself to these passions plunges himself progressively into darkness until he becomes completely insensate. But if he comes to himself again, and with faith and ardor makes a fresh start, he will once more attain what he seeks, especially if he seeks it with humility.
Yet if through his negligence even one of the passions that we have mentioned gets a hold on him once more, then the whole host of evils, including pernicious lack of faith, moves in and attacks him, devastating his soul till it becomes like another city of Babylon, full of diabolical turmoil and confusion (cf. Isa. 13:21).
Then the last state of the person to whom this happens is worse than his first (cf. Matt. 12:45), and he turns into a violent enemy and defamer of those pursuing the path of hesychasm, always whetting his tongue against them like a sharp double-edged sword.

– St. Gregory of Sinai, Philokalia, Vol. 4

Featured image: St. Herman Russian Orthodox Church, King Cove, AK. Jet Lowe, 1990, Library of Congress.