A weak person prays that no one slanders him, a courageous person prays that God will help him not to slander others, neither in word nor thought.
Featured image: Annunciation Orthodox Church, Natick, MA. 1938
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Quotes on Orthodoxy
Do not do anything without signing yourself with the sign of the Cross! When you depart on a journey, when you begin your work, when you go to study, when you are alone, and when you are with other people, seal yourself with the Holy Cross on your forehead, your body, your chest, your heart, your lips, your eyes, your ears. All of you should be sealed with the sign of Christ’s victory over hell. Then you will no longer be afraid of charms, evil spirits, or sorcery, because these are dissolved by the power of the Cross like wax before fire and like dust before the wind.
Featured image: source
Just as a basic concern is to be careful of anything that might be harmful to our physical health, so our spiritual concern should watch out for anything that might harm our spiritual life and the work of faith and salvation.
Therefore, carefully and attentively assess your inner impulses: are they from God or from the spirit of evil?
– St. John Maximovitch, wonderworker of Shanghai and San Francisco
Featured image: St. John Maximovich
Some people who were living carelessly in the world have asked me: We have spouses and families and we are surrounded with social and earthly cares. Then how we follow a life close to Christ like the one that the monks live?
I replied to them: Do all the good you can; do not speak evil of anyone; do not steal from anyone; do not lie to anyone; do not be arrogant towards anyone; do not hate any one; be sure you participate to the church services; be compassionate to the ones who are in need; do not scandalize anyone; do not destroy another person’s domestic happiness and be faithful to your spouse. If you behave in this way, you will not be far from the Kingdom of Heaven.
Featured image: Wooden Orthodox Church interior in Radruż, Poland.
Dwell not in the temple of idols . . . Do you not hear the great St. Paul, who says in other words, ‘Do not read either the pagan philosophers, or the orators, or the poets; do not repose in the study of their works.’ Let us not be too confident that we shall not believe the things we read. It is a crime to drink at the same time of the chalice of Jesus Christ and that of the demons.
Featured image: Staro Hopovo Monastery, Serbia.
Truly sincere and devout souls cannot endure even a slight slackening of their longing for the Lord but, with their attention riveted entirely to His Cross, they seek to grow ever more fully conscious of their spiritual progress. Wounded by their longing and, so to speak, hungering for the righteousness of the virtues and the illumination of the Holy Spirit, they place no reliance on themselves and do not think they are anything even though they have been vouchsafed divine mysteries and partake of celestial felicity and grace.
But the more they are enabled by grace to receive spiritual gifts, the more insatiable and diligent becomes their pursuit of heavenly realities; and the more they are aware of their spiritual progress, the more fervent grows their desire to participate in these realities. Spiritually enriched, they feel themselves to be poor.
– St. Symeon the Metaphrast, “Paraphrase of the Homilies of St. Macarius of Egypt: On Love
Featured image: Russian Orthodox Church in Germany, 1897. Rijksmuseum
God is a fire that burns and warms the heart, our internal parts. If we feel coldness in our hearts, which comes from the enemy because the enemy – the devil – is cold, then we need to call our Lord. He will come and will warm our hearts with our love for Him and our neighbor. This warmth will drive away the coldness of the enemy.
The Desert Fathers used to say: Seek the Lord, but do not ask Him strange things like where he is. Because where God dwells, there is nothing bad and harmful. Everything that comes from God is peaceful and beneficial and guides us to humility and to recognize only our own faults.
God shows us how much He loves us not only when we are doing good things, but when we are also insulting Him and making Him unhappy with our sins. How forbearing He is with our faults! And even when something that we believe is a punishment from Him comes to us, it is not! It has love that we eventually recognize.
Featured image: Great Tit Eating out of the Hand of a Horticulture Student. Photographer Richard Tepe, ca. 1915. Rijksmuseum