If you are sparing with your anger you will yourself be spared, and you will show your good sense and will be one of those who pray.
– St. Evagrios the Solitary, on Prayer. Philokalia Vol. 1
Featured image: Metal cross in the Rostov Museum, 18th c. From the cupola of the Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity in the Ipatevskii Monastery. Photographer Sergeĭ Mikhaĭlovich, 1911. Prokudin-Gorskiĭ Collection. Library of Congress
Fasting is acceptable to God when abstention from food is accompanied by refraining from sins, from envy, from hatred, from calumny, from vainglory, from wordiness, from other evils. He who is fasting the true fast that is agreeable to God ought to shun all these things with all his strength and zeal, and remain impregnable and unshakable against all the attacks of the Evil one.
On the other hand, he who practices abstention from food, but does not keep self-control in the face of those passions, is like one who lays down splendid foundations for a house, yet takes serpents and scorpions and vipers as fellow-dwellers therein.
– St. Photios the Great, in his sermon on the Wednesday of Cheesefare
Featured image: Seal of St. Photios, featuring the Theotokos and Christ child. source
Prayer is the flower of gentleness and of freedom from anger.
– Evagrios the Solitary, “On Prayer.” Philokalia Vol. 1
Featured image: Kosciuszko National Park NSW, Australia. Photographer Christian Bass. source
If you yearn to be enriched with holiness you should abide in your own cell, enduring hardship and praying with humility. For the cell of one rightly pursuing the monastic life is a haven of self-restraint. But all that lies outside, and especially what is found in market places and at fairs, constitutes an obscene medley of ugly sounds and sights, drowning the wretched soul of the nun who exposes herself to them.
One might also call this evil world a raging fire that devours those who come into contact with it and bums up every virtue they possess. The fire that did not burn was found in the desert (cf. Exod. 3:2)….you should abide in your cell and hide yourself a little until the tempest of passion has passed over you. When it has passed, spending time outside your cell will do you no harm.
– St. Gregory Palamas. To the Most Reverend Nun Xenia, Philokalia, Vol. 4
Featured image: Sinai desert. Photo department of American Colony, c. 1920-1933. Library of Congress
How mistaken are those people who seek happiness outside of themselves, in foreign lands and journeys, in riches and glory, in great possessions and pleasures, in diversions and vain things, which have a bitter end! In the same thing to construct the tower of happiness outside of ourselves as it is to build a house in a place that is consistently shaken by earthquakes.
Happiness is found within ourselves, and blessed is the man who has understood this. Happiness is a pure heart, for such a heart becomes the throne of God. Thus says Christ of those who have pure hearts:I will visit them, and will walk in them, and I will be a God to them, and they will be my people. II Cor. 6:16) What can be lacking to them? Nothing, nothing at all! For they have the greatest good in their hearts: God Himself!
– St. Nektarios of Aegina, The Path to Happiness
Featured image: source
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.
Satiety is extremely harmful for the soul. Whoever overindulges in food or drink is incapable of spiritual exercises and can neither pray nor reflect on any thing divine, because excess in food draws a person into laziness, sleepiness, idleness, idle talk, ludicrous behavior, and a great multitude of impure thoughts and desires.
– Metropolitan Gregory Postinikov of Petersburg
Featured image: from the Orthodox Theological Encyclopedia, Vol. 4. 1903
You cannot destroy the passions on your own, but ask God, and He will destroy them, if this is profitable for you.
Featured image: Mt. Athos, 1917-18. source
Some people by the word “freedom” understand the ability to do whatever one wants…People who have allowed themselves to come into slavery to sins, passions, and defilements more often than others appear zealots of external freedom, wanting to broaden the laws as much as possible. But such a man uses external freedom only to more severely burden himself with inner slavery. True freedom is the active ability of a man who is not enslaved to sin, who is not pricked by a condemning conscience, to choose the better in the light of God’s truth, and to bring it into actuality with the help of the gracious power of God.
– St. Philaret of Moscow, Sermon on the Birthday of Emperor Nicholas I, 1851
Featured image: Looking west from Main Range Track, Kosciuszko National Park. Photographer Christian Bass. source