The Journey towards Love

[TER]

Draw nigh to the righteous, and through them you will draw nigh to God. Communicate with those who possess humility, and you will learn morals from them. A man who follows one who loves God becomes rich in the mysteries of God; but he who follows an unrighteous and proud man gets far away from God, and will be hated by his friends.

- St. Isaac the Syrian

 

[TER]

Adorn yourself with truth, try to speak truth in all things; and do not support a lie, no matter who asks you. If you speak the truth and someone gets mad at you, don't be upset, but take comfort in the words of the Lord: Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of truth, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven (Matt. 5:10).

- St. Gennadius of Constantinople

 

[TER]

Strong faith in a man’s heart both requires and produces prayer, and a prayer life of many years produces love. The goal of our life is nothing other than cleansing our heart to such an extent that it is able to sing with joy. Thus, prayer of the heart leads to joy of the heart. Nothing is difficult for a joyful person, because he has love.

- Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica

 

[TER]

A certain monk told me that when he was very sick, his mother said to his father, "How our little boy is suffering. I would gladly give myself to be cut up into pieces if that would ease his suffering." Such is the love of God for people. He pitied people so much that he wanted to suffer for them, like their own mother, and even more. But no one can understand this great love without the grace of the Holy Spirit.

- St. Silouan the Athonite

 

[TER]

No matter how much we may study, it is not possible to come to know God unless we live according to His commandments, for God is not know by science, but by the Holy Spirit. Many philosophers and learned men came to the belief that God exists, but they did not know God. It is one thing to belief that God exists and another to know Him. If someone has come to know God by the Holy Spirit, his soul will burn with love for God day and night, and his soul cannot be bound to any earthly thing.

- St. Silouan the Athonite

 

[TER]

When the soul knows the love of God by the Holy Spirit, then he clearly feels that the Lord is our own Father, the closest, dearest Father, the best. And there is no greater happiness than to love God with all the mind and heart, and our neighbor as ourself. And when this love is in the soul, then all things bring joy to the soul.

- St. Silouan the Athonite

 

[TER]

Don't be troubled if you don't feel the love of God in yourself, but think about the Lord, that He is merciful, and guard yourself from sins, and the grace of God will teach you.

- St. Silouan the Athonite

 

[TER]

The soul that has come to know God fully no longer desires anything else, nor does it attach itself to anything on the earth; and if you put before it a kingdom, it would not desire it, for the love of God gives such sweetness and joy to the soul that even the life of a king can no longer give it any sweetness.

- St. Silouan the Athonite

 

[TER]

Every Christian should find for himself the imperative and incentive to become holy. If you live without struggle and without hope of becoming holy, then you are Christians only in name and not in essence. But without holiness, no one shall see the Lord, that is to say they will not attain eternal blessedness. It is a trustworthy saying that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners (I Tim. 1:15). But we deceive ourselves if we think that we are saved while remaining sinners. Christ saves those sinners by giving them the means to become saints.

- St. Philaret of Moscow

 

[TER]

And I, a sinner, have been trying to love God for more than forty years, and cannot say that I perfectly love Him. If we love someone we always remember him and try to please him; day and night our heart is occupied with that object. Is that how you, gentlemen, love God? Do you often turn to Him, do you always remember Him, do you always pray to Him and fulfill His holy commandments? ‘For our good, for our happiness at least let us make a vow that from this day, from this hour, from this minute we shall strive to love God above all else and to fulfill His holy will.'

- St. Herman of Alaska

 

[TER]

With the advent of Christ at the end of time, there will be a change and transformation of inclination and choice in human beings from faithlessness to faith, from wickedness to virtue, from ignorance to knowledge of God; because then, at the end of the ages, there will be through the same God, our Savior, a transformation and renewal of the whole human race that is all-encompassing, natural, and by grace, from death and corruption to immortal life and incorruption in the expected resurrection.

- St Maximus the Confessor

 

[TER]

Christian faith is not a doctrinal system but a way of restoration of fallen man through the death of the God-Man and the grace of the Holy Spirit.

- St. Theophan the Recluse

 

[TER]

If you wish to know of the Lord’s love for us, hate sin and wrong thoughts. And day and night pray fervently. The Lord will then give you His grace and you will know Him through the Holy Spirit. And after death, when you enter into paradise, there too you will know the Lord through the Holy Spirit, as you knew Him on earth.

- St. Silouan the Athonite

 

[TER]

Are you wounded? Despair not. Have you fallen? Get up and say bravely: now I have begun. Fall down before your merciful Master and confess your sins. But before you say anything He will already know what you intend to say. Before you open your lips, He will see what is in your heart. You will not be able to say, “I have sinned” before you see Him stretch forth His hands to receive and embrace you. Approach with faith and He will cleanse you straightaway as He cleansed the leper, lift you from your bed as He lifted the paralytic, and raise you from the dead as He raised Lazarus.

- St. Ephraim the Syrian

 

[TER]

Behold, let no one say: I have committed many sins — there can be no forgiveness for me. He who says this does not know that God is the God of the penitent, that He came to earth not to save the righteous, but to call sinners to repentance, and that when someone repents the heavens rejoice over him. . . . Let us also run to Him, for all sinners who have run to Him have found salvation.

- St. Ephraim the Syrian

 

[TER]

However hard I try, I find it impossible to construct anything greater than these three words, ‘Love one another’ —only to the end, and without exceptions: then all is justified and life is illumined, whereas otherwise it is an abomination and a burden.

- Mother Maria of Paris

 

[jmdrake]

However hard I try, I find it impossible to construct anything greater than these three words, ‘Love one another’ —only to the end, and without exceptions: then all is justified and life is illumined, whereas otherwise it is an abomination and a burden.

- Mother Maria of Paris

 

[TER]

We have such a law: If you forgive, it means that God has forgiven you; but if you do not forgive your brother, it means that your sin remains with you.

- St. Silouan the Athonite

 

[TER]

Did you commit sin? Enter the Church and repent for your sin; for here is the physician, not the judge; here one is not investigated, one receives remission of sins.

- St. John Chrysostom

 

[TER]

Because God is love, one realizes that the greatest blessings are the trials, not the easy things…. The way of Orthodoxy is filled with difficulties and crosses, but it yields you to the path wherein you glorify God for all things and are thankful for all things - the Resurrection.

- Elder Vasileios of Iveron