The Journey towards Love

[TER]

An active life serves to purify us of sinful passions and raises us to the level of functioning perfection; at the same time it clears the way to a contemplative life. For only those cleansed of passions and the perfect can set out on that other life, as can be seen from the words of the Holy Scriptures: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Mt. 5:8), and from the words of Gregory the Theologian: "Only those who are perfect by their experience can without danger proceed to contemplation."

- St. Seraphim of Sarov

 

[TER]

Insults from others must be born without disturbance; one must train oneself to be of such a nature, that one can react to insults as if they did not refer to oneself. Such an exercise can bring serenity to our heart and make it a dwelling of God Himself.

- St. Seraphim of Sarov

 

[RJB]

Insults from others must be born without disturbance; one must train oneself to be of such a nature, that one can react to insults as if they did not refer to oneself. Such an exercise can bring serenity to our heart and make it a dwelling of God Himself.

- St. Seraphim of Sarov

This is a gem for me today.


This is true. I've found most insults are not directed at us but rather what we project of ourselves or that which we attach to ourselves.

 

[TER]

Not everyone is your brother or sister in faith, but everyone is your neighbor and you must love your neighbor.

—Timothy Kelle

 

[TER]

 

[TER]

 

[TER]

There is no prayer so quickly heard as the prayer whereby a man asks to be reconciled with those who are wroth with him. For when he charges himself with the offence, this prayer is immediately answered.

- St. Isaac the Syrian

 

[TER]

If it is a mark of extreme meekness, even in the presence of one’s offender, to be peacefully and lovingly disposed towards him in one’s heart, then it is certainly a mark of hot temper when a person continues to quarrel and rage against his offender, both by words and gestures, even when by himself.

- St. John Climacus

 

[TER]

Once we have entrusted our hope about something to God, we no longer quarrel with our neighbor over it.

- Saint Kosmas Aitolos

 

[TER]

The drunkard, the fornicator, the proud - he will receive God's mercy. But he who does not want to forgive, to excuse, to justify consciously, intentionally that person closes himself to eternal life before God, and even more so in the present life. He is turned away and not heard.

- Elder Sampson of Russia

 

[TER]

 

[TER]

 

[TER]

Virtues are formed by prayer.

Prayer preserves temperance. Prayer suppresses anger. Prayer prevents emotions of pride and envy.

Prayer draws into the soul the Holy Spirit, and raises man to Heaven.

- St. Ephrem of Syria

 

[TER]

Blessed the one who loves holiness like the light & has not defiled his body with dark deeds in the sight of the Lord.

- St. Ephrem the Syrian

 

[TER]

Giving alms must be done with a spiritually kind disposition, in agreement with the teachings of St. Isaac the Syrian: "If you give anything to him who asks, may the joy of your face precede your alms, and comfort his sorrow with kind words."


- St. Seraphim of Sarov

 

[TER]

To deny oneself means to give up one’s bad habits; to root out of the heart all that ties us to the world; not to cherish bad thoughts or desires; to suppress every evil thought; not to desire to do anything out of self love, but to do everything out of love for God.

- St. Innocent of Alaska

 

[TER]

If we do not have love we are deprived of everything. For nothing attracts God so much as charity. And nothing enrages God so much, as for us to be uncharitable.

- St. John Chrysostom

 

[TER]

Why do we judge our neighbors? Because we are not trying to get to know ourselves. Someone busy trying to understand himself has no time to notice the shortcomings of others. Judge yourself — and you will stop judging others. Judge a poor deed, but do not judge the doer. It is necessary to consider yourself the most sinful of all, and to forgive your neighbor every poor deed. One must hate only the devil, who tempted him. It can happen that someone might appear to be doing something bad to us, but in reality, because of the doer’s good intentions, it is a good deed. Besides, the door of penitence is always open, and it is not known who will enter it sooner — you, “the judge,” or the one judged by you.

- St. Seraphim of Sarov

 

[TER]

We must love people and accept them in our hearts as God presents them to us. It has been thus ordained by the Lord Himself and by the Orthodox Tradition.

- Eldress Gabriela

 

[TER]

Only the great truth of the Resurrection of Christ can explain the exceptionally rapid spread of the Christian faith over the whole face of the earth amid the most unfavorable conditions and situations. What else could compel thousands upon thousands of people throughout the centuries to endure indescribable torments, to shed their blood, and to give up their life for Christ? What other force could compel the rich, the noble, men of high rank, and even emperors of the proud pagan world to humbly bow down before the foot of the Cross of Christ and glorify His Resurrection? Indeed, what could compel many thousands of men and women to renounce the vain blessings, comforts, and pleasures of this world which lies in evil, and to withdraw to the deserts, mountains, caves, and precipices to live a God-pleasing life in unceasing prayer, silence, fasting, and struggles, so as to more certainly unite with Christ in the after-life, which He opened to us through His glorious Resurrection from the dead?

- Archbishop Averky of Syracuse