SPIRITUAL MORSELS from the Ancient Fathers

[Arsenios]

Preserve a meek and peaceable disposition towards your brother,
even when he cunningly or artfully, or somehow unintentionally
deprives you of all you possess.
Show then that you love God's image in him
more than anything earthly and perishable,
that your 'charity never faileth' (I Cor.13:8).

St. John of Kronstad

 

[Arsenios]

The word “world” has two meanings.
First, the external world, fallen mankind,
and secondlyour own fallen nature,
with its passions and sinful tendencies,
This world is subject to the power of the devil.
Here he finds weapons with which he
pursues and persecutes the disciple of Christ,
hoping to destroy him

In sorrows borne with gladness
and with thanks to the Lord,
Who saves us through suffering,
there is hidden a spiritual joy,
the joy of rising
from strength to strength
in our spiritual life.

Abbot Nikon Vorobie

 

[Arsenios]

Love and self-control free the soul from passions;
spiritual reading and contemplation deliver the intellect from ignorance;
and the state of prayer brings it into the presence of God Himself.

St. Maximos the Confesso

 

[Arsenios]

Let us force ourselves.
Let us make a beginning
and let us desire the good
with all our heart.
Because,
even if we are not perfect,
wanting to be is the beginning
of our salvation.
From wanting we come,
with God's help,
to struggling,
and from struggling
one is helped
in acquiring the virtues.

Abba Dorotheos

 

[Arsenios]

Do not say:
"I have been dishonest, an adulterer,
I have committed grave offences innumerable times.
Will He forgive them?
Will he deign to forget them?"

Listen rather to the Psalmist:
"How great is your love, O
Lord." (Ps. 31:19).

Your sins piled one above the other
do not overtop the greatness of God's love.
Your wounds are not too great
for the skill of the Doctor.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem

 

[Arsenios]

Where would there be opportunities
for struggling for great deeds
if we were not occasioned injury by our neighbours,
if they did not offend us?

St. John of Kronstadt

 

[Arsenios]

The Book of Psalms contains everything useful
that the other books have.
It predicts the future,
it recalls the past,
it gives directions for living,
it suggests the right behavior to adopt.
It is, in short, a jewel case
in which have been collected
all the valid teachings
in such a way that individuals find
remedies just right for their cases.

St. Basil the Great

 

[Arsenios]

Moses teaches us by his own example
to take our stand with virtue as with a kinsman
and kill virtue's adversary.
The victory of true faith
is the death and destruction of idolatry.
So also injustice is killed by righteousness
and arrogance is slain by humility.

St. Gregory of Nyssa

 

[Arsenios]

Most importantly, preserve peace with your close ones,
insofar as this depends on you.
Consider that all sorts of sick people
have gathered there in a group;
this is so.
For this reason you must relate to everyone
as they do in a hospital.
They don’t berate people there (i.e., in a hospital)
for having an ailing lung or heart or stomach;
they don’t say: “O you goodfor nothing blind woman,
what’s the matter with you that your eyes are infected?”!
So, too, you mustn’t rail at each other
about your spiritual illnesses;

Abbot Nikon Vorobiev

 

[Arsenios]

It often happens that Satan will insidiously commune with you in your heart and say:
'Think of the evil you have done;
your soul is full of lawlessness,
you are weighed down by many grievous sins.'
Do not let him deceive you when he does this and
do not be led to despair on the pretext that you are being humble.
After gaining admission through the fall
evil has the power to commune at all times with the soul,
as man to man,
and so to suggest sinful actions to it.
You should answer it:
'I have God's written assurance, for He says:
"I desire, not the sinner's death,
but that he should return through repentance and live" '
What was the purpose of His descent to earth
except to save sinners,
to bring light to those in darkness
and life to the dead?

St. Makarios of Egypt
___________________________________

 

[Arsenios]

“This is the soul’s espousal to Christ.
All else is adultery and promiscuity.
Only such a close union between the soul and Christ,
that is most clearly mirrored for us in earthly marriage,
can make the soul rich and fruitful.
From all other close relationships that the soul may have
are born thistles and weeds.”

He goes on:

“Whatever it is with which the human soul links itself most closely,
that is in a kind of wedlock,
whether with a living being or a dead thing,
with the body, or its clothing,
with silver or gold or any earthly possession,
any sort of earthly glory or passion
for anything in the created world,
jewelry, food, drink, dancing, nature...
Every such marriage by the human soul
is outside the law
and draws endless misfortune on the soul
both in this world and in the world to come
in a way similar though incomparably greater than,
unlawful relations between a man and a woman.

“The soul’s ardent love for God is its only legal marriage.”....
”Whatever a man or woman believes in, hopes in, or loves more than God,
takes God’s place.
That about which the person most often thinks,
most zealously desires
will gradually become the essence of his being. ....
A man is saved or lost by his love in this life.
There is only one saving love
and that is love for God.
There is only one saving marriage
and that is marriage to God.
Every other love
that does not come forth from this marriage
as rays from the sun,
is cursing and damnation”

St. Nikolai Velimirovich

 

[MoreCoffee]

• Hail, of paradise the portal!
  Tree of Life regained, immortal;
• Whence, through thee, all sweetness floweth,
  And salvation’s fruit still groweth.
• Thou our hearts aright inclinest,
  On our life’s way brightly shinest;
• Us from God’s just anger savest,
  Who to man our Saviour gavest.
• -
• Hail! Blest shrine of God the Father,
  Thither sinners haste to gather;
• Pardon for their guilt obtaining,
  Freedom from the foe’s enchaining;
• Strength from thee the weak shall borrow,
  Comfort, thou, of all who sorrow;
• From the final wrath tremendous,
  Mother of our Christ, defend us.
• -
• Star of ocean! Mother fairest!
  Who the name of Mary bearest;
• In thy bright illumination
  Pales each star and constellation.
• Hail, O Father! Hail, sweet Mother!
  Hail, O Son of God, our Brother!
• Let the hosts of heaven adore thee,
  Every spirit bow before thee.

Not as ancient as some yet older than I.

God bless.

From a sermon of St Bernard of Clairvaux

His mother stood by the cross

The martyrdom of the Virgin is set forth both in the prophecy of Simeon and in the actual story of our Lord’s passion. The holy old man said of the infant Jesus: He has been established as a sign which will be contradicted. He went on to say to Mary: And your own heart will be pierced by a sword.

Truly, O blessed Mother, a sword has pierced your heart. For only by passing through your heart could the sword enter the flesh of your Son. Indeed, after your Jesus – who belongs to everyone, but is especially yours – gave up his life, the cruel spear, which was not withheld from his lifeless body, tore open his side. Clearly it did not touch his soul and could not harm him, but it did pierce your heart. For surely his soul was no longer there, but yours could not be torn away. Thus the violence of sorrow has cut through your heart, and we rightly call you more than martyr, since the effect of compassion in you has gone beyond the endurance of physical suffering.

Or were those words, Woman, behold your Son, not more than a word to you, truly piercing your heart, cutting through to the division between soul and spirit? What an exchange! John is given to you in place of Jesus, the servant in place of the Lord, the disciple in place of the master; the son of Zebedee replaces the Son of God, a mere man replaces God himself. How could these words not pierce your most loving heart, when the mere remembrance of them breaks ours, hearts of iron and stone though they are!

Do not be surprised, brothers, that Mary is said to be a martyr in spirit. Let him be surprised who does not remember the words of Paul, that one of the greatest crimes of the Gentiles was that they were without love. That was far from the heart of Mary; let it be far from her servants.

Perhaps someone will say: “Had she not known before that he would not die?” Undoubtedly. “Did she not expect him to rise again at once?” Surely. “And still she grieved over her crucified Son?” Intensely. Who are you and what is the source of your wisdom that you are more surprised at the compassion of Mary than at the passion of Mary’s Son? For if he could die in body, could she not die with him in spirit? He died in body through a love greater than anyone had known. She died in spirit through a love unlike any other since his.​

A song from saint Peter.

 

[Arsenios]

• Hail, of paradise the portal!
  Tree of Life regained, immortal;
• Whence, through thee, all sweetness floweth,
  And salvation’s fruit still groweth.
• Thou our hearts aright inclinest,
  On our life’s way brightly shinest;
• Us from God’s just anger savest,
  Who to man our Saviour gavest.
• -
• Hail! Blest shrine of God the Father,
  Thither sinners haste to gather;
• Pardon for their guilt obtaining,
  Freedom from the foe’s enchaining;
• Strength from thee the weak shall borrow,
  Comfort, thou, of all who sorrow;
• From the final wrath tremendous,
  Mother of our Christ, defend us.
• -
• Star of ocean! Mother fairest!
  Who the name of Mary bearest;
• In thy bright illumination
  Pales each star and constellation.
• Hail, O Father! Hail, sweet Mother!
  Hail, O Son of God, our Brother!
• Let the hosts of heaven adore thee,
  Every spirit bow before thee.

Not as ancient as some yet older than I.

Alexander Pope?

Arsenios

 

[Arsenios]

My brothers, have no fear of the punishments of the Lord!
For He does not punish us as criminals,
but as His own children!

Archimandrite Gabriel of the Pskov Caves

 

[Arsenios]

We have a sacred obligation
to prepare our youth and new members
to receive the power of God.

If we teach our children to do their homework but not to pray,
we are only preparing them for misery.
Good grades cannot save us from a tormented conscience.

We cannot prepare a catechumen just by getting him to memorize dogmas.
We must help him to be healed from the wounds of sin.

His Eminence, Metropolitan JOSEPH

 

[Arsenios]

It is impossible to represent and to think of the cross without love.
Where the cross is, there is love;
in the church you see crosses everywhere and upon everything,
in order that everything should remind you
that you are in the temple of the God of love,
in the temple of love itself,
crucified for us.

St. John of Kronstadt

 

[Arsenios]

When the soul is mature, God will give it inner peace.
The Lord watches over us, and
He is pleased that you long for His peace.

Until the soul is ready,
He will only sometimes allow us
to see that He is everywhere present
and fills all things.

At these moments the soul feels such joy!
It feels as though it has everything!
But then the Lord conceals Himself from us again,
in order that we might long for Him
and seek Him with our hearts.

Elder Thaddeus

 

[Arsenios]

If a person earnestly seeks salvation with his whole heart,
God will lead him to a true instructor.
Do not worry,
each will find the one
who is just right for him.

St. Leo of Optina

 

[Arsenios]

If, after cutting off the causes
of every one of the passions,
the thought of them still inwardly troubles you,
do not be afraid.

It will procure you crowns,
since it annoys you but does not win you over,
and is not active.

It is dead movement,
conquered by your godly struggle.

St. Gregory Palamas

 

[Arsenios]

God Himself lives in that man who has a peaceful heart.
Above all: consider yourself worse than everyone,
seek neither love nor honor from anyone,
but have them yourself for everyone

Thus you will obtain peace.
But as soon as you want others to notice
the goodness and virtue in you,
then say good bye to spiritual peace.

St. Anatoly of Optina
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