God sees what each of us has in our soul, what our heart is attached to for most of the course of our life. If the Lord had given us the ability to read the depths of the human heart, then we’d certainly turn away our eyes in horror at the host of sins and iniquities we’d see there. "Saint John Kronstadtskij" Read more “Words of Life” at www.pemptousia.com
We think we know a lot, but what we know is very little. Even those who work hard all their lives for the improvement of humankind, realize in the end that their knowledge is no more than a grain of sand by the sea. All our achievements aren't enough. "Elder Tadej Vitovnički" Read more “Words of Life” at www.pemptousia.com
It's better for parents to talk more to God about their children than to talk to their children about God. "Dimitrios Panagopoulos, preacher" Read more “Words of Life” at www.pemptousia.com
When children are hurt and wounded by something serious, don't let it bother you if they behave badly. They don't really want to, but can’t help it when it's hard for them. They're sorry afterwards. "Saint Porfyrios Kavsokalyvitis" Read more “Words of Life” at www.pemptousia.com
We should not be disturbed in our spiritual life by any hostile force. On the contrary. we should have trust in the words of God: ‘Do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it, for God is with us, the Lord our God. He it is you are to regard as holy, he it is you are to fear’ (Cf. Is. 8, 12-13) "Saint Seraphim of Sarov" Read more “Words of Life” at www.pemptousia.com
Through repentance we receive a second baptism and are cleansed of the sins we've committed after baptism. When we repent, when we acknowledge our iniquities and decide not to commit any more sins, to hate them, we immediately received forgiveness of our transgressions and from being sinners, from one moment to the next, become righteous, like the robber who gained paradise because he repented. "Elder Filotheos Zervakos" Read more “Words of Life” at www.pemptousia.com
Pride is a wide-open window out of which all the virtues and good works are blown. Nothing makes us so empty towards people and so unworthy before God as pride. "Saint Nikolaj Velimirović" Read more “Words of Life” at www.pemptousia.com
When people who are Christians in name only ask us to solve their differences (when they're at loggerheads) we should agree, but as long as they also accept a solution from the Gospel, because any other solution is just a constant headache with aspirins. "Saint Païsios the Athonite" Read more “Words of Life” at www.pemptousia.com
For God, the world's nothing more than an insignificant spider's web. Equally insignificant is our body. Yet every particle of matter is testament to wisdom and is preserved with wisdom, with the eternal laws of wisdom. All of us owe our very existence to divine wisdom. My death and decomposition show what an insignificant spider's web I am. "Saint John Kronstadtskij" Read more “Words of Life” at www.pemptousia.com
People who preserve the experience of painful contrition before the Lord in all its potency, an experience which comes from the recognition of the dangers and difficulties of the spiritual life, these people have found the right path. "Saint Theophan the Recluse" Read more “Words of Life” at www.pemptousia.com
The strong faith of the human heart demands prayer and, at the same time, produces it, and a life of prayer over many years produces love. The aim of our life is nothing other than the purification of the heart to the point where it’s able to sing for joy. Consequently, prayer of the heart leads to joy of the heart. Nothing’s difficult for joyful people, because they’ve got love. "Elder Tadej Vitovnički" Read more “Words of Life” at www.pemptousia.com
Evil has no natural existence and no-one is evil by nature. Because God did not make anything evil. If people desire evil, then what’s not actually there is called into existence, because that’s what they want. So, by the remembrance of God, we have to disregard the habit of evil. Because the nature of good is more powerful than the habit of evil. That’s because good exists, whereas evil doesn’t, except when we do it. "Saint Diadochus of Photice" Read more “Words of Life” at www.pemptousia.com
A sign of the soul that's indifferent is that it doesn't listen gladly to Holy Scripture, whereas the soul that's watchful accepts the divine words in the same way as thirsty land welcomes rain. "Saint Efraim the Syrian" Read more “Words of Life” at www.pemptousia.com
The heavy, soul-destroying burden of the heart will flee quickly. You’ll feel relief and you’ll be convinced that there are evil spirits flying around us and ever seeking our downfall. They besmirch our hearts with the poison of dark and evil thoughts. "Saint John of Kronstadt" Read more “Words of Life” at www.pemptousia.com
People who seek Christian perfection renounce all their possessions. And those who wish to be saved give alms, in accordance with their means. They avoid misuse of their wealth. "Saint Ignatius Brianchaninoff" Read more “Words of Life” at www.pemptousia.com
The Mother of hell is vainglory, which makes a fierce flame and feeds the poisonous snake. Whereas everything else ends with death, it continues to squabble even after death, to show off its nature over the dead body. "Saint Nectarios of Pentapolis" Read more “Words of Life” at www.pemptousia.com
There’s no worse torture than thought itself. There’s no hell greater than thought that’s completely cut off from the Creator and God of all thought, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Divine Word. Human thought without the Lord Jesus can know neither itself nor the world around it. "Saint Justin Popovich" Read more “Words of Life” at www.pemptousia.com
Knowledge is awareness of God. If you really want to know God, get to know yourself first. "Saint Cyril of Alexandria" Read more “Words of Life” at www.pemptousia.com
People should train themselves to recognize immediately, through the feeling in their heart, whether good or evil is coming towards them, in the same way as we identify savory and unsalted things, or sweet and bitter with the tongue. "Saint Nicholas Velimirovich" Read more “Words of Life” at www.pemptousia.com
If each of us did whatever good we could, there wouldn’t be unhappy people in the world. "Patriarch of Constantinople Gregory V" Read more “Words of Life” at www.pemptousia.com
