Quote for the Day

[Shin]

'For true devotion must issue from the heart, and consist in the truth and substances alone of what is represented by spiritual things; all the rest is affection and attachment proceeding from imperfection; and in order that one may pass to any kind of perfection it is necessary for such desires to be killed.'

St. John of the Cross

[Shin]

'He who wishes to be spared all misfortunes should associate God with everything through prayer; with his intellect he should set his hope in Him, putting aside, so far as possible, all concern about things of the senses.'

St. Mark the Ascetic

[Shin]

'You are indignant that God is indignant, as if you deserved anything good by living evilly, as if all those things that happen were still not less and lighter than your own sins.'

St. Cyprian of Carthage

[Shin]

'Unexpected trials are sent by God to teach us to practice the ascetic life; and they lead us to repentance even when we are reluctant.'

St. Mark the Ascetic

[Shin]

'It is already much not to be roused to any passion by material things. It is even more to remain dispassionate when presented with mental images of such things. For the war which the demons wage against us by means of thoughts is more severe than the war they wage by means of material things.'

St. Maximos the Confessor

[Shin]

'Then I read the Gospel, and saw there that a great means of reaching perfection was the selling of one's goods, the sharing of them with the poor, the giving up of all care for this life, and the refusal to allow the soul to be turned by any sympathy towards things of earth.'

St. Basil the Great

[Shin]

'O my brethren, so long as ye have breath in your bodies strive for your redemption; and before there cometh the hour wherein we shall have to weep for our souls let us cultivate spiritual excellence with a ready mind. And I say unto you that, if ye knew what good things were in heaven, and the glory which is laid up for the saints, and how those who have fallen are punished by God, and the tortures which are laid up for those who have been neglectful, and especially for those who having known the truth have not, as was right, guided themselves hereby, instead of inheriting the blessedness which is reserved for the saints, [ye would do so].'

St. Pachomius

[Shin]

'Pray in peace and serenity, sing intelligently and in a good state - and you will be like a young eagle soaring high in the sky.'

St. Nilus of Sinai

[Shin]

'The Lord having, with great difficulty, at length reached the top of the Mount alive, they violently, for the third time, tear his clothes from off him, sticking, as they did, to the sores upon his wounded flesh, and they throw him down upon the cross. The divine lamb stretches himself out upon that bed of torment; he reaches forth to the executioners his hands and his feet to be nailed; and raising his eyes to heaven, he offers up to his Eternal Father the great sacrifice of his life for the salvation of men.'

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

'Now he leans his weight upon his hands, now upon his feet; but on what part soever he leans, the anguish increases He turns his afflicted head, now on one side, now on the other: if he lets it fall towards his breast, the hands, by the additional weight, are rent the more; if he lowers it towards his shoulders, the shoulders are pierced with the thorns; if he leans it back upon the cross, the thorns enter the more deeply into the head.'

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

'He was crucified wholly without any alleviation of suffering.'

St. Lawrence Justinian

'It seems as though our Redeemer from the cross said to us all, "See what it is to love," whenever, in order to avoid something that is troublesome, we abandon works that are pleasing in his sight, or at times even go so far as to renounce his grace and his love. He has loved us even unto death, and came not down from the cross till after having left his life thereon.'

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

[Shin]

'The intellect freed from the passions forms conceptual images that are also passion-free, whether the body is asleep or awake.'

St. Thalassios the Libyan