Quotes about Christianity

Christ is our hope, our cleansing and santification, our resurrection, life and repose.  He alone is what we all need, and therefore, the Orthodox Church constantaly pronounces these words aloud so that we may hear them during Holy Services of the Church, and be constantly renewed.  For we are inclined to forget the only thing we need.  With death all will be taken from us, all earthly goods, riches, beauty of body and raiment, spacious dwellings, etc., but the virtue of the soul, that incorruptible raiment, shall remain with us eternally.

Saint John of Kronstadt

"Keep from prying into other people's affairs, for such prying gives occasion for slander, judgment, and other grievous sins. Why do you need to be concerned about others? Know and examine your own self." -- St. Tikhon
of Zadonsk

Arise my soul, and review your deeds which have preceeded from you.  Scrutinize them closely, and shed the rain of your tears, declaring openly to Christ your thoughts and deeds, so that you may be justified.

Saint Andrew of Crete

Continually forgive others.  Forgive AT ONCE, not one second latter, not one half second later, because if you hesitate to forgive, jealousy comes in the door, then hatred and envy.  Forgive instantly as Christ forgives instantly.

Do not be careless.  Pray as much as you can - more frequently and more fervantly.  Prod yourself - force yourself to do so, for the Kingdom of God is taken by force.  You will never attain it without forcing yourself.

Saint Innocent of Alaska

Our Father awaits us with great zeal and desire, and with love He will see us returning from afar, and He will look upon us with compassionate eyes, and we shall be dear to Him, and He will fall on our neck running and embrace us and kiss us with His Holy Love.  He will not reproach us, and He will no longer remember our sins and iniquities, and all the holy angles and all His elect will begin to rejoice over us.

"If we do not see the beauty of God in this life then we will never see it in the next life.  We must see the glory of God in the smallest flower."

Gerontissa Makrina (+ 1995)

Sin, first and foremost, is the cause of every damage in this world. The evil one is the master of this sin, the master of this damage, but we have the Lord Jesus Christ, the Master of the Kingdom of God to defeat any kind of sin.

Your Father in Christ,
Bishop JOSEPH
http://www.antiochianladiocese.org/

A man must practice good works for a long time, with great effort and determination, and "at last God comes, dwells within him and he in the Lord, and the Lord Himself sows His own commandments within him, filling him with spiritual fruit." - St. Marcarius the Great - Homily 19

'We were created for eternal life by our Creator, we are called to it by the word of God, and we are renewed by holy Baptism. And Christ the Son of God came into the world for this, that He should call us and take us there, and He is the one thing needful. For this reason your very first endeavor and care should be to receive it. Without it everything is as nothing, though you have the whole world under you.'
-- St. Tikhon of Zadonsk

Without temptation it is impossible to aquire a strong constitution of the soul.  But again, to withstand them is not in our power.  How could perishable clay withstand the action of water unless Divine fire makes it strong?  If we submit to the yoke of God's will and pray with constant desire and humility, then, through patience, we also shall recieve everything form our Lord Jesus Christ.

Monks Callistus and Ignatius, from the Philokalia

Richness comes from God, not from our money. Every beauty comes from God, not from any human aspect.

Your Father in Christ,
Bishop JOSEPH
http://www.antiochianladiocese.org/

The unity of God the Father and Jesus Christ is a perfect unity, and this perfect unity is what our Lord calls us to have with one another. If we act in the name of God, then the proof of our motivations will be revealed in our unity. Endless arguing and bickering is a sign that God is absent and that we have forgotten Him. The contentious person is outside God's grace by his or her desires to dominate others.

Your Father in Christ,
Bishop JOSEPH
http://www.antiochianladiocese.org/

"Be ashamed when you sin, don't be ashamed when you repent [To repent means to have a change of heart and mind.  It is not simply a feeling of sorrow ,but a psycho/spiritual growth away from evil/death and a turning to God/life].  Sin is the wound, repentance is the medicine.  Sin is followed by shame; repentance is followed by boldness [ Boldness means to beg God for undeserved mercy].  Satan has overturned this order and given boldness to sin and shame to repentance."

Saint John Chrysostom

"Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts" (2 Peter 3:3).

Does the mirror change and bend when the scoffer stands before it laughing and scoffing at it? No, the mirror does not change and bend but remains the same as it was. Brethren, neither does God change or bend when scoffers laugh and scoff at Him. The unchanging and All-pure God knows that the scoffer scoffs at himself. By his scoffing at the holy things of God, the scoffer bends himself and makes himself hideous and the holy things of God remain intact.

O, how already in our times, in our days, many scoffers are already here! Many, too many but their multitudes are weaker than the One and Only One. What is a lot of dust before a strong wind? You have only to wait, to wait armed with patience until a strong wind blows.

Many and too many scoffers are already here, who scoff at God's word. They offer their own words in place of God's word; they offer the unholy in place of the holy, the putrid in place of the healthy, death dealing in place of life creating. The word of God is like a strong wind and their words are as dust.

The scoffers are already here, many and too many that scoff at God's works and still many more will arrive. They praise their works above God's works and say that the works of their hands are better and more comprehensible that the works of God. Their works are thievery; for all the good that they built, they built from God's materials and according to the likeness of God's buildings; and all the evil that they have built, they built from the devil's materials, and according to the likeness of the devil's buildings. Therefore, of what will the dust boast? With what will the scoffers praise today or tomorrow, when wild asses trample over their graves with their hooves?

All-pure Lord, Holy and Powerful are Your words, as a strong wind and holy are Your works, and there is no number or measure of them. All-pure Lord, save our tongues from scoffing and save our lives from the scoffers.

To You be glory and thanks always. Amen.

Die daily, that you might live eternally, for the one who fears God will live forever.

Saint Anthony the Great

God's boundless wisdom has given each person a cross according to his/her character and strength.  If we carry our cross without grumbling, repent of our sins, and do not justify ourselves, then like the good thief we shall enter God's Kingdom.  But if we grumble, if we blaspheme God or our neighbor, we shall perish like the wicked thief---in great torment, with out hope of salvation to lessen our grief.  The choice lies in our own hands.  We must be wise like the repentant thief.  None of us will escape the cross.  Let us ease its weight through faith in God, resistance to sin, repentance, forgiveness of all our close ones, endurance of sorrows without murmuring, and prayer to the Lord.

If we are to become filled with a joy that the world cannot take away, we must give up everything, even our own selfish lives, so that we can be alive in our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Our Lord teaches us that all things come from Him. He is the source of all good. If we follow Him, even in times of sorrow and hardship, He increases us by allowing us to participate in His divinity.

Your Father in Christ,
Bishop JOSEPHhttp://www.antiochianladiocese.org/

"Christ, invisible to the bodily eye, manifests Himself on earth clearly through His Church ... The Church is the Body of Christ both because its parts are united to Christ through His divine mysteries and because through her Christ works in the world." -- St. John of San Francisco

We do not suffer because there is too much godliness in the world, but because there is too much evil. We must overcome the evil around us with godliness, speaking the truth in love.

Your Father in Christ,
Bishop JOSEPHhttp://www.antiochianladiocese.org/

Remember and have no doubt!  The God who can punish us for our sins is also capable in His limitless mercy of absolving us from our sins.  There is no heavy sin or curse that cannot be redeemed by deeds and prayer.

Father Arseny

"Sometimes God allows a relative or fellow worker to cause us problems in order to exercise our patience and humbleness; however, instead of being grateful for the chance God gives us, we react and refused to be cured.  It is like refusing to pay the doctor who is giving us a shot when we are ill."

Father Paisios Eznepides (+1994)

"If you want to go straight before God, you need two walls.  Not of brick or stone or earth, but two spiritual walls.  Have fear of God on the right, because the Prophet Daniel says, 'With fear of God, man is diverted from all evil.'  On the left have fear of death because the Son of Sirach says, 'Son, remember your end and you will not sin.'  These two good deeds --- fear of God and remembrance of death --- deliver a man from all sin."

Elder Cleopa Ilie (+1998)

Examine yourself to see whether you have within you a strong sense of your own self importance, or negatively, whether you have failed to realize that you are nothing.  This feeling of self-importance is deeply hidden, but it controls the whole of our life.  Its first demand is that everything should be as we wish it, and as soon as this is not so we complain to God and are annoyed with people.

Saint Theophan the Recluse

"Many flatter themselves and consider themselves to be good, humble, and meek, but they will discover the contrary under temptation.  Do not not become despondent in temptations, then, but give all the more thanks to God that He thus brings you to what is hidden in your heart - the knowledge of yourself - and wishes you to be corrected and be saved.

Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk

"Prayer is all-powerful on account of the all-powerful God Who acts in it.  It is the sword of the Spirit ,which is the Word of God.  Prayer by its nature is communion and union of man with God; by its action it is the reconciliation of man with God, the mother and daughter of tears, a bridge for crossing temptations, a wall of protection from afflictions, a crushing of conflicts, boundless activity, the spring of virtues, the source of spiritual gifts, invisible progress, food of the soul, the enlightening of the mind, an axe for despair, a demonstration of hope, release from sorrow, the wealth of monks."

Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov)

"People were not created merely to live here on earth like animals that disappear after their death, but to live with God and in God, and to live not for a hundred or a thousand years, but to live eternally." 
-- Bishop INNOCENT, Bishop of Kamchatka, the Kurilian and Aleutian Islands

Let us be ashamed of our slowness in thanking God when He gives, and of our quickness in grumbling at Him when He takes away.        Saint Nikolai Velimirovic

The love of God is not taught.  No one has taught us to enjoy the light or to be attached to life more than anything else.  And no one has taught us to love the two people who brought us into the world and educated us.  Which is all the more reason to believe that we did not learn to love God as a result of outside instruction.  In the very nature of every human being has been sown the seed of the ability to love.  You and I ought to welcome this seed, cultivate it carefully, nourish it attentively and foster its growth by going to the school of God's commandments with help of His grace.