Fulfill now His commandments

 

Faith consists not only in being baptized into Christ, but in fulfilling His commandments.  Holy baptism is perfect and offers us perfection, but does not perfect a person who fails to fulfill the commandments.   

On rebuking others

Cease rebuking a man who has stopped sinning and who has repented.  If you say that you are rebuking him in God’s name, first reveal the evils in yourself. 

God knows

 

If we want to do something but cannot, then before God, Who knows our hearts, it is as if we have done it.  This is true whether the intended action is good or bad. 

The wiles of the adversary

 

The enemy, understanding how the justice of the spiritual law is applied, seeks only the assent of our mind.  Having secured this, he will either oblige us to undergo the labors of repentance or, if we do not repent, will torment us with misfortunes beyond our control.  Sometimes he encourages us to resist these misfortunes so as to increase our torment, and then, at our death, he will point to this impatient resistance as proof of our lack of faith. 

 



Forget not His blessings

You should continually and unceasingly call to mind all the blessings which God in His love has bestowed on you in the past, and still bestows for the salvation of your soul. You must not let forgetfulness of evil or laziness make you grow unmindful of these many and great blessings, and so pass the rest of your life uselessly and ungratefully. For this kind of continual recollection, pricking the heart like a spur, moves it constantly to confession and humility, to thanksgiving with a contrite soul, and to all forms of sincere effort, repaying God through its virtue and holiness. In this way the heart meditates constantly and conscientiously on the words from the Psalms: 'What shall I give to the Lord in return for all His benefits towards me?' (Psalm 116:12)."  

On carrying out the Lord's commandments

When we are compelled by our conscience to accomplish all the commandments of God, then we shall understand that the law of the Lord is faultless (cf Ps 19:8 LXX).  It is performed through our good actions, but cannot be perfected by men without God’s mercy. 

When tested by a trial

When tested by some trial, you should try to find out not why or through whom it came, but only how to endure it gratefully, without distress or rancor.