On cheerfulness

Cheerfulness consists in not regarding things as our own, but as entrusted to us by God for the benefit of our fellow-servants.  It consists in scattering them abroad generously with joy and magnanimity, not reluctantly or under compulsion. 

St. John Chrysostom on heresies

The desire to rule is the mother of heresies. 

Love will never cease

The blessed apostle described even the higher gifts of the Holy Spirit as things that would vanish.  He points to love alone as without end. Prophecies will end, languages cease and knowledge will fail, (I Cor 13:8).  As for love, love will never cease. 

Actually, all gifts have been given for reasons of temporal use and need and they will surely pass away at the end of the present dispensation.  Love, however, will never be cut off.  It works in us and for us, and not simply in this life.  For when the burden of physical need has been laid aside in the time to come it will endure, more effectively, more excellently, forever unfailing, clinging to God with more fire and zeal through all the length of incorruption.  St. John Cassian



On the grandeur of man

 

What a grand creature is man; what a wonderful creation of God, created after His own image!  If even in a fallen state he is capable of accomplishing the many wonderful works which he has produced, and still produces, as we constantly see both in history and in the present time, then of what might he not be capable in a state of holiness and perfection!  But that which in him is above all deserving of attention, wonder, reverence and the most heartfelt gratitude is that he may be likened to his Creator, God; that he is predestined to immortality, to eternal bliss in God, and with God; that he will someday shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of his heavenly Father. 

On attentiveness to Scripture readings

Let everyone pay attention to the reading (cf I Tim 4:13)!  The words of the saints are words of God and not of men.  Let him put them in his heart and keep them securely, since God’s words are words of life and he who has them within himself and keeps them has eternal life.  Were you often guests at a sumptuous banquet I doubt that any one of you would be so indifferent that he would fall asleep and only take from it for his own need, and not be anxious before departing to take with him something for the morrow that he would eagerly share with some of his friends or even with the poor.  But here the words of life are offered to you, which make those who feed on them immortal!  Tell me, is it right for anyone to be inattentive or to fall asleep and snore as if he were a living corpse?  How great the loss!  How great the insensitivity and sluggishness! 

Meditations of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk

We see the water of a river flowing uninterruptedly and passing away, and all that floats on its surface, rubbish or beams of trees, all pass by.  Christian!  So does our life…I was an infant, and that time has gone.  I was an adolescent, and that, too, has passed.  I was a young man, and that, too, is far behind me.  The strong and mature man that I was is no more.  My hair turns white, I succumb to age, but that, too, passes; I approach the end and will go the way of all flesh.  I was born in order to die.  I die that I may live.  Remember me, O Lord, in Thy Kingdom!

My poor soul!  Sigh, pray and strive to take upon you the blessed yoke of Christ, and you will live on earth in a heavenly manner.  Lord, grant that I may carry the light and goodly yoke, and I shall be always at rest, peaceful, glad and joyous; and I shall taste on earth of crumbs which fall from the celestial feast, like a dog that feeds upon the crumbs which fall from the master’s table.

 

 

Contrast virtue & sin

 

 

For virtue is a light and buoyant thing, and all who live in her way “fly like clouds” as Isaiah says, “and as doves with their young ones,” but sin is a heavy affair, as another of the prophets says, “sitting upon a talent of lead.”