Ορθοδοξία

God allowed the devil to bring us into temptation in order to make us stronger in the faith, so that we’d place all our hope in Him alone, not in our own powers and so that we’d receive a greater reward from Him. God allows Satan to entice us, but never permits temptations that our beyond the power of our faith. (I Cor. 10, 13).

Elder Cleopa Ilie

We can’t be with Christ and with the evil one. We have to decide. What does the Lord want? Truth, justice and faith. And what’s in our heart to be on our lips. Not the heart to say one thing and the lips another.

Elder Amvrosios Lazaris

We need fear and trembling in case we look down on others, in case we hold them accountable for our own calamities, because that would be a falling away from God. Saint Isaac the Syrian stresses: ‘Nobody else is ever to blame for your transgressions; They’re always your fault’. Other people aren’t responsible for your tiredness, your sins and your changes of heart.

Elder Aimilianos Simonopetritis

Christian love moves in a circle. First comes love for yourself, then love for your friends and, finally, love for God. Christ took our love for ourself as the standard for measuring our love for our enemies and our love for God. He said: ‘Love your neighbour as you love yourself’.

Saint Nicholas Velimirovich

The devil doesn’t have foresight, nor does he know what people are thinking. He draws conclusions from the impulses of our emotions and then stimulates our members and senses with corresponding, impassioned thoughts. When he sees that our intentions are inclining towards an image conjured up by our imagination, whether it’s real or in the mind, he realizes that that’s where our desire and purpose lie. He then brings up a suitable occasion in order to subject his victim through the nature of his will.

Elder Joseph of Vatopaidi

Examine your self, who you are. Get to know your nature, that is, that your body’s mortal and your soul’s immortal. Look at yourself carefully, so that you recognize the health and sickness of your soul.

Saint Basil the Great

Don’t confuse people, who are images of God, with the wickedness they bear inside therm. This evil is merely incidental, it’s their misfortune, their sickness, the devil’s deceit. Their real being, the image of God, is always there inside them.

Saint John of Kronstadt

If you want to pray, you have to become charitable.

Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol

What can be more wonderful and pleasant than love for your neighbor? To be able to love is bliss, to hate is torture. Love for your neighbor is the path that leads to God, because Christ, the true God, was pleased to be mystically embodied in each of our neighbors.

Saint Ignatius Brianchaninoff

Our thoughts are bad and this is why we don’t bring in a good harvest. We have to change. Each one of us needs to change, but it’s a pity we don’t have examples to guide us, either in our families or in society at large.

Elder Tadej Vitovničk