Sayings of the Holy Fathers:
Of course, it would be easier to get to paradise with a full stomach, all snuggled up in a soft feather-bed, but what is required is to carry one's cross along the way, for the kingdom of God is not attained by enduring one or two troubles, but many!
Elder Anthony of Optina
"You are accustomed to look upon your body as upon your own inalienable property, but that is quite wrong, because your body is God's edifice."
St. John of Kronstadt
(My Life in Christ, Part 1; Holy Trinity Monastery pg. 23)
"Fortunate is the man who has these two loves in his heart, that for God and that for his brethren. He surely has God; and whoever has God has every blessing and does not bear to commit sin. Again, wretched is the man who does not have these two loves. surely he has the devil and evil, and always sins. God, my brethren, asks us to have these two loves. As He Himself says in His Holy Gospel: `On these two commandments hang all the law and the Prophets.' Through these two loves all the Saints of our Church, men and women, attained sainthood and won Paradise."
St. Cosmas Aitolos
Elder Anthony of Optina
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"You are accustomed to look upon your body as upon your own inalienable property, but that is quite wrong, because your body is God's edifice."
St. John of Kronstadt
(My Life in Christ, Part 1; Holy Trinity Monastery pg. 23)
+ + +
"Fortunate is the man who has these two loves in his heart, that for God and that for his brethren. He surely has God; and whoever has God has every blessing and does not bear to commit sin. Again, wretched is the man who does not have these two loves. surely he has the devil and evil, and always sins. God, my brethren, asks us to have these two loves. As He Himself says in His Holy Gospel: `On these two commandments hang all the law and the Prophets.' Through these two loves all the Saints of our Church, men and women, attained sainthood and won Paradise."
St. Cosmas Aitolos
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