Sayings of the Holy Fathers:

"The Saviour comes in various forms to each man for his profit. For to those who have need of gladness He becomes a Vine; and to those who want to enter in He stands as a Door; and to those who need to offer up their prayers He stands a mediating High Priest. Again, to those who have sins He becomes a Sheep, that He may be sacrificed for them. He is made all things to all men, remaining in His own nature what He is."

St. Cyril of Jerusalem


"To the extent that God wants to be known by us, He reveals Himself. And as much as He is revealed, so is He seen and known by those who are worthy. But no one can ever experience or see this if he is not first united to the All-holy Spirit, or if he has not acquired a humble, pure, simple, and contrite heart through much effort and toil."

St. Symeon the New Theologian




"When a man walks in the fear of God he knows no fear, even if he were to be surrounded by wicked men. He has the fear of God within him and wears the invincible armor of faith. This makes him strong and able to take on anything, even things which seem difficult or impossible to most people. Such a man is like a giant surrounded by monkeys, or a roaring lion among dogs and foxes. He goes forward trusting in the Lord and the constancy of His will to strike and paralyze his foes. He wields the blazing club of the Word in wisdom."

St. Symeon the New Theologian

THE GOOD OF PATIENCE (5)

St. Cyprian of Carthage


Likewise, patience is also necessary in respect to the various hardships of the flesh and frequent and cruel torments of the body by which the human race is daily wearied and oppressed. For since in that first transgression of God's command strength of body departed with immortality, and infirmity entered the body by death, and since strength cannot be regained except when immortality shall have been regained, it is necessary to keep struggling and contending in this state of bodily weakness and infirmity; and this struggle and strife can not be endured without the strength of patience. But different kinds of sufferings are imposed on us to test and prove us, and many forms of temptations are inflicted upon us by loss of wealth, burning fevers, torments of wounds, by the death of dear ones. Nothing else distinguishes the unjust and just the more than this, that in adversities the unjust man complains and blasphemes because of impatience, while the just man is proved by patience, as it is written: 'In thy sorrow endure and in thy humiliation keep patience, for gold and silver are tried in the fire.'

Thus Job was examined and proved and raised to the pinnacle of praise because of the virtue of patience. How many weapons of the devil were hurled against him! How many torments were inflicted on him! He suffered the loss of his property, he was bereft of his numerous progeny; a master rich in wealth and a father richer in children was suddenly neither master nor father. Cruel wounds attacked his body and a scourge of devouring worms consumed his dissolving and decaying limbs. And lest anything at all might remain which Job had not experienced in his trials, the devil even armed his wife against him, using that ancient device of his wickedness, as if he could deceive and cheat all men through a woman as he did in the beginning. Nevertheless, Job was not broken by these heavy and continuous assaults, and in spite of these trials and afflictions he extolled the praise of God by his victorious patience. Tobias also, who after his magnificent work of justice and mercy was tempted by the loss of his eyes, endured his blindness with great patience and gained outstanding merit with God through the renown of his patience.



And, beloved brethren, that the good of patience may shine forth more brightly, let us consider, on the other hand, what evil impatience causes. For as patience is a good of Christ, so, on the contrary, impatience is an evil of the devil; and as the man in whom Christ lives and abides is found to be a patient man, so he is always impatient whose mind is possessed by the wickedness of the devil. Accordingly, let us consider the origins of impatience. The devil bore with impatience the fact that man was made to the image of God, and for this reason was the first to perish and cause to perish. Adam, in violation of the heavenly command, was incapable of resisting the desire of the deadly food and fell into the death of sin; he did not preserve, under the guardianship of patience, the grace received from God. Cain was impatient of his brother's sacrifice and gift and killed him. Because Esau put lower things before higher, he lost his birthright through impatience for the lentils. Why was the Jewish people faithless and ungrateful toward the divine blessings? Was it not that this crime of impatience first drew them away from God? When they could not bear the delay of Moses speaking with God they dared to demand profane gods, and to proclaim as leader of their journey the head of a calf and an earthly image. They never abandoned this same fault of impatience, but always impatient of the divine teaching and guidance, by killing all their prophets and all just men, they hastened to the cross and to the shedding of the blood of the Lord. Impatience also produces heretics in the Church, and, after the manner of the Jews, it drives them, as rebels against the peace and charity of Christ, to hostile acts and furious hates. And not to be tedious by giving details, all things without exception which patience by its works builds unto glory, impatience reduces to ruin.


And so, beloved brethren, after the benefits of patience and the evils of impatience have been carefully weighed, let us observe fully and maintain the patience through which we abide in Christ and with Christ are able to come to God. That patience, rich and manifold, is not confined within a narrow compass or restrained by bounds of small extent. The virtue of patience extends widely and its wealth and abundance proceed from a source that has indeed a single name, but with its full-flowing streams it is diffused through many glorious courses, and nothing in our actions can avail towards the full realization of merit which does not take the power for its accomplishment from that source. It is patience that both commends us to God and saves us for God. It is that same patience which tempers anger, bridles the tongue, governs the mind, guards peace, rules discipline, breaks the onslaught of lust, suppresses the violence of pride, extinguishes the fire of dissension, restrains the power of the wealthy, renews the endurance of the poor in bearing their lot, guards the blessed integrity of virgins, the difficult chastity of widows, and the indivisible love of husbands and wives. It makes men humble in prosperity, brave in adversity, meek in the face of injuries and insults. It teaches us to pardon our offenders quickly; if you yourself should offend, it teaches you to ask pardon often and with perseverance. It vanquishes temptations, sustains persecutions, endures sufferings and martyrdoms to the end. It is this patience which strongly fortifies the foundations of our faith. It is this patience which sublimely promotes the growth of hope. It directs our action, so that we can keep to the way of Christ while we make progress because of His forbearance. It ensures our perseverance as sons of God while we imitate the patience of the Father.

Daily Reading:

     For the man is not of the woman: but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man. For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels. Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord. For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God. Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered? Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering. But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God. Now in this that I declare unto you I praise you not, that ye come together not for the better, but for the worse. For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it. For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper. For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken. What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? shall I praise you in this? I praise you not.


     And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things. But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist. And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water. And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him. Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me. And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour.


By fire thou wast a burnt offering to thy Master/ and dost bring us joy by showering on us graces./ Thou didst bear within thee the heavenly fire/ and accept the material flame as dew./ Ever preserve those who honour thee, O Martyr Emilian.

Thou wast a desert citizen, an angel in the body and a wonderworker,/ O Pambo our Godbearing Father./ For by fasting, vigil and prayer thou didst obtain gifts from heaven/ and heal the sick and all who flocked to thee in faith./ Glory to Him Who has strengthened thee; glory to Him Who has crowned thee;/ glory to Him Who through thee works healings for all.

We the unworthy have thee as a firm pillar of patience,/ and as an invincible shield against the enemies' darts./ O much-suffering and angelic John,/ we venerate thy sacred relics and fervently pray:/ Deliver us from soul-destroying passions of the flesh,/ and save us by thy prayers.

Thou didst not fear thy fellow-creature fire,/ for thou wast ablaze with holy zeal./ Thou didst willingly enter the flames and wast unconsumed by their fury,/ and didst offer thyself in sacrifice to the Lord./ O Emilian, pray to Christ our God to grant us His great mercy.

Thou pillar of continence impregnable to the enemy's warfare/ thou didst leave thy much-suffering body to us set up as a column;/ those in bodily and spiritual infirmities venerate it, O John./ Wherefore we beseech thee to pray to Christ for us all.


Glorious art Thou, O Christ our God/ Who hast established our holy fathers as stars on earth./ Through them Thou dost guide us to the True Faith./ O Most Merciful One, glory to Thee.

The preaching of the Apostles and the doctrine of the Fathers confirmed the one faith in the Church./ In the garment of truth woven from theology on high she rightly divides and glorifies true piety.

Sayings of the Holy Fathers:

"Reflect, human being that you are, on the great dignity you enjoy, and the degree of purity it would be right for you to exhibit, at least on those occasions when you become a temple in your own right. Now, how would you exhibit this purity? If you were to expel every evil thought, if you were to deny entry of the devil's workings to the precincts of your mind, if you continue to embellish your mind as though in the holy sanctuary. After all, if in the Jewish Temple not every place was open to everyone, but there were many and varied divisions - one place for proselytes, one for those who were Jews from the beginning, one for the priests, one for the high priest alone, and then not at all times but once a year - consider the degree of holiness required of the one receiving far greater symbols than the holy of holies received at that time. It is not the Cherubim that you have, but the very Lord of the Cherubim dwelling within, not jar of manna, or tablets of stone, or Aaron's rod, but the Lord's Body and Blood, and Spirit instead of letter, and grace surpassing human reason, an indescribable gift."

St. John Chrysostom

"The pursuit of the virtues through one's own efforts does not confer complete strength on the soul unless grace transforms them into an essential inner disposition. Each virtue is endowed with its own specific gift of grace, its own particular energy, and thus possesses the capacity to produce such a disposition and blessed state in those who attain it even when they have not consciously sought for any such state."

St. Gregory of Sinai



"In addition to its own efforts to nourish itself spiritually, the mind also attempts as much as possible to bring back the senses toward the mind so that they too may enjoy with its spiritual pleasures and thus become accustomed gradually to prefer them. This is how it happened before with the mind when it becomes accustomed through the senses to prefer physical pleasures. At first, generally speaking, the body attempted through the senses and the physical pleasures to make the mind and the spirit of man into flesh. On the contrary now, the mind seeks purposely through the enjoyment of the immaterial and spiritual realities to uplift the body also from its physical heaviness, and in a sense to make it into spirit, as St. Maximos has witnessed in many of his writings."

St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain

Sayings of the Holy Fathers:

"My child, if you want to live amongst people, you must watch the following: Do not criticize anyone at all; do not ridicule anyone; do not become angry; do not despise anyone. Be very careful not to say 'so-and-so lives virtuously,' or 'so-and-so lives immorally,' because this is exactly what 'judge not' means. Look at everyone in the same way, with the same disposition, the same thought, with a simple heart. Accept them as you would accept Christ. Don't open your ears to a person who judges."

St. Nephon



"Let us then also learn hence to consider all things secondary to the hearing of the word of God, and to deem no season unseasonable, and, though a man may even have to go into another person's house, and being a person unknown to make himself known to great men, though it be late in the day, or at any time whatever, never to neglect this traffic. Let food and baths and dinners and other things of this life have their appointed time; but let the teaching of heavenly philosophy have no separate time, let every season belong to it. For Paul saith, 'In season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort (2 Tim. 4:2); and the Prophet too saith, 'In His law will he meditate day and night' (Ps. 1:3)."

St. John Chrysostom



"Faith, the fear of God, and the observance of His commandments, bring us a reward in proportion to our purity. For as we are purified, so we rise from fearing God to loving Him. It is like making progress and passing out of fear into God's love. It is then that we hear: 'He who accepts My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me.' So then, let us redouble our efforts to prove our love by our works. For when we have done this, He Himself loves us just as He promised and His Father loves us in the same way, and the Holy Spirit, of course, comes before Him to prepare a dwelling place. So it is that by the indwelling unity of the hypostases, we become the home of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit."

St. Symeon the New Theologian

THE GOOD OF PATIENCE (4)

St. Cyprian of Carthage


It is a salutary precept of our Lord and Master: 'He who has endured even to the end will be saved.' And again: 'If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.' We must endure and persevere, beloved brethren, so that, having been admitted to the hope of truth and liberty, we can finally attain that same truth and liberty, because the very fact that we are Christians is a source of faith and hope. However, in order that hope and faith may reach their fruition, there is need of patience. For we do not strive for present glory, but for a future one, according to what Paul the Apostle teaches, saying: 'For in hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is not hope. For how can a man hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.' Patient waiting is necessary that we may fulfill what we have begun to be, and through God's help, that we may obtain what we hope for and believe. Accordingly, in another place, that same Apostle instructs and teaches the just and those who do works and those who lay up for themselves heavenly treasures from the increase of divine interest to be patient also, for he says: 'Therefore while we have time, let us do good to all men, but especially to those who are of the household of faith. And in doing good let us not grow tired, for in due time we shall reap.' He warns lest anyone, through lack of patience, grow tired in his good work; lest anyone, either diverted or overcome by temptations, should stop in the middle of his course of praise and glory and his past works be lost, while those things which had begun to be perfect, cease, as it is written: 'The justice of the just shall not deliver him in what day soever he shall err.' And again: 'Hold fast what thou hast, that no other receive thy crown.' And these words urge patient and resolute perseverance, so that he who strives for a crown, now with praise already near, may be crowned because his patience endures.


Patience, however, beloved brethren, not only preserves what is good, but also repels what is evil. Devoted to the Holy Spirit and cleaving to heavenly and divine things, it struggles with the bulwark of its virtues against the acts of the flesh and the body whereby the soul is stormed and captured. Accordingly, let us look at a few out of many of these acts, so that from these few, all the rest may be understood. Adultery, deceit, homicide, are mortal sins. Let patience be strong and stable in the heart, and then the sanctified body and temple of God will not be corrupted by adultery, innocence dedicated to justice will not be infected by the contagion of deceit, and the hand that has held the Eucharist will not be sullied by the bloodstained sword.

Charity is the bond of brotherhood, the foundation of peace, the steadfastness and firmness of unity; it is greater than both hope and faith; it excels both good works and suffering of the faith; and, as an eternal virtue, it will abide with us forever in the kingdom of heaven. Take patience away from it, and thus forsaken, it will not last; take away the substance of enduring and tolerating, and it attempts to last with no roots or strength. Accordingly, the Apostle when he was speaking about charity joined tolerance and patience to it, saying: 'Charity is magnanimous, charity is kind, charity does not envy, is not puffed up, is not provoked, thinks no evil, loves all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.' By this he showed that charity can persevere steadfastly because it has learned how to endure all things. And in another place he says: 'bearing with one another in love, taking every care to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the union of peace.' He proved that neither unity nor peace can be preserved unless brothers cherish one another with mutual forbearance and preserve the bond of unity with patience as intermediary.


How then will you be able to endure these things--not to swear or curse, not to seek again what has been taken away from you, on receiving a blow to offer the other cheek also to your assailant, to forgive your brother who offends you not only seventy times seven times, but all his offenses without exception, to love your enemies, to pray for your adversaries and persecutors, if you do not have the steadfastness of patience and forbearance? We see what happened in the case of Stephen. When he was being killed by the violence and stones of the Jews, he did not ask for vengeance but forgiveness for his murderers, saying: 'O Lord, do not lay this sin against them.' So it was most fitting that the first martyr for Christ who, in preceding by his glorious death the martyrs that were to come, was not only a preacher of the Lord's suffering but also an imitator of His most patient gentleness. What shall I say of anger, of discord, of contention, evils which a Christian ought not to have? Let there be patience in the heart and these evil things can not have a place there; or if they attempt to enter, on being quickly driven out, they depart, so that the heart may continue to be a peaceful dwelling where the God of peace may delight to abide. Accordingly, the Apostle admonishes and teaches, saying: 'Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and indignation, and clamor, and reviling, be removed from you.' For if a Christian has withdrawn from the fury and contention of the flesh as from the storms of the sea, and has now begun to be tranquil and gentle in the harbor of Christ, he ought not to admit into his heart either anger or discord, for it is not right for him to render evil for evil or to hate.

Daily Reading:

But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.


Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread. Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread? Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

Sitting on the throne of God-protected Kiev,/ thou wast like a merchant seeking goodly pearls, O Vladimir./ Thou didst search and send to the Imperial City/ to know the Orthodox Faith./ Thou didst find Christ the Pearl of great price,/ Who chose thee like Paul and enlightened thy blindness at the Font./ Thy people celebrate thy repose:/ wherefore pray for Russia and all peoples,/ that the Orthodox may be granted peace and great mercy.

Like the Apostle Paul, O Vladimir, thou didst abandon childish ways/ and in manhood wast royally adorned with Baptism./ Now thou art joyfully standing in the presence of Christ our Savior:/ pray that Orthodox Hierarchs and people, and all creation, may be saved.

Glorious art Thou, O Christ our God/ Who hast established our holy fathers as stars on earth./ Through them Thou dost guide us to the True Faith./ O Most Merciful One, glory to Thee.

The preaching of the Apostles and the doctrine of the Fathers confirmed the one faith in the Church./ In the garment of truth woven from theology on high she rightly divides and glorifies true piety.

Daily Reading:

The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the LORD out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him. Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the sepulchre. So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre. And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in. Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie, And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed. For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again unto their own home.


We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification. For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me. For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus: That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God.


And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying, and saying, Thou son of David, have mercy on us. And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord. Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you. And their eyes were opened; and Jesus straitly charged them, saying, See that no man know it. But they, when they were departed, spread abroad his fame in all that country. As they went out, behold, they brought to him a dumb man possessed with a devil. And when the devil was cast out, the dumb spake: and the multitudes marvelled, saying, It was never so seen in Israel. But the Pharisees said, He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils. And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.


Supreme Leader of the Heavenly Host,/ we implore thee that by thy prayers thou wilt encircle us,/ unworthy as we are,/ with the protection of the wings of thy immaterial glory,/ and guard us who fall down before thee and fervently cry:/ Deliver us from dangers,/ for thou art the commander of the Powers above.

O righteous Father Stephen, thou didst receive a glorious crown/ and became a crown of the Church,/ for thou wast crowned with divine graces/ and wast resplendent in godliness./ Entreat Christ our God to grant us His great mercy.

Son of St Geraint, O lover of peace,/ when a stranger took thy cell thou didst wander to distant lands./ Through thy patience thou art glorious./ We honour thee, O holy Just.

Thou dost behold the glory of God in heaven,/ and bring grace from on high to earth,/ O wise Gabriel, Leader of Angels,/ minister of God's glory and champion of the world./ Save and preserve those who cry to thee:/ Be our helper, and no one will be against us.
Thou didst plant a paradise of virtues/ and water it with thy tears,/ and receive the Tree of Life./ By thy prayers save thy flock from corruption/ and deliver from temptations those who venerate thee./ O glorious Stephen,/ through faith and love we have acquired thee as a great intercessor.

Glorious art Thou, O Christ our God/ Who hast established our holy fathers as stars on earth./ Through them Thou dost guide us to the True Faith./ O Most Merciful One, glory to Thee.

The preaching of the Apostles and the doctrine of the Fathers confirmed the one faith in the Church./ In the garment of truth woven from theology on high she rightly divides and glorifies true piety.