Selected quotes from St. John of Kronstadt

"You hear in church more often than anything the voices of the priests, deacons, readers and singers praying God to have mercy upon us.What does this signify? It signifies that all of us who are in God's Temple are deserving, by our sins, of God's punishment, and that before everything - on our coming into the church - we must remember that we are sinners, and have come to the Lord of Heaven and Earth, to our Creator and Benefactor, Whom we have daily and hourly angered by our iniquities, to ask for mercy, each one for himself, and also, in accordance with Christian love, for others."

+ + + 

 
"When the Devil is in our heart...everything irritates it, it feels an aversion to every good work; the words and acts of other persons in reference to ourselves we interpret falsely and see in them ill-will and designs against our honour, and therefore we feel a deep, deadly hatred towards them; we are infuriated and long for vengeance."

+ + + 

"When you are struck by other people's suffering, and the contraction of their souls, so that you are induced to pray for them with a pitying and contrite heart, pray to God to have mercy on them and to forgive them their sins, as you would pray for the forgiveness of your own sins - that is, implore God with tears to pardon them; likewise pray for the salvation of others as you would pray for your own salvation."