Sayings from St. Maximos the Confessor:
The beginning of all passions is self-love, and their result is pride.
A thing, a conceptual image and a passion are all quite different one from the other. For example, a man, a woman, gold and so forth are things; a conceptual image is a passion-free thought of one of these things; a passion is mindless affection or indiscriminate hatred for one of these same things. The monk's battle is therefore against passion.
(St. Maximos the Confessor, in Four Hundred Texts on Love, pg. 89 of the Philokalia, vol. 2)
When you are insulted by someone or humiliated, guard against angry thoughts, lest they arouse a feeling of irritation, and so cut you off from love and place you in the realm of hatred.
From St. Maximos the Confessor (First Century on Love no. 29, The Philokalia, Vol. 2 edited by Palmer, Sherrard and Ware; Faber and Faber pg. 56)
We offend God’ when we give heretics ‘license in any manner whatever...to parade their falsehood within our circles and to agitate against the true Faith.... For I reckon it misanthropy and a departure from Divine love to lend support to error, that those previously captivated by it should undergo still greater corruption.
St. Maximos the Confessor, Patrologia Graeca, Vol. xci, cols. 464a, 465cd (Epistle 12: "To John the Chamberlain").
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I believe this to be a matter of hate towards man and separation from divine love when one attempts to give validity to a false faith which will ultimately corrupt its followers even more.
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On Passion
On Passion
A thing, a conceptual image and a passion are all quite different one from the other. For example, a man, a woman, gold and so forth are things; a conceptual image is a passion-free thought of one of these things; a passion is mindless affection or indiscriminate hatred for one of these same things. The monk's battle is therefore against passion.
(St. Maximos the Confessor, in Four Hundred Texts on Love, pg. 89 of the Philokalia, vol. 2)
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When you are insulted by someone or humiliated, guard against angry thoughts, lest they arouse a feeling of irritation, and so cut you off from love and place you in the realm of hatred.
From St. Maximos the Confessor (First Century on Love no. 29, The Philokalia, Vol. 2 edited by Palmer, Sherrard and Ware; Faber and Faber pg. 56)
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We offend God’ when we give heretics ‘license in any manner whatever...to parade their falsehood within our circles and to agitate against the true Faith.... For I reckon it misanthropy and a departure from Divine love to lend support to error, that those previously captivated by it should undergo still greater corruption.
St. Maximos the Confessor, Patrologia Graeca, Vol. xci, cols. 464a, 465cd (Epistle 12: "To John the Chamberlain").
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He who busies himself with the sins of others, or judges his brother on suspicion, has not yet even begun to repent or to examine himself so as to discover his own sins...+++
Every work and voice which was not spoken by the holy fathers proved to be an innovation.+++
I believe this to be a matter of hate towards man and separation from divine love when one attempts to give validity to a false faith which will ultimately corrupt its followers even more.
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