Various excerpts on Despair:
It is always possible to make a new start by means of repentance. "You fell," it is written, "now arise"(cf. Prov. 24:16). And if you fall again, then rise again, without despairing at all of your salvation, no matter what happens. So long as you do not surrender yourself willingly to the enemy, your patient endurance, combined with self-reproach, will suffice for your salvation. "For at one time we ourselves went astray in our folly and disobedience," says St. Paul. "... Yet He saved us, not because of any good things we had done, but in His mercy" (Tit. 3:3,5).
St. Peter of Damaskos, Philokalia, Vol. 3
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Nothing equals or excels God’s mercies. Therefore, he who despairs is committing suicide. A sign of true repentance is the acknowledgement that we deserve all the afflictions, visible and invisible, that come upon us, and even greater ones. Moses, after seeing God in the bush, returned again to Egypt, that is, to the darkness and to the brick-making of Pharaoh, who was symbolical of the spiritual Pharaoh. But he went back again to the bush, and not only to the bush, but also up to the mountain. Whoever has known divine vision will never despair of himself. Job became a beggar, but he became twice as rich again.
St John Climacus, "The Ladder of Divine Ascent", Step 5: On Painstaking and True Repentance Which Constitute the Life of the Holy Convicts (Boston: Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 1978)
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One who has an evil heart should not despair, for with God’s help, one can correct his heart. He must only remain vigilant and miss no opportunity to help his neighbors. He must open himself up before his elder, and must be as charitable as possible. This, of course cannot be accomplished all at once, but the Lord is very patient. He brings a person’s life to an end only when He sees him ready to depart into eternity or when he sees no hope for his correction.
Counsels of the Venerable Elder St. Amvrossy of Optina
St. Peter of Damaskos, Philokalia, Vol. 3
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Nothing equals or excels God’s mercies. Therefore, he who despairs is committing suicide. A sign of true repentance is the acknowledgement that we deserve all the afflictions, visible and invisible, that come upon us, and even greater ones. Moses, after seeing God in the bush, returned again to Egypt, that is, to the darkness and to the brick-making of Pharaoh, who was symbolical of the spiritual Pharaoh. But he went back again to the bush, and not only to the bush, but also up to the mountain. Whoever has known divine vision will never despair of himself. Job became a beggar, but he became twice as rich again.
St John Climacus, "The Ladder of Divine Ascent", Step 5: On Painstaking and True Repentance Which Constitute the Life of the Holy Convicts (Boston: Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 1978)
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One who has an evil heart should not despair, for with God’s help, one can correct his heart. He must only remain vigilant and miss no opportunity to help his neighbors. He must open himself up before his elder, and must be as charitable as possible. This, of course cannot be accomplished all at once, but the Lord is very patient. He brings a person’s life to an end only when He sees him ready to depart into eternity or when he sees no hope for his correction.
Counsels of the Venerable Elder St. Amvrossy of Optina
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