Sayings of the Holy Fathers:
"Let us toil, carrying each other`s burdens, as Christ carried our diseases in His body without flinching. If Christ is our master, then let us imitate Him and bear His injuries, lest in the age to come we be separated from our brothers who suffered afflictions. Such was also the fate of others because they wanted to give themselves not to virtues but rather to vices."
St. Pachomius the Great
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"Take heed list without reason thou mistrust the power of repentance. Wouldst thou know what power repentance has? Wouldst thou know the strong weapon of salvation, and learn what the force of confession is?
Hezekiah by means of confession routed a hundred and fourscore and five thousand of his enemies. A great thing verily was this, but still small in comparison with what remains to be gold: the same king by repentance obtained the recall of a divine sentence which had already gone forth. For when he had fallen sick, Esaias said to him, `Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.' What expectation remained, what hope of recovery, when the Prophet said, `for thou shalt die?' Yet Hezekiah did not desist from repentance; but remembering what is written, `When thou shalt turn and lament, then shalt thou be saved,' he turned to the wall, and from his bed lifting he mind to heaven, he said, `Remember me, O Lord, for it is sufficient for my healing that Thou remember me..'"
St. Cyril of Jerusalem
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"We make our way by foot on earth without stumbling if we love God and our neighbor with our whole heart. We cannot truly love God without loving our neighbor, nor can be truly love our neighbor without loving God. This is why I have already said in another sermon that we read that the Holy Spirit was given a second time to the disciples. First It was given by the Lord while He was still dwelling on earth, and later while He is watching over us in heaven: on earth that we may love our neighbors, from heaven that we may love God. Why first on earth and later from heaven, except for the reason given us openly by John: `How can one person who does not love his brother whom he sees love God Whom he does not see?'"
St. Gregory the Great
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