Sayings of the Holy Fathers:
"I once asked a very experienced father how humility is achieved through obedience. This was his answer: "A wisely obedient man, even if he is able to raise the dead, to have the gift of tears, to be free from conflict, will nevertheless judge that this happened through the prayer of his spiritual director; and so he remains a stranger and an alien to empty presumption. For how could he take pride in something that, by his reckoning, is due to the effort not of himself but of his director?"
From the Desert Fathers
"Unceasingly, then, let us cling to our Hope, and the Pledge of our justification, that is, Christ Jesus, Who in His own body took the weight of our sins up to the Cross; Who did no wrong, nor was treachery found on His lips. On the contrary, for our sakes - that we might live in Him - He endured everything. Therefore let us become imitators of His patient endurance and glorify Him whenever we suffer for the sake of His Name. This is the example He has set us in His own Person, and this is what we have learnt to believe."
St. Polycarp
"Your words are unequal: some vivify, and others slay your soul, or,perhaps, that of your neighbour. Therefore, it is said: 'Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt' (Mt. 22:39). Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers."
St. John of Kronstadt
From the Desert Fathers
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"Unceasingly, then, let us cling to our Hope, and the Pledge of our justification, that is, Christ Jesus, Who in His own body took the weight of our sins up to the Cross; Who did no wrong, nor was treachery found on His lips. On the contrary, for our sakes - that we might live in Him - He endured everything. Therefore let us become imitators of His patient endurance and glorify Him whenever we suffer for the sake of His Name. This is the example He has set us in His own Person, and this is what we have learnt to believe."
St. Polycarp
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"Your words are unequal: some vivify, and others slay your soul, or,perhaps, that of your neighbour. Therefore, it is said: 'Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt' (Mt. 22:39). Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers."
St. John of Kronstadt
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