Sayings of the Holy Fathers:
"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
"If you help a poor person in the name of the Lord, you are making a gift and at the same time granting a loan. You are making a gift because you have no expectation of being reimbursed by that poor person. You are granting a loan because the Lord will settle the account. It is not much that the Lord receives by means of the poor, but He will pay a great deal on their behalf. 'They who are kind to the poor lend to the Lord' [Prov. 19:17]."
St. Basil the Great
"When we reflect on what is promised us in heaven, everything we have on earth comes to appear worthless. When we compare our earthly possessions with the happiness of heaven, they seem a burden and not a help. When we compare our life in time with eternal life, we have to call it death rather than life. What is our daily decline into decomposition and decay but a kind of extension of death? Whose mind can grasp them? There we will take part with the choirs of angels, we will share with the blessed spirits in our Creator's glory, we will see the face of God before us and behold infinite light, we will feel no fear of death but rejoice in the gift of everlasting life!"
St. Gregory the Great
St. John of Kronstadt
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"If you help a poor person in the name of the Lord, you are making a gift and at the same time granting a loan. You are making a gift because you have no expectation of being reimbursed by that poor person. You are granting a loan because the Lord will settle the account. It is not much that the Lord receives by means of the poor, but He will pay a great deal on their behalf. 'They who are kind to the poor lend to the Lord' [Prov. 19:17]."
St. Basil the Great
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"When we reflect on what is promised us in heaven, everything we have on earth comes to appear worthless. When we compare our earthly possessions with the happiness of heaven, they seem a burden and not a help. When we compare our life in time with eternal life, we have to call it death rather than life. What is our daily decline into decomposition and decay but a kind of extension of death? Whose mind can grasp them? There we will take part with the choirs of angels, we will share with the blessed spirits in our Creator's glory, we will see the face of God before us and behold infinite light, we will feel no fear of death but rejoice in the gift of everlasting life!"
St. Gregory the Great
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