Sayings of the Holy Fathers:
"Prayer is the lifting up of the mind and heart to God. From this it is evident that it is quite impossible for anyone to pray whose mind and heart are attached to anything carnal - for instance, to money or to honors - or who has in his heart passions such as hatred or envy for others, because passions usually contract the heart, in the same way as God expands it and gives it true freedom."
St. John of Kronstadt
"Just as by the rays of the sun the face of the earth is unveiled from the darkness of the atmosphere that enshrouds it, even so is prayer able to dissolve and scatter the clouds of passions from our soul, and make our mind transparent to the light of gladness and comfort, which, indeed, it customarily produces in our thoughts, but especially when it possesses material from the divine Scriptures and vigilance, which burnish the mind. For continual study in the writings of the saints fills the soul with incomprehensible wonder and divine gladness."
St. Isaac the Syrian
"Let the good thief show us the confidence we can have in pardon. He was not good because he was a thief, since his cruelty led him to that. His confession of guilt made him good. Think how incomprehensible is the mercy of our all-powerful God! The thief was caught red-handed in his thievery and hanged on a cross. There he confessed his guilt, there he was forgiven, there he was found worthy to hear Jesus say to him: 'Today you will be with me in paradise.' How can we begin to describe God's great goodness! How can we begin to value it? From a criminal's punishment the thief came to the prize for virtue."
St. Gregory the Great
St. John of Kronstadt
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"Just as by the rays of the sun the face of the earth is unveiled from the darkness of the atmosphere that enshrouds it, even so is prayer able to dissolve and scatter the clouds of passions from our soul, and make our mind transparent to the light of gladness and comfort, which, indeed, it customarily produces in our thoughts, but especially when it possesses material from the divine Scriptures and vigilance, which burnish the mind. For continual study in the writings of the saints fills the soul with incomprehensible wonder and divine gladness."
St. Isaac the Syrian
+ + +
"Let the good thief show us the confidence we can have in pardon. He was not good because he was a thief, since his cruelty led him to that. His confession of guilt made him good. Think how incomprehensible is the mercy of our all-powerful God! The thief was caught red-handed in his thievery and hanged on a cross. There he confessed his guilt, there he was forgiven, there he was found worthy to hear Jesus say to him: 'Today you will be with me in paradise.' How can we begin to describe God's great goodness! How can we begin to value it? From a criminal's punishment the thief came to the prize for virtue."
St. Gregory the Great
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