Sayings of the Holy Fathers:
"A man will appear at the Judgement of Christ with what he has when he departs from this world. Sinners! Let us consider this saying diligently and repent, lest we depart into the next world and appear before that judgement with our sins. Our compassionate God promised to show us His grace and mercy, but He did not promise us the morrow. Let us pay close attention to this and let us awake from sleep, and remembering our death let us correct ourselves and prepare for our departure, that we may have a blessed end. He who dies in repentance and faith and true prayer dies in the Lord."
St. Tikhon of Zadonsk
"Seest thou that a failure in almsgiving is enough to cast a man into hell fire? For where will he avail who does not give alms? Dost thou fast every day? So also did those virgins, but it availed them nothing. Dost thou pray? What of that? prayer without almsgiving is unfruitful, without that all things are unclean and unprofitable. The better part of virtue is destroyed. 'He that loveth not his brother,' it is said, 'knoweth not God' (1 John. 4:8). And how dost thou love him, when thou dost not even impart to him of these poor worthless things? "
St. John Chrysostom
"St. John in one of his epistles says, 'Perfect love drives out fear.' What does the holy man signify to us by this? What sort of love and what sort of fear is he talking about? The psalmist says, 'Fear the Lord all you who love him,' and we find thousands of similar sayings in Holy Scripture. If, therefore, the saints who so loved Him feared Him, how can he say, 'Love casteth out fear'? St. John wishes to show us that there are two kinds of fear: one preliminary, the other perfect; the one found in beginners - as someone called it 'of the devout'; the other in those perfected in holiness, of those having arrived at true love."
St. Dorotheos of Gaza
St. Tikhon of Zadonsk
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"Seest thou that a failure in almsgiving is enough to cast a man into hell fire? For where will he avail who does not give alms? Dost thou fast every day? So also did those virgins, but it availed them nothing. Dost thou pray? What of that? prayer without almsgiving is unfruitful, without that all things are unclean and unprofitable. The better part of virtue is destroyed. 'He that loveth not his brother,' it is said, 'knoweth not God' (1 John. 4:8). And how dost thou love him, when thou dost not even impart to him of these poor worthless things? "
St. John Chrysostom
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"St. John in one of his epistles says, 'Perfect love drives out fear.' What does the holy man signify to us by this? What sort of love and what sort of fear is he talking about? The psalmist says, 'Fear the Lord all you who love him,' and we find thousands of similar sayings in Holy Scripture. If, therefore, the saints who so loved Him feared Him, how can he say, 'Love casteth out fear'? St. John wishes to show us that there are two kinds of fear: one preliminary, the other perfect; the one found in beginners - as someone called it 'of the devout'; the other in those perfected in holiness, of those having arrived at true love."
St. Dorotheos of Gaza
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