Sayings of the Holy Fathers:
"Sorrow works in two ways: it is like water because it quenches all the fire of passion with tears and washes the soul clean of stains, and it is like a fire which gives life by the presence of the Holy Spirit. It kindles, blazes up, and warms the heart, and inflames it with love and desire for God."
St. Symeon the New Theologian.
"If slander has become to you the same as praise, poverty as riches, deprivation as abundance, you will not die. Indeed it is impossible for anyone who firmly believes, who labours with devotion, to fall into the impurity of the passions and be led astray by the demons.
St. Macarius the Great.
"'Ye are the light of the world' (Mt. 5:14). 'Of the world' again; not of one nation, nor of twenty states, but of the whole inhabited earth. And 'a light' to the mind, far better than this sunbeam: like as they were also a spiritual salt. And before they are salt, and now light; to teach thee how great is the gain of these strict precepts, and the profit of that grave discipline: how it binds, and permits not to become dissolute; and causes clear sight, leading men to virtue."
St. John Chrysostom.
St. Symeon the New Theologian.
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"If slander has become to you the same as praise, poverty as riches, deprivation as abundance, you will not die. Indeed it is impossible for anyone who firmly believes, who labours with devotion, to fall into the impurity of the passions and be led astray by the demons.
St. Macarius the Great.
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"'Ye are the light of the world' (Mt. 5:14). 'Of the world' again; not of one nation, nor of twenty states, but of the whole inhabited earth. And 'a light' to the mind, far better than this sunbeam: like as they were also a spiritual salt. And before they are salt, and now light; to teach thee how great is the gain of these strict precepts, and the profit of that grave discipline: how it binds, and permits not to become dissolute; and causes clear sight, leading men to virtue."
St. John Chrysostom.
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