31 July 2021
On Mercy
Extend
mercy towards others, so that there can be no one in need whom you meet without
helping. For what hope is there for us if God should withdraw His mercy from
us?
Saint Vincent de Paul (1581-1660)
30 July 2021
On Prayer
Prayer is our personal response to God’s presence. We approach the Lord reverently with a listening heart. God speaks first. In prayer, we acknowledge the Divine presence and in gratitude respond to God in love. The focus is always on God and on what God does.
Jacqueline Syrup Bergan and Marie Schwan (1983)
On Prayer
Prayer is our personal response to God’s presence. We approach the Lord reverently with a listening heart. God speaks first. In prayer, we acknowledge the Divine presence and in gratitude respond to God in love. The focus is always on God and on what God does.
Jacqueline Syrup Bergan and Marie Schwan (1983)
29
July 2021
On
Charity
What is the
appropriate time for performing works of charity? My beloved children, any time
is the right time, but these days of Lent provide a special encouragement.
Those who want to be present at the Lord’s Passover in holiness of mind and
body should seek above all to win this grace. Charity contains all other
virtues and covers a multitude of sins.
Saint Leo the Great
28
July 2021
Modest
Attire
The Old
Testament is filled with the image of God's people being a holy people, set
apart. The ancient Israelites were not like their neighbors. Their values and
their faith impacted everything about them. They dressed differently than many
of their neighboring pagan tribes. Their worship was centered on the God that
had revealed himself to them and made them his chosen people. Their spiritual
and moral views reflected this relationship with the One God that had entered
into communion with them and who had revealed Divine Truth through the
prophets.
The Church is
the continuation of the Church of the Old Testament and as such, we are the
chosen people of God. Our lives should reflect this truth in everything we do
and in the moral standards that guide our daily living.
These
standards of faith should even govern the way we dress. It is not only Orthodox
monks and priests who should hold themselves to dress codes that reflect
modesty and purity. We are all called to be a people set apart from this world.
Christ's Kingdom is not of this world and we need to dress in a way that does
not bring temptation to others. For the Orthodox Christian, tight and revealing
clothing are not appropriate. We should not reserve modest clothing for church
services or when making pilgrimages to our monasteries. The center of our being
is in the heart and the attention of the mind must be fixed in the heart.
Modest attire
for the layman is just as important as the robes of a monk in aiding the quest
for living a life given over to being, in every way, God's chosen people.
Abbot Tryphon
27
July 2021
The
Christian Way of Life
Those who
intend to fulfill the Christian way of life to the best of their ability must
first devote all their attention to the rational, discriminative and directing
aspect of the soul. Perfecting in this way their discrimination between good
and evil, and defending the purity of their nature against the attacks of the
passions that are contrary to nature, they go forward without stumbling, guided
by the eye of discrimination and not embroiled with the impulses of evil. For
the soul’s will is able to preserve the body free from the vitiation of the
senses, to keep the soul away from worldly distraction, and to guard the heart
from scattering its thoughts into the world, completely walling them in and
holding them back from base concerns and pleasures. Whenever the Lord sees
someone acting in this manner, perfecting and guarding himself, disposed to
serve Him with fear and trembling, He extends to him the assistance of His
grace. But what will God do for the person who willingly gives himself up to
the world and pursues its pleasures?
Saint Symeon Metaphrastes
25 July 2021
Perfections and Imperfections
The man who denies that he has any imperfections is a just as much a liar as the man who claims that he has no perfections at all. Every person, however holy, has some imperfections; every person, however wicked, has some good points. Made in God’s image, each person reflects something of God’s goodness; made from nothing, every person likewise always carries some imperfections.
Saint Francis de Sales
Perfections and Imperfections
The man who denies that he has any imperfections is a just as much a liar as the man who claims that he has no perfections at all. Every person, however holy, has some imperfections; every person, however wicked, has some good points. Made in God’s image, each person reflects something of God’s goodness; made from nothing, every person likewise always carries some imperfections.
Saint Francis de Sales
21 July 2021
Obtaining the Divine Prize
Hence, if we desire to obtain in its entirety that divine prize of which it is said, 'Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God,' [anger] must not only be cut off from our actions but must even be uprooted from the depths of our soul. For as wrathful anger that has been checked in speech and that has not manifested itself in deeds is of no value whatsoever if God, from whom the secrets of the heart are not concealed, sees that it exists in the recesses of our breast. For the words of the Gospel command that the roots of our vices be cut off rather than the fruits, which will certainly never grow anymore once the shoot has been pulled up. And when they have been pulled up not from the surface of our deeds and actions but from the depths of our thoughts, our mind will then be able to abide in utter patience and holiness.
John Cassian (360–435)
Obtaining the Divine Prize
Hence, if we desire to obtain in its entirety that divine prize of which it is said, 'Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God,' [anger] must not only be cut off from our actions but must even be uprooted from the depths of our soul. For as wrathful anger that has been checked in speech and that has not manifested itself in deeds is of no value whatsoever if God, from whom the secrets of the heart are not concealed, sees that it exists in the recesses of our breast. For the words of the Gospel command that the roots of our vices be cut off rather than the fruits, which will certainly never grow anymore once the shoot has been pulled up. And when they have been pulled up not from the surface of our deeds and actions but from the depths of our thoughts, our mind will then be able to abide in utter patience and holiness.
John Cassian (360–435)
19 July 2021
Church Militant and Triumph
Remember that you will derive strength by reflecting that the saints yearn for you to join their ranks; desire to see you fight bravely, and that you behave like true knights in your encounters with the same adversities which they had to conquer, and that breathtaking joy is theirs and your eternal reward for having endured a few years of temporal pain. Every drop of earthly bitterness will be changed into an ocean of heavenly sweetness.
Blessed Henry Suso (1295-1365)
Church Militant and Triumph
Remember that you will derive strength by reflecting that the saints yearn for you to join their ranks; desire to see you fight bravely, and that you behave like true knights in your encounters with the same adversities which they had to conquer, and that breathtaking joy is theirs and your eternal reward for having endured a few years of temporal pain. Every drop of earthly bitterness will be changed into an ocean of heavenly sweetness.
Blessed Henry Suso (1295-1365)
16
July 2021
On Word
and Deed
Dangerous to teach…
Saint Synkletike (a Desert Mother)
15 July 2021
On Penitence and Confession
Like hairs on the head, mortal man is joined to Jesus Christ, the head of all, but they are full of transgressions and sins because of man’s delight in the flesh. But the Church regenerates and purifies these from the unclean stench and filth of sin by penitence and confession, just as hair is cleansed from dew and drops, and as dust is shaken out and cleansed from wool.
Saint Hildegarde of Bingen (1098-1179)
On Penitence and Confession
Like hairs on the head, mortal man is joined to Jesus Christ, the head of all, but they are full of transgressions and sins because of man’s delight in the flesh. But the Church regenerates and purifies these from the unclean stench and filth of sin by penitence and confession, just as hair is cleansed from dew and drops, and as dust is shaken out and cleansed from wool.
Saint Hildegarde of Bingen (1098-1179)
13 July 2021
Biblical Doctrine of the Church
As Lutheran theologians we know that all serious study of the Biblical doctrine of the church brings us nearer to this goal. By studying the scriptures the fathers of the Awakening became Lutherans. Only at the hand of Scripture can our generation become Lutheran again. And so the great practical undertaking will be to find and to study the church in scripture.
Hermann Sasse
Biblical Doctrine of the Church
As Lutheran theologians we know that all serious study of the Biblical doctrine of the church brings us nearer to this goal. By studying the scriptures the fathers of the Awakening became Lutherans. Only at the hand of Scripture can our generation become Lutheran again. And so the great practical undertaking will be to find and to study the church in scripture.
Hermann Sasse
9 July 2021
On Human Beings
We should hold everyone in high esteem. We should love all humankind for they are children of God. God wants his children to love one another in the same way as a loving father wants his sons to love each other. Let us love all human beings because they are our brothers and sisters; God wants us to look at them tenderly and love them just as they are, because each is a child of God, who is beloved and adored.
Blessed Charles De Foucauld (1858-1916)
On Human Beings
We should hold everyone in high esteem. We should love all humankind for they are children of God. God wants his children to love one another in the same way as a loving father wants his sons to love each other. Let us love all human beings because they are our brothers and sisters; God wants us to look at them tenderly and love them just as they are, because each is a child of God, who is beloved and adored.
Blessed Charles De Foucauld (1858-1916)
8 July 2021
On Accountability
We spare neither labors nor means in order to teach our children secular sciences, so that they can serve well the earthly authorities. Only the knowledge of the holy Faith, the service of the Heavenly King are a matter of indifference to us. We allow them to attend spectacles but we care little whether they go to Church and stand within it reverently. We demand an account from them of what they learned in their secular institutes—why do we not demand an account from them of what they heard in the Lord’s house?
St. John Chrysostom
On Accountability
We spare neither labors nor means in order to teach our children secular sciences, so that they can serve well the earthly authorities. Only the knowledge of the holy Faith, the service of the Heavenly King are a matter of indifference to us. We allow them to attend spectacles but we care little whether they go to Church and stand within it reverently. We demand an account from them of what they learned in their secular institutes—why do we not demand an account from them of what they heard in the Lord’s house?
St. John Chrysostom
7 July 2021
On Our Souls
You know…that to join two things together there must be nothing between them or there cannot be a perfect fusion. Now realize that this is how God wants our soul to be, without any selfish love of ourselves or of others in between, just as God loves us without anything in between.
Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380)
On Our Souls
You know…that to join two things together there must be nothing between them or there cannot be a perfect fusion. Now realize that this is how God wants our soul to be, without any selfish love of ourselves or of others in between, just as God loves us without anything in between.
Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380)
4 July 2021
Enlightened by Grace
The commands of the Gospel are nothing else than God’s lessons, the foundations on which to build up hope, the supports for strengthening faith, the food that nourishes the heart. They are the rudder for keeping us on the right course, the protection that keeps our salvation secure. As they instruct the receptive minds of believers on earth, they lead safely to the kingdom of heaven… Now we are enlightened by the light of grace, and are to keep to the highway of life, with the Lord to precede and direct us.
Saint Cyprian of Carthage (c. 200-258)
Enlightened by Grace
The commands of the Gospel are nothing else than God’s lessons, the foundations on which to build up hope, the supports for strengthening faith, the food that nourishes the heart. They are the rudder for keeping us on the right course, the protection that keeps our salvation secure. As they instruct the receptive minds of believers on earth, they lead safely to the kingdom of heaven… Now we are enlightened by the light of grace, and are to keep to the highway of life, with the Lord to precede and direct us.
Saint Cyprian of Carthage (c. 200-258)
3 July 2021
Scared Days
Behold, Dearly Beloved, the sacred days are drawing near, the acceptable time…. And so you must be more earnest in prayer and in almsgiving, in fasting and in prayer. He that till now has given alms, in these days let him give more, for as water quenches a flaming fire, so does almsgiving wipe out sin (Ecces. 3:33). He that till now fasted and prayed, let him fast and pray still more, for there are certain sins which are not cast out, except by prayer and fasting (Mt. 17:20). Should anyone cherish anger towards another, let him forgive from his heart. Should anyone take unjustly what belongs to another, let him restore it…. And though a Christian should abstain at all times from cursings and revilings, from oaths, from excessive laughter and from idle words, he must do this especially in these holy days which are set apart so that, during these forty days, he may by penance wipe out the sins of the whole year.
Saint Ambrose of Milan
Scared Days
Behold, Dearly Beloved, the sacred days are drawing near, the acceptable time…. And so you must be more earnest in prayer and in almsgiving, in fasting and in prayer. He that till now has given alms, in these days let him give more, for as water quenches a flaming fire, so does almsgiving wipe out sin (Ecces. 3:33). He that till now fasted and prayed, let him fast and pray still more, for there are certain sins which are not cast out, except by prayer and fasting (Mt. 17:20). Should anyone cherish anger towards another, let him forgive from his heart. Should anyone take unjustly what belongs to another, let him restore it…. And though a Christian should abstain at all times from cursings and revilings, from oaths, from excessive laughter and from idle words, he must do this especially in these holy days which are set apart so that, during these forty days, he may by penance wipe out the sins of the whole year.
Saint Ambrose of Milan
2 July 2021
On Hope
How wonderful, how pleasing, how charming is the image of those who hope in the God Who saves, in God the compassionate, the God of mercy, the good God Who loves mankind.People who hope in God are truly blessed. God is their constant helper and they fear no evil, even if others provoke them. They hope in God and do good. They have set their every hope on Him and they confess to Him with all their heart. He is their boast, their God and they call upon Him day and night. Their mouths direct praise to God; their lips are sweeter than honey and wax when they open them to sing to God; their tongue, full of grace, is moved to glorify God. Their heart is eager to call upon Him, their mind ready to be elevated towards Him, their soul is committed to God and “His right hand has upheld them”. “Their souls will boast in the Lord”. They ask and receive from God whatever their heart desires. They ask and find whatever they seek. They knock and the gates of mercy are opened.
Saint Nektarios of Aegina (1846-1920)
On Hope
How wonderful, how pleasing, how charming is the image of those who hope in the God Who saves, in God the compassionate, the God of mercy, the good God Who loves mankind.People who hope in God are truly blessed. God is their constant helper and they fear no evil, even if others provoke them. They hope in God and do good. They have set their every hope on Him and they confess to Him with all their heart. He is their boast, their God and they call upon Him day and night. Their mouths direct praise to God; their lips are sweeter than honey and wax when they open them to sing to God; their tongue, full of grace, is moved to glorify God. Their heart is eager to call upon Him, their mind ready to be elevated towards Him, their soul is committed to God and “His right hand has upheld them”. “Their souls will boast in the Lord”. They ask and receive from God whatever their heart desires. They ask and find whatever they seek. They knock and the gates of mercy are opened.
Saint Nektarios of Aegina (1846-1920)
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