The Husband and wife should be similar to the hand and the eye. When the hand hurts, the eyes should be crying. And when the eyes cry, the hand should wipe away the tears.
John Chrysostom
On Repentance
12 February 2026
There is no sin that God cannot forgive, big or small. God does not measure a man by the magnitude of his sins but by the intensity of his repentance.
Archmandrite Sebastianos Topalis
Hope of Salvation
10 February 2026
Never lose hope of salvation. Constantly cry out to God and weep. God never overlooks a soul that wants to be saved and repents, no matter how much it may be wounded in the fight.
Elder Ephraim of Arizona
The Creator of Matter
8 February 2026
The whole earth is a living icon of the face of God. ... I do not worship matter. I worship the Creator of matter who became matter for my sake, who willed to take His abode in matter, who worked out my salvation through matter. Never will I cease honoring the matter which wrought my salvation! I honor it, but not as God. Because of this I salute all remaining matter with reverence, because God has filled it with his grace and power. Through it my salvation has come to me.
John of Damascus
Prayer
2 February 2026
Whether you are in church, or in your house, or in the country; whether you are guarding sheep, or constructing buildings..., do not stop praying. When you are able, bend your knees, when you cannot, make intercession in your mind, 'at evening and at morning and at midday’. If prayer precedes your work and if, when you rise from your bed, your first movements are accompanied by prayer, sin can find no entrance to attack your soul.
St Ephraim the Syrian
On Temptations
29 January 2026
Satan always tempts the pure; the rest are already his.
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
On Holiness
28 January 2026
Holiness consists simply in doing God's will, and being just what God wants us to be.
Saint Thérèse of Lisieux
Be a Light
24 January 2026
Be a lamp in brightness, and make the works of darkness cease, so that whenever your doctrine shines, no one may dare to heed the desires of darkness.
Ephrem the Syrian
By Compunction
23 January 2026
When your soul is pricked by compunction and gradually changed, it becomes a fountain flowing with rivers of tears and compunction. ... If any one of you ever happens to communicate with tears, whether you weep before the Liturgy or in the course of the divine Liturgy, or at the very time that you receive the divine Gifts, and does not desire to do this for the rest of his days and nights, it will avail him nothing to have wept merely once. It is not this alone that at once purifies us and makes us worthy; it is daily compunction that does not cease until death.
Symeon the New Theologian
Loving God
22 January 2026
We truly love God and keep His commandments if we restrain ourselves from our pleasures. For he who still abandons himself to unlawful desires certainly does not love God, since he contradicts Him in his own intentions. . . Therefore, he loves God truly, whose mind is not conquered by consent to evil delight. For the more one takes pleasure in lower things, the more he is separated from heavenly love.
St. Gregory the Great
Accuse Ourselves
17 January 2026
The beauty of woman is the greatest snare. Or rather, not the beauty of woman, but unchastened gazing! For we should not accuse the objects, but ourselves, and our own carelessness. Nor should we say, Let there be no women, but Let there be no adulteries. We should not say, Let there be no beauty, but Let there be no fornication. We should not say, Let there be no belly, but let there be no gluttony; for the belly makes not the gluttony, but our negligence. We should not say, that it is because of eating and drinking that all these evils exist; for it is not because of this, but because of our carelessness and insatiableness. Thus the devil neither ate nor drank, and yet he fell! Paul ate and drank, and ascended up to heaven!
St. John Chrysostom
Deceptive Individuals
16 January 2026
For some are in the habit of carrying about the name [of Jesus Christ] in wicked guile, while yet they practice things unworthy of God, whom you must flee as you would wild beasts. For they are ravening dogs, who bite secretly, against whom you must be on your guard, inasmuch as they are men who can scarcely be cured.
St. Ignatius of Antioch
Who do you say that I am?
14 January 2026
Wherever the message is preached and brought in whatever language it comes from, the language it comes to and the culture into which it penetrates must, as some stage of its maturation, learn to answer yet again the question: “Who do you say that I am?” Because the “you say” in that question is the culture in which we live. He’s not asking, “Who does the fourth century say that I am?” when it was writing in Greek. That’s important, because without that we wouldn’t be where we are. But, at some point, you have to be who and what you are in the only culture in which you’re ever going to live, the only century in which you’re going to live and die, and, in that century, you have to answer with whatever linguistic and philosophical equipment you have, you have to answer the question: “Who do you say that I am?”
Jaroslav Pelikan
Confession, Humility and the Remission of Sin
12 January 2026
Whoever hates his sins will stop sinning; and whoever confesses them will receive remission. A man can not abandon the habit of sin if he does not first gain enmity toward sin, nor can he receive remission of sin without confession of sin. For the confession of sin is the cause of true humility.
Isaac of Nineveh
Perseverance in Faith
8 January 2026
Remember that after temptations follows Spiritual joy, and the Lord watches over those who endure temptations and sufferings for the sake of His Love. So, don’t lose heart and don’t be afraid. The path leading to perfection is long. Pray to God so that He will strengthen you. Patiently accept your falls and, having stood up, immediately run to God, not remaining in that place where you have fallen. Do not despair if you keep falling into your old sins. Many of them are strong because they have received the force of habit. Only with the passage of time and with fervor will they be conquered. Don’t let anything deprive you of hope.
Saint Nektarios of Aegina
New Year Reflection
6 January 2026
The New Year is a reminder that we are drawing closer to the Kingdom of God. Let us live with this hope, so that each day may bring us closer to God.
Saint Maximus the Confessor
On Prayer
4 January 2026
Virtues are formed by prayer. Prayer preserves temperance. Prayer suppresses anger. Prayer prevents emotions of pride and envy. Prayer draws into the soul the Holy Spirit, and raises man to Heaven.”
Ephrem the Syrian
The Great commission
2 January 2026
Christianity is not a matter of persuading people of particular ideas, but of inviting them to share in the greatness of Christ.
So pray that I may never fall into the trap of impressing people with clever speech,
but instead I may learn to speak with humility, desiring only to impress people with Christ himself.
St. Ignatius of Antioch
On Repentance
1 January 2026
To repent is to look, not downward at my own shortcomings, but upward at God's love; not backward with self-reproach, but forward with trustfulness. It is to see, not what I have failed to be, but what by the grace of Christ I can yet become.
St. John Climacus
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)