“For a start he laid out a program for him. “You will begin by saying the prayer “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me” for an hour. But you are to tell this to your Elder said it won’t seem as you’re doing it of your own will.” His elder simple as he was it not understand what it meant and did not hinder him…”Elder with this prayer, rivers of tears stream from my eyes and I feel an exhilaration within me. A fire burns in my heart for Christ.” From then on to his fellowship with Elder Joseph, he began to be instructed in the mysteries of the neptic activity. This activity brings about purification of the heart and divine illumination.”
Elder Ephraim (relating Elder Joseph’s first instructions)
~Obedience is Life

“”My God, I don’t want you to speak to me; I don’t want you to show me a sign. But with your own love revealed to be something simple that will enable me to know whether I should leave or stay. Something very simple. I’m not asking for some miracle. I’m ashamed to.” So I decided to fast for three days without even putting water in my mouth, praying in complete silence and waiting for an answer from God. And the answer came.”
Elder Porphyrios
~Wounded by Love

“Fainthearted people who are depressed about their falls into sin concerned him too. “But there’s repentance. Are your sins greater than God’s mercy?”

“I’m not interested in how sinful someone is,” he would add. “What I’m concerned about is whether he knows himself. God will judge each person according to the work they’ve done on the old man. When the soul cuts away its faults [whatever they are] bracket it will be beautiful to Christ.””
Elder Paisios
~Elder Paisios of Mt. Athos

“”The Lord knows his job. If it’s for my benefit, he will make me well. If it’s not for my benefit, “Blessed be the Name of the Lord.”” I believe this is how the perfect people think. For many decades the Elder didn’t leave the holy Mountain but he later yielded to the exhortation of his spiritual children and used medical science and care, as if from God, leading us again an example of obedience and humility.”
Elder Haralambos
~Abbot Haralambos

“To begin with and I first started to hear confessions I used to release called those who came to make confession.… If he confessed a serious sin then I would look up in the book I would see what it wrote… [a year later he returns] “what did I tell you?” “You told me to do 100 prostrations every night.” “And did you do them?” “No.” “Why not?” “Well you told me that I couldn’t receive communion for 18 years so I thought to myself, “since I’m damned anyway I might as well forget about the whole thing.” Then another person would come and say the same thing. It was then I began to become a little wiser…and changed my tactics in confession.”
Elder Porphyrios
~Wounded by Love

[From an anonymous Egyptian hermit]
“It is not necessary that you live the way I do. But in order to become happier than you are keep these rules:
– think of God at least as much as you think of men
– fear God at least as much as you fear men
– honor God at least as much as you honor men
– pray to God at least as much as you entreat men
– hoping God at least as much as you hope in men
– ask God for help as least as much as you ask men
– fulfill God’s law at least as much as you fulfill the law of men
– be thankful to God at least as much as you are thankful to men
– glorify God at least as much as you glorify men!”
St. Nikolai Velimirovich
~Missionary Letters #2

“As long as man does good he forgets about himself. He’s entirely good and he loses his selfishness. When he makes the problems of others his own, he doesn’t have his own problems.” When he prayed for the sick he would say, “My God, help the sick and take away my health,” and he would accept with joy whatever sickness God allotted him.”
Elder Paisios
~Elder Paisios of Mt. Athos

“Rightly then has the justification of all the saints been ascribed to faith and not to their works which were also themselves perfected by faith. Believing in the beginning we set out in subjugation to his will, the will of our Christ, and in the course of obedience to him we To the difficult path as David says. But the Lord tells us, “When you have done all that is commanded of you say, we are unworthy servants, we have only done what was our duty”. This shows us that what brings about salvation is not the quantity and quality of the works which are simply a duty, but it is faith that counts and the Lord praises faith saying “Well done good and faithful servant. Abba Mark says that the Lord will repay each one precisely according to his faith or lack of faith.”
Elder Joseph
~Elder Joseph the Hesychast

“Indeed, the encounter with the toll houses after death is only a specific and final form of the general battle in which each Christian soul is engaged during his whole lifetime. Bishop Ignatius writes: “just as the resurrection of the Christian soul from death of sin is accomplished during his earthly wandering, precisely so is mystically accomplished here on earth, it’s testing by the arial powers, its captivity by them are deliverance from them; at the journey through the air after death this freedom are captivity is only made manifest”. Some saints such as Macarius the Great – whose passage through the toll houses was seen by several of his disciples – us into the demonic tax collectors without opposition, because they have already fought them and won the battle in this life.”
Father Seraphim Rose
the Soul After Death

“It isn’t very long before the workshop is operating on all planes as a monastery and is distinguished as a center of spiritual recharging for the girls of Patmos. Many women today gratefully acknowledge that together with learning a craft they to receive solid fundamentals for the creating of sound Greek Orthodox Christian families. During their frequent gatherings youthful enthusiasm overflows and true timeless ideals are awakened in their unblemished and free Greek souls.”
Elde Amphilokios Makris
~Our Geronda