“Geronda’s strategy and goal was to have a say the Jesus prayer constantly and keep vigil valiantly. He had implanted deep within us the meaning of prayer and watchfulness in vigil. He gave us advice and vigilantly observed how we were doing. From time to time he would ask me, “Koutsiko, how is your prayer doing? How is your vigil going?””
Narrative of Elder Ephraim of Arizona
~My Elder Joseph

“Without the blessing of the elder don’t take a step. Don’t go anywhere without a blessing so that God will be with you. When you receive a blessing don’t fear anything. Bow to the elder, kiss his hand, and go to the moon, become an astronaut – because you’re covered by the blessing; obedience covers you. For 40 years fathers I saw a shelter above me while a month in obedience, and now that I become an elder, I no longer see it. Wherever I went I went with my soul and thoughts at peace because I was in obedience.”
Elder Ephraim of Katounakia
~Obedience Is Life

“After his next liturgy, again he had the same dream with poor people telling him, “father, you forgot us.” After waking up he said “Fathers are you sure you don’t have any name somewhere else?” “I’m sure Papa. Check the altar table.” Papa Ephraim searched some more and finally found a slip of paper with names underneath the edge of the altar cover. In his next liturgy he commemorated those names and those people never again appeared to him in his dreams.”
Experience of Elder Ephraim of Katounakia
~My Elder Joseph

“Time and again the fathers received fortastes of heavenly blessedness: spiritual consolations which gave them strength to continue their struggle, like blissful rest at the end of a day’s oil. When the hardships of life would amount to a point which seemed almost beyond endurance, and ineffable joy would suddenly be ushered in coming not from anything outside, but from within the daily life itself, from the divinely revealed a pattern of church services. Father Seraphim love the services because they represented an actual participation in the life of another dimension – – a dimension without the presence of which life on earth would truly be meaningless. To him the services were a stepping stone to eternity.”
Comments about Fr. Seraphim Rose
~His Life and Works

“Who knows my child the judgments of God? Everything is known to him. He sees everything and nothing escaped his notice but no one knows his will. The works of Satan are nothing next to the power of God. So when the Lord tests us as he knows best we should show our patients and thankfulness. Now that my child if his divine will is in accordance to our desire certainly you will get well. But if he foresee something that we do not know – – since he is God he sees and judges differently from above – – then you will not get well. Nevertheless, we do not lose our reward: it is stored up in his kingdom. So be patient and struggle.

“Can a sorcerer heal a sick man! He can heal someone who is shaken up by a demon is sending the demon to someone else. Remember the sorcerer and the devil are partners, so the sorcerer can say to his partner, “Leave this man and go into that one.” So the sorcerer can remove a demon from one individual and send him into a relative or some other acquaintance of his who may have given certain rights to the demon to have power over him. In such a case the person who had been demon may say, “I was suffering but now so and so has healed me,” and the word gets around. And in the end, the demon just circulates among relatives or friends.”

During his vigil he would also do his spiritual accounting. “A monk who wants to make progress,” he taught, “must do accounting daily – – just as a merchant does at the end of every day to see how much he has gained and how much he has lost. Every evening a monk should examine his conduct to see where he progressed and where he stumbled so that he can make a new beginning of repentance and correction.”
Elder Joseph the Hesychast
~My Elder Joseph

“All our struggles and efforts have to make is humble in the end. You were never a saint but the grace of God protected you and you thought that state was your own. That’s why grace left you, to make you realize who you are. However, graceful return with confession. In the future never be embarrassed to confess anything to your elder and always firmly keep the thought that, ‘I am nothing. Whatever that I have, it is from God to the prayers of my elder. If grace deserts me I will immediately fall again.’”

“You also asked me what is the purpose of life. This is revealed in the Gospel and only in the Gospel. Hence, only Christians can know what the meaning of life is. Period. And the purpose is – the kingdom of heaven. The first words of Christ or the proclamation of this purpose, ‘Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ His last words were, ‘Go into the whole world and preach the Gospel to every creature.’ Are His stories not all about the Kingdom of Heaven? Is His ascension into the world and his revelation from it not only a testimony of the kingdom of heaven? One could freely say that the entire gospel of Christ from the beginning to the end speaks and testifies of the kingdom of heaven as the purpose of human life.”
St. Nikolai Velimirovich
~Missionary Letters #3