“He would say, ‘Prayer helps the world so much – when there is heartfelt compassion of course. I don’t feel someone else’s pain when I’m sitting comfortably with my legs crossed and have every comfort and convenience.’  The elder’s prayer was accompanied by fasting, toil, prostrations, and most importantly, humility. He used to say, ‘We should ask humbly. I say my God I’m a brute. Have mercy on me and on the whole world, too.”

“A young child does something wrong; let’s say he breaks one of his father’s tools and then is upset over it because he considers it to be a big mistake… In a similar manner, the more we suffer and grieve over our sinfulness or over our ingratitude to God and out of love cry for having grieved Our  Father with our sins, the more He will reward us with divine gladness and inner sweetness. Such grief is good grief because while it contains pain and also has hoping consolation.”

“God my child, is everywhere, and His eye observes everything but He overlooks our sins because He awaits our repentance. When we are at fault whether slightly are greatly, He sees it because He is present but we do not see Him because we are infants in knowledge. And when He punishes us so that we may turn towards Him, we think that we are suffering unjustly. However, when we humble ourselves, with eyes of our souls are opened and we realize that everything that the Lord does is very good. There we look upon Him as our father abundant in mercy and overflowing with perfect love and kindness.”

“I had a special weakness for my mother. She was a truly holy soul; we lived a whole life together. She washed my things, ironed for me, looked after me, and so on. When the evil one tried to fight me by bringing her to my mind, my desire for her almost ate me up. Since Satan found a means of fighting me what did I do? I thought that all of us who have renounced our mother [as monks] have Panagia as our mother. So I fell to the ground with screams and tears saying ‘Panagia, I beg you, please run. Extinguish the desire for my mother. You are now my mother. I don’t want a carnal mother. I want you and only you. Help me.’”
Elder Haralambos
~Abbott Haralambos Dionystasis

“He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”
Matthew 10:37

“…to keep curious people away, I painted a skull and cross bones on the rocks with some green all based paint. What time a German tourist want to come up to the sale. He thought it was a minefield because of the sign, but it looked like she knew about them so he went up to the top watching where he stepped. I was watching him from above. Then I went to the cave of a saint and pulled a thorny bush across the entrance behind me. He looked hard, but he couldn’t find me a went back down the hill.”
Elder Paisios
~Elder Paisios of Mount Athos

Be still and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.
Psalms 46:10

“Mono-logistical or single word prayer, is the “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.” The fewer words we impose upon the nous [soul or spiritual center] the easier it is for then nous to learn and hold onto them. The methods of prayer, however are many. The method depends upon the disposition and the needs of each person. Supplication, Thanksgiving, praise – are all address to the God who is able to save in order to find the consolation and assistance being sought. There are petition, intercession, entreaty, praise, thanksgiving, and at times even a praise worthy brashness by which God’s infinite goodness and boundless love for man been low for one who calls on him with persistence and deep humility.”
Elder Ephraim of Katounakia
~Obedience is Life

“I asked your love to pray hard for me. For I have many souls that seek my help. And believe me for every single soul that receives my help, I experienced the warfare that it has.”
Elder Joseph
~My Elder Joseph the Hesychast

“Judaism, Christianity, Islam.  These three religions lay claim, in fact, to a common origin: as worshipers of the God of Abraham. Thus it is a very widespread opinion that since we all lay claim to the posterity of Abraham the Jews and Moslems according to the flesh and the Christian spiritually, we all have God as the God of Abraham and all three of us worship ‘each in his own way’  the same God. And this same God constitutes in some fashion are part of unity and of mutual understanding and this invites us to a fraternal relation.