IMPEDIMENTS TO PRAYER…
At the same time, the elder believed that in this life, too, the just God grants spiritual and even material gifts to people who consciously endear injustices, according to the situation.He counseled one monk who was bickering with his fellow disciple as follows,
 “Tell him he’s right. Do you know how many people have gone to hell for being ‘right’? Fairness is wrong for a monk.” 
That is to say a monk is injured spiritually when he seeks to justify himself.

Elder Paisios
~Elder Paisios of Mt. Athos
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“When you’re eager in your obedience during the day and at the same time your lips continuously whisper a prayer, then you feel rested and joy inside you. So much so that you don’t even consider the toil of the day. With all this warming up during the day, the vigil is easy at night: it does not tire you but rather you feel it is a feast.    However, if during the day we have been disobedient, are involved in idle chatter, back talking, part we have had thoughts of pride, jealousy, condemnation and so on, unceasing prayer stops and also the vigil at night passes with toil and pain. But sometimes, this can happen without us having given the right for it to happen.”

Elder Arsenios

~Elder Arsenios the Cave-Dweller

“The opposite of a loving heart that receives revelation from God is cold calculation, getting up you can out of people; in religious life, this produces fakery and charlatanism of all descriptions. If you look at the religious world today, you’ll see that great deal of what is going on: so much fakery, posing, calculation, so much taking advantage of the wins of fashion which bring first one religion or religious attitude into fashion, then another. To find the truth, you have to look deeper.”
Fr. Seraphim Rose
~God’s Revelation to the Human Heart

Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men , but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
Matthew 23:28

“Are you afraid of death?” The woodworker answered, “How can I fear that which fears me and which will have to serve me as a bridge to the eternal kingdom.”
The king then asked, “Do you wish to be the king?” The woodworker answered, “How can I wish for that what I already am? My creator has adopted me through Christ, and my creator is the King of Kings. So, I’m already a king.”
Finally the king asked, “How many children do you have?” The young man said, “I have 300. These are the ones who I baptized and gave birth in the spirit. These are my spiritual children who call me their spiritual father.”
St. Nikolai Velimirovich
~ Missionary Letters #3

“The day you were captured, the horses with the carriage return home on their own. I realize that you had been taken. From that day, I didn’t eat, or drink, or move from this icon Stan, until the moment you found me. Now we must fortify ourselves. That’s go and eat.” That was the Blessed and holy father of Harlem boasts. Quote for the tree is known by its fruit.”
Father of Elder Haralambos when his son was captured in war
~Abbot Haralambos Dionysiatis Teacher of Noetic Prayer

Peter therefore was kept in prison : but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.
Acts 12:5

Once, and amazed acquaintance asked him [Elder Paisios] why he never went back home. “I left my parents out of love for Christ,” replied the elder, “and I made a promise so I can’t stay at my family’s house anymore. For me all the people in the world are my parents, my brothers and sisters, and my relatives.” This was the ultimate goal of his estrangement from the world he once remarked characteristically, “I haven’t done anything. But even though I used to have just seven siblings, God, who is so good, has granted me to feel that everyone in the world is my brother.”
Elder Paisios
~Elder Paisios of Mt. Athos

Mark 10:29, 30

 

“The lives of the fathers show us how many of them attain holiness with facility and ease, without great labors and sacrifices, or ascetic struggles, because they practice obedience. Obedience is humility in practice and God “giveth grace unto the humble.”
Elder Ephraim of Katounakia
~Obedience is Life
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“We compare ourselves to the animals – actually, that’s an insult to the poor animals. We are worse than they are. One day I was trying to think of something to compare myself to, and I finally settled on a dung beetle. But after I really thought about it, I realized I wasn’t being fair to the poor thing.”
Elder Paisios
~Elder Paisios of Mount Athos

“Christ came to enlighten mankind. There are various religions outside His revelation where the followers are sincere – not just practicing demon worship – and where the soul is really trying to get through to God. I would say that before the people have heard of Christ, these religions are fine as far as they go, but they will not get you to the goal. The goal is eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven, and God came in the flesh to open this up to us.”
Fr. Seraphim Rose
~God’s Revelation to the Human Heart
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