“If you live in the embrace of divine grace, evil will not harm you. If you do not live with divinity evil will encircle you and you will be overtaken by indolence and you will be afflicted. If you see someone who is indolent then the person is sick in the soul. Often we see a client, discrete and circumspect person we say “a very fine and saintly person.” And yet he may be indolent. The indolent, sluggard and lazy are not acceptable in the eyes of God. Laziness is a very bad thing. Indolence is an illness; it is a sin. God does not want us to be indolent.”
Elder Porphyrios
~Wounded by Love

“Many times the struggler no matter how much forcefulness uses is unable to get the upper hand in the battle against the principalities and powers of darkness. However when he runs with humility to confess to the Elder in detail that he weakens all the might of the ancient evil one. A struggler confessed to me that he heard the devil proposed to him, “Not confession, not to the Elder.” At the same time the devil created a situation of embarrassment. He would say, “You will go and sad in the Elder again with your negligence and bad thoughts.” And the brother firmly and persistently said, “Yes you cunning one. I will go and I will say everything so that I can start again.” Then the brother clearly heard the ancient evil one yell as he was leaving.…”
Abbot Haralambos
~Abbot Haralambos Dionysiatis

“He scourges us with afflictions and trials so that He can draw us near Him; for He knows that through the sorrowful things of this present life man remains near Him and is saved. The comfortable life is very hazardous for eternal salvation. It is not the Spirit of God that dwells in those living in comfort but rather the spirit of the devil according to the saying of the Fathers. For this reason in this life sorrows we need to have patience and Thanksgiving for God is well pleased with both of these virtues. May the Lord give us much patience in our life sorrows so that in everything we may thank the Giver of good things Who provides for us.”
Elder Ephraim of Arizona
~Counsels from the Holy Mountain

“Many people have come to me and with prayer and fasting they were healed. But now the Lord doesn’t hear me so that I learn about medicines and doctors and be lenient with others. I also read the letters of St.Nectarios and I saw how much he, such a great saint, paid attention to the doctors and medicines! I am just a poor ascetic who has grown old in the wilderness and I wanted to heal only through faith. But now I, too, and learning that both medicines and grace are necessary.”
Elder Ephraim of Arizona
~My Elder Joseph

“Nothing more real came into this earthly world than the Lord Jesus Christ— nothing more real as God, and nothing more real as man. In truth, besides Jesus Christ, this whole world is like a mirage. Neither earth, nor water, nor air, nor light even comes close to His reality. Behold, all of this will pass, but He will remain. Indeed, He is the cornerstone of the eternal, intransitory world; and only He, and those who cling to Him, will have a part in that eternal, intransitory reality. The stormy but helpless waves of time have furiously assaulted, and continue assaulting, the reality of Christ’s divinity and even His humanity.”
Saint Nikolai Velimirovich
~The Prologue)

“… When you are tired of standing it is good that instead of sitting down comfortably you alternate the prayer so that it is sometimes said standing, sometimes kneeling and sometimes even sitting. When we don’t have the strength God provides for us whether we stand or kneel or set; even when we lie in bed we can pray. However if you have the physical ability the devil doesn’t joke around and he immediately brings on negligence,muddling of the mind and sleep. Many strugglers even get used to saying the prayer while walking in order to fight all the negligence and sleep.”
Abbot Haralambos
~Abbot Haralambos Dionysiatis

“I don’t think about death. Whatever the Lord desires. I want to think about Christ. And you too open your arms and throw yourselves into Christ’s embrace. Then He lives within you. And you constantly think that you don’t love CM very much and you want even more to come close to CM and be with Him. Show disdain for passions and don’t concern yourself with the devil. Turn to Christ. For all this to happen it is necessary for grace to come: the divine grace which ever makes good what is weak and supplies what is lacking.”
Elder Porphyrios
~Wounded by Love

“From the time our sweet Jesus lifted the life-giving wood of the precious Cross on His immaculate shoulders and was hanged upon it, from that time and throughout the ages, lifting the cross is continued by His followers in the form of various afflictions and trials through which the Christian tryouts over the many forms of destructive self love. Through Luke the Evangelist Saviour stresses that ‘whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be my disciple.’”
Elder Ephraim of Arizona
~Counsels from the Holy Mountain

“Christ wants us to eliminate our own will to zero. If you obtain a single one of the following virtues: purification, divine justice, love, obedience, and voluntary poverty, bear in mind that all of these virtues may be found in just one of these virtues. The same thing applies to our passions; one passion includes all our other passions…Purification requires the soul to be pure and clean through our own will; divine justice is the abandonment of our own will to the will of God; humility is to humble our will and elevate God’s will. Obedience means not to have our own will so that we are able to obey other people. Prayer means to take our mind off our own wishes and desires and concentrate on the will of God.”
Elder Paisios
~Quote from Mystagogy.com

“In the beginning it is necessary to say the prayer in a whisper, or even louder when confronted by duress and inner resistance. When this good habit is achieved to the point that the prayer may be sustained and said with ease, then we can turn inwardly with complete outer silence. In the first part of the little book {Way of the Pilgrim} a good example is given of the initiation into the prayer. Sound persistence and effort, always with the same words of the prayer not being frequently altered, will give birth to a good habit. This will bring control of the mind, at which time the presence of Grace will be manifested.”
Elder Joseph of Vatopaidi