“What’s it like [hell]? Horror, horror. May even a bird never go there. Just as people drown at sea, so also they drown in the torments of hell, accompanied by demons. We must pray for the dead. It is a great act of mercy. These are human. They will never go away. We must go beyond them and run towards Christ.”
Elder Ephraim of Arizona
~ 2014 Interview

“Most of all the elder loved and cultivated the Jesus Prayer “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me,” which he had first learned as a boy from his mother. From his time at Sinai onwards with few exceptions the prayer took the place of the daily services. It became for him his nourishment, his delight in his every breath. He reached a state of being in which his nous would become immersed in the prayer he said, it would continue even while he slept. He was determined that his unceasing prayer not be interrupted. He said the prayer while he did his handiwork, on the road and in the presence of others: everywhere and at all times. In the midst of his handiwork he would set aside what he was doing, retreat to a quiet place and kneel becoming immersed in the prayer until the voice of a visitor would bring him back.”
Description of Elder Paisios
~Elder Paisios of Mt. Athos

“Ignore evil. Look towards Christ and He will save you. Instead of standing outside the door shooing the evil one away treat him with disdain. If evil approaches from one direction then calmly turn in the opposite direction. If evil comes to assault you turn all your inner strength to good, to Christ. Pray “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me.” He knows how and in what way to have mercy on you. And when you have filled yourself with good don’t turn any more to afford evil. In this way you become good on your own with the grace of God.”
Elder Porphyrios
~Wounded by Love

“The main power of the prayer and the entire appetitive power of the soul lies in the cleansing of the heart by means of noetic prayer. What does the Lord say? “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” He does not say “Blessed are those who see visions and revelations.” So we should not rejoice in these things even if they are from God. But one should rejoice when one sees that the nous has found the heart and remained inside it. Then the entire body is at peace, the soul is calmed, the heart leaps, the nous illuminates its powers and tears run like a stream. The evil one is able to transform everything but these things that we are talking about now he cannot imitate.”
Elder Joseph
~Monastic Wisdom

“When someone calls to sleep his self accusing thoughts he represses his conscience and when one goes to sleep and refuses to acknowledge these self accusations from his conscience for a long period of time he creates a another, his own à la carte conscience that is a faulty conscience. Such a person has no inner peace because a faulty conscience cannot bring about inner peace. You see even when someone makes a mistake and another person tells him “It’s not your fault, why are you worried?”, or, even if he pretends not to have noticed his mistake again he will not find any inner peace. There are some who go to consult certain gurus and so on and when they realize that things are not going well they come to ask me. And while I tell them something to help them they insist, “No, what I believe is correct.” But if what you believe is correct then why do you come and ask me? Even though they are not at peace with what is wrong they insist and keep on trying to find a false peace one way or another but they cannot find true peace.”
Elder Paisios
~Spiritual Struggle

“You’re embarrassed to say the prayer out loud because you have been a monk for so many years? In other words you think that you will appear to others to be at a lower spiritual level by saying it out loud since that is what beginners do? And you’re trying to pass yourself off as an advanced veteran? Shame on you! You have nothing but vainglory and pride. What is truly embarrassing is when we do not say they prayer when our mind wanders here and there and when our mouth doesn’t stop babbling. Isn’t that shameful? Yes that is shameful in the eyes of both God and man.”
Elder Joseph
~My Elder Joseph

“You must see your Elder as Christ. Don’t cause him distress. You’ve distressed your Elder? You’ve distressed Christ. The monk under obedience is a blank sheet of paper. There is nothing there for the devil to interrogate him about. The obedient disciple has no temptations because the Elder takes them on. The value of the Elder cannot be matched by the value of the whole world or even of the entire Holy Mountain.”
Elder Ephraim of Katounakia
~Obedience is Life

“… Open the eyes of your soul and see what exists beyond this life. Men of the world loved the world because they have not yet discovered its bitterness. They are still blind in soul and do not see what is hiding behind his fleeting joy. The noetic light is not yet come to them, the day of salvation has not yet dawned upon them. But you who have seen and heard so much, must realize that the pleasure from temporal things passes away like a shadow.”
Elder Joseph
~Monastic Wisdom

“Speaking of His second coming of Christ calls all people either hosts or servants. In both cases He warns all to expect Him in wakefulness and vigilance, the Lord of Glory and the Judge of the world. Every man is the host and the master of the spiritual treasure which is stored within his soul. As such that each host keeps his inner treasure with at least as much care as a good host would put into keeping his worldly treasure. “If the good man of the house had known it would watch the thief would come he would have watched and would not have suffered his house to be broken up” (Matthew 24). But since he does not know when that time is he has to keep watch at all times day and night. Likewise we have to keep our souls at all times from demons, evil and invisible thieves, so they do not plunder our treasure and leave are so empty and desolate on the day of Christ’s coming.”
St Nikolai Velimirovich
~Missionary Letters #2

“Prayer of the heart is prayed only by a person who has attracted the grace of God. It mustn’t be done with the thought “I’ll learn it, I’ll do it, I’ll acquire it,” because in this way we may be led to egotism and pride. Not only experience and genuine desire but also wisdom, care and prudence are required if our prayer is to be pure and pleasing to God. A single seductive thought, “I have really made progress” for example brings everything to naught. Why should we be proud? We have nothing that is our own. These are very delicate matters.”
Elder Porphyrios
~Wounded by Love