Tuesday, October 30, 2012

NB: FFT - Food from the Parents in the Faith

"Blessed is the person who consumes the bread of love, which is Jesus! The one who eats of love eats Christ, the God over all, as John bears witness, saying, 'God is love.'" --- St Isaac of Syria
 
"Enter eagerly into the treasure-house that lies within you, and so you will see the treasure-house of heaven: for the two are the same, and there is but one single entry to them both. The ladder that leads to the Kingdom is hidden within you, and is found in your own soul. Dive into yourself and in your soul you will discover the rungs by which to ascent." --- St. Isaac the Syrian

"The Eucharist reveals the Church as community--love for Christ, love in Christ--as a mission to turn each and all to Christ. The Church has no other purpose, no 'religious life' separate from the world. Otherwise the Church would become an idol...Only this presence can give meaning and value to everything in life, can refer everything to that experience and make it full. 'The image of this world is passing away.' But only by passing away does the world finally become the 'World': a gift of God, a happiness that comes from being in communion with the content, the form, the image of that 'World.'" --- Fr. Alexander Schmemann
 
"Prayer does not consist merely in standing and bowing with your body or in reading written prayers: it is possible to pray at all times, in all places, by the mind and spirit. You can lift up your mind and heart to God while walking, sitting, working, in the crowd and in solitude. His door is always open, unlike humanity's. We can always say to Him in our hearts: 'Lord have mercy! Lord have mercy!'" --- St. Tikhon of Zadonsk

"Teach us to look on those who think differently from us, who have different religious beliefs or no belief at all, as brothers and sisters." --- Fr. Alexander Men, *Prayer of Christ's Disciples*

'Hell is ignorance, for both are dark; and perdition is forgetfulness, for both involve extinction.' --- St. Mark the Ascetic

"There is a new wonder in heaven and on earth: God is on earth and humanity is in heaven.'  --- St. Thalassios the Libyan 
  
"Hence, it is right for us to strengthen our spirits, raise our minds, and thrust cowardly fears from our hearts, since, as you see, the Son of God laid down His life for us and took it up again whilst remaining God in every way. God victoriously celebrated a triumph over our death and conveyed our human body with Him to the stars. He considered it insufficient to have drained the entire cup of mortal life for us, so as to remove our wounds by means of His own; He also rose again with the body in which He fell, so that the troubled anxiety of a hesitant mind should not keep me in incertainty. He appeared after His death just as He was before it, and thus the evidence was made crystal-clear to humanity's eyes; for He showed Himself of His own accord to His doubting disciples to be inspected by their eyes and hands." --- St. Paulinus of Nola, *The Poems*
 
"It is our duty, therefore, to be faithful to God, pure in heart, merciful and kind, just and holy; for these things imprint in us the outlines of the Divine likeness, and perfect us as heirs of eternal life." --- St. Cyril of Alexandria

"Thus the deifying gift of the Spirit is a mysterious light, and transforms into light those who receive its richness; He does not only fill them with eternal light, but grants them a knowledge and a life appropriate to God. Thus, as St. Maximus teaches, St. Paul lived no longer a created life, but 'the eternal life of Him Who indwelt him.' Similarly, the prophets contemplated the future as if it were the present." --- St. Gregory Palamas, *The Triads*
 
 "The grace of charity is greater than the grace of resurrecting from the dead…No one is saved if she or he does not help others to be saved also." --- St. John Chrysostom
 
 "...when we say to him: 'Hallowed be thy name,' we are saying in other words: Make us such, Father, that we may deserve to understand and grasp how great your hallowing is and, of course, that you may appear as hallowed in our spiritual way of life. This is effectively fulfilled in us when 'people see our good works and glorify our Father who is in heaven.'" --- St. John Cassian

"God does not only pay attention to the small ones, but also to those who pay attention to the small ones. Do you want Him to love you? Love the small ones. Love the poor. Love the humble." --- Archimandrite Joel Giannakopoulos
 
"When the intellect turns its attention to the visible world, it perceives things through the medium of the senses in a way that accords with nature. And the intellect is not evil, nor is its natural capacity to form conceptual images of things, nor are the things themselves, nor are the senses, for all are the work of God. What, then, is evil? Clearly it is the passion that enters into the conceptual images formed in accordance with nature by the intellect; and this need not happen if the intellect keeps watch." --- St. Maximos the Confessor
 
"We do not need to get God’s attention. His attention is immediate and unavoidable."--- Archimandrite Meletios Webber
 
"Just as the sun's rays are sometimes hidden from the earth by thick cloud, so for a while a person may be deprived of spiritual comfort and of grace's brightness. This is caused by the cloud of the passions. Then, all of a sudden, without that person being aware, it is all given back. Just as the surface of the earth rejoices at the rays of the sun when they break through the clouds, so the words of prayer are able to break through to drive the thick cloud of the passions away from the soul." --- St. Isaac the Syrian
 
"With regard to self-control in eating, we must never feel loathing for any kind of food, for to do so is abominable and utterly demonic. It is emphatically not because any kind of food is bad in itself that we refrain from it. But by not eating too much or too richly we can to some extent keep in check the excitable parts of our body. In addition we can give to the poor what remains over, for this is the mark of sincere love." --- St. Diadochos of Photiki