NB - FFT: Food from Parents in the Faith

"Do you wish to honor the Body of the Savior? Do not despise it when it is naked. Do not honor it in church with silk vestments while outside it is naked and numb with cold. He who said, “This is my body,” and made it so by his word, is the same that said, “You saw me hungry and you gave me no food. As you did it not to the least of these, you did it not to me.” Honor him then by sharing your property with the poor. For what God needs is not golden chalices but golden souls."  --- St. John Chrysostom 

"It is pointless for someone to say that he has faith in God if he does not have the works which go with faith. What benefit were their lamps to the foolish virgins who had no oil (Mt. 25:1-13), namely, deeds of love and compassion?"  --- St. Gregory Palamas

“At the Last Judgment, I will not be asked whether I satisfactorily practiced asceticism, or how many bows I have made before the divine altar. I will be asked whether I fed the hungry, clothed the naked, visited the sick, and the prisoner in his jail. That is all I will be asked.”  --- St. Maria (Skobtsova) of Paris

"The purer the heart is, the larger it is, and the more able it is to find room within it for a greater number of beloved ones; whilst the more sinful it is, the more contracted it becomes, and the less number of beloved can it find room for, because it is limited by self-love, and that love is a false one; we love ourselves in objects unworthy of the immortal soul — in silver and gold, in adultery, in drunkenness, and such like." 
--- St John of Kronstadt

"Love calms and agreeably expands the heart and vivifies it, whilst hatred painfully contracts and disturbs it. Those who hate others torture and tyrannize themselves."  --- St John of Kronstadt

"Just as a tempered metal can sharpen soft or rusty metal, so can a zealous brother set a tepid one on the right track."  --- St. John Climacus

"You carefully collect the tears of the righteous, and with them You rejuvenate worlds."  --- St. Nikolai of Ochrid and Zica

"Remember that God, during your prayers, is watching for your affirmative answer to the question which He is inwardly asking you: 'Do you believe I am able to do this?' To which question you must from the depth of your heart reply, 'Yes, Lord' (Mt. 9:28)."  --- St. John of Kronstadt

"Let’s have love, meekness and peace. In that way, we help our sister or brother when they are possessed by evil. Our example radiates mystically, and not only when the person is present, but also when the person is not. Let us strive to radiate our good will. Even when we say something about a person whose way of life does not meet with our approval, the person is aware of it and we repel them. Whereas, if we are compassionate and forgive them, then we influence them—just as evil influences them—even if she or he does not see us."  --- Elder Porphyrios

 "You have heard, my siblings, wheat great things faith in God can bring about when it is confirmed by actions. You will have realized that youth is not to be despised and that without understanding and fear of God old age is useless. You have learnt that the heart of a city cannot prevent us from practising God's commandments so long as we are diligent and watchful, nor can stillness or withdrawal from the world be of any benefit if we are lazy and negligent."  --- St. Syneon the New Theologian, On Faith, Philokalia, Vol. 4

"Beauty is one way to God. It should never be separated from goodness and truth. Beauty without goodness is not beauty; so love for the poor has to be cultivated together with love for beauty... and, of course, with love for the truth."   --- Archbishop Christoph Schonborn of Vienna

"Every created nature is far removed from and completely foreign to the divine nature. For if God is nature, other things are not nature; but if every other thing is nature, He is not a nature, just as He is not a being if all other things are beings. And if He is a being, then all other things are not beings. And if you accept this as true also for wisdom, goodness, and in general all things that pertain to God or are ascribed to Him, then your theology will be correct and in accordance with the saints."  --- St. Gregory Palamas

"Knowledge is an excellent thing; it helps prayer, inciting the power of the mind to the contemplation of Divine knowledge."  --- St. Nilus of Sinai
 
"Help me Lord to lead a holy life and to do good works, so that those who see me may praise Your Name."
--- St. John Chrysostom