Words from the Saints -- November 12, 2019

“Every vice leads in the end to forbidden pleasure; and every virtue to spiritual blessing. Each arouses what is akin to it.” --St. Mark the Ascetic

"We see the water of a river flowing uninterruptedly and passing away, and all that floats on its surface, rubbish or beams of trees, all pass by. Christian! So does our life. . .I was an infant, and that time has gone. I was an adolescent, and that too has passed. I was a young man, and that too is far behind me. The strong and mature man that I was is no more. My hair turns white, I succumb to age, but that too passes; I approach the end and will go the way of all flesh. I was born in order to die. I die that I may live. Remember me, O Lord, in Thy Kingdom!" --St. Tikhon of Voronezh

"The blessedness of seeing God is justly promised to the pure of heart. For the eye that is unclean would not be able to see the brightness of the true light, and what would be happiness to clear minds would be a torment to those that are defiled. Therefore, let the mists of worldly vanities be dispelled, and the inner eye be cleansed of all the filth of wickedness, so that the soul's gaze may feast serenely upon the great vision of God." --St. Leo the Great

"Those who lived according to the old order of things have come to a new hope, no longer keeping the Sabbath, but the Lord's Day, in which our life is blessed by Him and by His death" --St. Ignatius of Antioch

"Our Lord and Savior shows us this holy will (when our will perfectly says 'Thy will be done...') by giving us the example of its being done in Himself in order to suppress the free will of the flesh in us when He says: 'I have come not to do my own will, but to do the will of the One who sent me.' And again He says in His holy passion: 'My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass Me by.' This voice of fear in the Lord was that of the flesh He had assumed, and shows us that the acts of life must always be well considered if death to come must be feared." --St. Benedict of Nursia