Words from the Saints – July 7, 2022
Gerald Largent
"Holiness is not simply righteousness, for which the righteous merit the enjoyment of blessedness in the Kingdom of God, but rather such a height of righteousness that men are filled with the grace of God to the extent that it flows from them upon those who associate with them. Great is their blessedness; it proceeds from personal experience of the Glory of God. Being filled also with love for men, which proceeds from love of God, they are responsive to men’s needs, and upon their supplication they appear also as intercessors and defenders for them before God." --St. John (Maximovitch) of San Francisco
"True, one may know man’s final goal: communion with God. And one may describe the path to it: faith, and walking in the commandments, with the aid of divine grace. One need only say in addition: here is the path-start walking!" --St. Theophan The Recluse
"Just as water and fire cannot be combined, so self-justification and humility exclude one another." --St. Mark the Ascetic
"In the eyes of the sovereign Judge the merit of our actions depends on the motives which prompted them." --St. Gregory the Great
"With what hope will we meet Christ if we are still enslaved to the pleasures of the flesh?" --St. Thalassios the Libyan
"On our own, without Divine help, we are not even capable of praying. We cannot pray as needed, and we do not know how to pray or what to pray for." --St. Nikon of Optina