Words from the Saints -- March 6, 2025
Gerald Largent
"Let us fast an acceptable and very pleasing fast to the Lord. True fast is the estrangement from evil, temperance of tongue, abstinence from anger, separation from desires, slander, falsehood, and lying. Abstaining from these is true fasting." --St. Basil the Great
"Like the apple of Thine eye preserve me, O Lord God; defend me and beneath Thy wings shelter me from temptations." --St. Ephraim the Syrain
"Without contrition of the heart, it is altogether impossible to rid ourselves of evil. Now the heart is made contrite by threefold self-control: in sleep, in food and in bodily relaxation. For excess of these three things leads to self-indulgence; and this in turn makes us accept evil thoughts, and is opposed to prayer and to appropriate work." --St. Mark the Ascetic
"The devil loves and always rejoices over the ungoverned; those who are not subject to one who has power, under God, to help them and to give them a hand." --St. Dorotheos of Gaza
"There is one antidote for evil passions: the purification of our souls which takes place through the mystery of godliness. The chief act of faith in this mystery is to look to Him who suffered the passion for us. The cross is the passion, so that whoever looks to it? is not harmed by the poison of desire. To look to the cross means to render one's whole life dead and crucified to the world." --St. Gregory of Nyssa