A Morning Prayer

O Lord Jesus Christ my God,
give me a good, sinless, and spotless day.
O Lord, forsake me not.
O Lord, do not stand afar off from me
O Lord, stretch out to me a helping hand.
O Lord, support me with the fear of you.
O Lord, plant this fear
and the love for you in my heart.
O Lord, teach me to do your will.
O Lord, grant mourning
and humility to my heart.
O Lord, give me unceasing tears, compunction,
and remembrance of death.
O Lord, free me from every temptation of soul and body.
O Lord, expel from me every unclean thought,
and every shameful and improper imagination.
O Lord, wipe out of me the negligence,
the indolence, the sorrow, the forgetfulness,
the insensitivity, the hardness,
and the captivity of my mind.
O Lord, have mercy on me,
as you know and as you wish,
and forgive all my transgressions.
And grant that my pitiful soul
may depart from my wretched body
in quietude, in good repentance,
in unhesitating confession,
and in pure and spotless faith, Amen.

St. Paisios the Great, 4th century

As a handful of sand thrown into the ocean...

…so are the sins of all flesh as compared with the mind of God. Just as a strongly flowing fountain is not blocked up by a handful of earth, so the compassion of the Creator is not overcome by the wickedness of His creatures.

St. Isaac of Syria, 7th century

After leaving his solitude...

…[St. Gregory the Wonderworker] at once hastened to the city where he felt obliged to establish a church for God. He knew that the whole region was under the grip of demons and that the temple of the true God was not yet constructed; the entire city and surrounding area was filled with pagan altars, sacred places and all the people were devoted to images. They adorned the temples and sacred places with images and the madness of idolatry with processions; their defilement gave substance to rites and ceremonies. Just as a noble commander routes the enemy in combat by the strength of his battle order, so does that great man’s valor set an example against the demons. How does he accomplish this? 

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There were two brothers...

…young in age, recently dividing their father’s estate among themselves. Their dispute was over a lake, each claiming the whole of it and neither willing to accept the other as joint owner. (Gregory the Wonderworker) became the judge of the case, and, arriving at the spot, he applied his own laws on their behavior, leading them to reconciliation and exhorting the youths to love, that they might set a higher value on concord than on profits; for peace abides forever among the living and the dead, whereas the enjoyment of profits is ephemeral, but entails an eternal judgment upon their wickedness. So he said what was suitable and repressed their ungovernable youth.

His exhortation, however, availed nothing. Youth was on fire and burnt in their hearts and was swollen with hopes of gain. Each one got ready an army of his people, a bloodthirsty multitude of servants governed by wrath and youth. The day of conflict was set. But on the day before the battle was to begin from both sides, man of God, abiding on the banks of the lake, enduring the night through in sleeplessness, wrought a miracle like Moses’ upon the waters. Not by a blow of his staff did he divide the deep in two; rather by prayer did he dry up the whole of it at once, and at dawn revealed the lake as dry land, parched and without moisture, having not even in its cavities any remnant of water, where before the prayer there had been a sea. And thus, giving judgment through God’s power, he returned again to his home, while between the young men the decision that emerged from the events ended the strife. 

from St. Gregory of Nyssa, Life of St. Gregory Thaumaturgos (the Wonderworker),
commemorated 17 November

Prayer, together with almsgiving...

…can furnish us with countless good things from above. They can quench the fire of sin in our souls and can give us great freedom. Cornelius had recourse to these two virtues and sent his prayers up to heaven. Because of these two virtues he heard the angel say: “Thy prayers and they alms have gone up and been remembered in the sight of God.” (Acts 10:4)

St. John Chrysostom

You find yourself in a darkened room...

…and you move your hands so as to try to brush away the darkness which, of course, doesn’t move. If you open a window and light enters, the darkness disappears. The same happens with study. The Holy Scripture, the lives of the Saints, and the writings of the Fathers are the light that chases away the darkness of the soul.

Elder Porphyrios, +1991

I remember Elder Auxentios...

…from the Gregoriou monastery (on Mt. Athos). He was blind and he would guide himself from his cell to the church by touching the monastery courtyard walls, saying as he did so the Jesus Prayer or the salutations to the Theotokos. Inside the church, having first venerated the icons, he would stand upright at his bench, like a pillar of fire.

from An Athonite Gerontikon

It was said concerning Abba Daniel...

…that when the barbarians invaded Scetis and the fathers fled away, the old man said, “If God does not care for me, why still live?” Then he passed through the midst of the barbarians without being seen. He said to himself therefore, “See how God has cared for me, since I am not dead. Now I will do that which is human and flee with the fathers.”

Someone asked an old man...

…”How is it that some say, ‘We see visions of angels’?” And he replied, “Blessed is he who always sees his sins.”

It is no great thing not to judge...

…and to be sympathetic to someone who is in trouble and falls down before you, but it is a great thing not to judge or to strike back when someone, on account of his own passions, speaks against you. Likewise, it is a great thing not to disagree when someone else is honored more than you are. 

Dorotheos of Gaza 
6th century 

One Sunday when this saintly man (St. John the Almsgiver)...

…was going down to his church there came to him one whose whole house had been despoiled by burglars; they had taken everything even down to his mattress. The sufferer was in great distress but, as those who had robbed his house could not be found in spite of a strict search, he was finally obliged by his extreme want, very shamefacedly, to apply to the Saint and told him about his misfortune. The Saint was very sorry for him—for he was one of the prominent foreign residents—and whispered to the man in charge of the gold to give him fifteen pounds of gold. When the latter went out to give the money to the man he took counsel with the cashier and with the treasurer and at the Devil’s prompting they grudged him so large a sum and gave him only five pounds.

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Amma Syncletica said...

…”Imitate the Publican and you will not be condemned with the Pharisee. Choose the meekness of Moses and you will find your heart which is a rock changed into a spring of water.”

If we haven’t got control of our mind...

…during the hour of spiritual study we are not benefited at all. We simply yawn and tire ourselves without a goal, for we cannot remember anything. In the same way, when the printer doesn’t have his mind on his work and forgets to put ink in, the printing presses work without printing anything.

Elder Paisios, +1994

Abba Hyperchius said...

…”He who does not control his tongue when he is angry, will not control his passions either.”

Another father, called Abba Helle...

…had persevered since childhood in the ascetic life. He often carried fire to his neighboring brethren in the fold of his tunic, and stimulated them to advance to the point of performing miracles, saying to them, “If you practice true ascesis, then you will show the supernatural signs of virtue.” 

Once on a Sunday he went to see some monks and said to them, “Why have you not celebrated the Divine Liturgy today?” When they replied that it was because the priest had not come from the other side of the river, he said to them, “I shall go and call him.” But they said it was impossible for anyone to cross the ford, partly because of the depth, but most of all because there was a huge beast at that spot, a crocodile which had devoured many people. The father did not hesitate. At once he jumped up and rushed into the ford. And immediately the beast took him onto its back and set him down on the other side. On finding the priest at his place, he entreated him not to neglect the community of brothers. The priest, seeing that he was dressed in a rag with many patches, asked him where he had found it, saying, “You have a most beautiful mantle for your soul, brother,” for he was amazed at his humility and poverty.

He followed Helle back to the river. As they failed to find a ferry, Helle let out a cry calling the crocodile to him. The animal obeyed him instantly and offered its back as a raft. Helle asked the priest to climb on with him. But the priest was terrified at the sight of the beast and backed away. While he and the brothers who lived on the other bank watched, seized with dread, he crossed the ford with the beast, came ashore, and hauling the beast out of the water, said to it, “It is better for you to die and make restitution for all the lives you have taken.” Whereupon the animal at once sank onto its belly and died. 

Historia Monachorum in Aegypto 12.1,6-9 

If any of them committed a fault...

…many of the brothers would seek his permission to take the matter to the abbot and to accept both the responsibility and the punishment. When the great man found out that his disciples did this, he inflicted easier punishments, in the knowledge that the one punished was actually innocent. And he made no effort to discover the real culprit. 

St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, 4 

Abba Zosimos the Cilician said...

…When I was a young man, I left Mt. Sinai and went to Ammoniac to stay there in a cell. There I found an elder dressed in a short-sleeved shirt of palm-fibre. When the elder saw me, before greeting me, he said, “Why have you come here, Zosimos? Get away from here. You cannot stay in this place.” I thought he knew me. I made a prostration before him saying, “Of your charity, elder, whence do you know me?” He said to me, “Two days ago, a being appeared to me who said, ‘A monk is coming to you whose name is Zosimos. Do not allow him to stay here. It is my will to entrust him the church of the Egyptian Babylon (Old Cairo).’ He fell silent and left me, going about a stone’s throw from me. There he spent some two hours in prayer. Then he came back to me and kissed me on the forehead, saying, “Naturally, child, you are welcome, for God has brought you here to bury my body.” I asked him, “How many years have you been here, abba?” “I am completing my forty-fifth year,” he replied. It looked to me as though his face were of fire. He said to me, “Peace be with you, child; pray for me.” And with that, the servant of the Lord lay down and fell asleep. I dug a grave and buried him. Two days later I went on my way, glorifying God.

John Moschus, Leimonarion (The Spiritual Meadow) 123 

A possession ought to belong to the possessor...

…not the possessor to the possession. Whosoever, therefore, does not use his patrimony as a possession, who does not know how to give and distribute to the poor, he is the servant of his wealth, not its master; because like a servant he watches over the wealth of another and not like a master does he use it of his own. Hence, in a disposition of this kind, we say that the man belongs to his riches, not the riches to the man. 

St. Ambrose of Milan 

Let what we call [mercury]...

…be a paradigm of perfect obedience. Roll it with any substance you wish, and it will nevertheless run to the lowest place and mix with nothing defiled. 

St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, 4 

During the reign of the emperor Decius (249-251) ...

…when there was a persecution against the Christians, seven men were captured and brought before the emperor. These seven men were named Maximianus, Malchus, Martinianus, Constantinus, Dionysiu, Johannes, and Serapion. Althought though were tempted by various suggestions to yield, they never acquiesced. Because of his regard for them, the emperor granted time to think, so that they would not die immediately. But the seven men shut themselves up in a cave, and there they lived for many days. One of them would leave, purchase supplies, and bring back necessities.

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