How to be saved…
Children, we all know how to be saved, but, by our own negligence, we fall short of salvation.
–Saint Synkletike (a Desert Mother) (d. 350)
The new creation…
For to despise the present age, not to love transitory things, unreservedly to stretch out the mind in humility to God and our neighbor, to preserve patience against offered insults and, with patience guarded, to repel the pain of malice from the heart, to give one’s property to the poor, not to covet that of others, to esteem the friend in God, on God’s account to love even those who are hostile, to mourn at the affliction of a neighbor, not to exult in the death of one who is an enemy, this is the new creature whom the Master of the nations seeks with watchful eye amid the other disciples, saying: “If, then, any be in Christ a new creature, the old things are passed away. Behold all things are made new.” (2Cor. 5:17)
–Saint Gregory the Great (c. 540-604)
Self-denial makes you…
Humility makes you strong; self-denial makes you Christlike.
–Saint Columban (543-615)
Fight the good fight…
Fight the good fight until you reach the end, clinging fast to those qualities that will assure your passage to love’s goal. I mean: love of humankind, brotherly and sisterly love, hospitality, love of the poor, compassion, mercy, humility, meekness, gentleness, patience, freedom from anger, long-suffering, perseverance, kindness, forbearance, goodwill and peace towards all. Out of these and through these the grace of love is fashioned, which leads one to God who deifies the human being that He Himself fashioned.
–Saint Maximos the Confessor (580-662)
Affliction borne for God…
A small affliction borne for God’s sake is better before God than a great work performed without tribulation, because affliction willingly borne brings to light the proof of love. But a work of leisure proceeds from a self-satisfied conscience. That is why the saints were proved by tribulations for Christ’s love, and not by ease. For good works accomplished without toil are the righteousness of those in the world, who do righteous deeds with their possessions but not their bodies, thus gaining nothing within themselves. But you, O struggler, taste within yourself Christ’s suffering, that you may be deemd worthy of tasting His glory. For if we suffer with Him, then we are glorified with Him (cf. Rom. 8:17).
–Saint Isaac of Syria (Seventh Century)
Action and contemplation…
Action and contemplation are very close companions; they live together in one house on equal terms. Martha and Mary are sisters.
–Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153)
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