John of Kronstadt (1829-1908), Page: Quotes, Quote Author
Observe the difference between the presence of the life-giving spirit and the presence of the spirit that deadens and destroys your soul. When there are good thoughts in your soul you feel happy and at ease; when peace and joy are in your heart, then the spirit of good, the Holy Spirit, is within you; whilst when evil thoughts or evil motions of the heart arise within you, you feel ill at ease and oppressed; when you are inwardly troubled, then the spirit of evil, the crafty spirit, is within you.
–Saint John of Kronstadt (1829-1908)
John of Kronstadt (1829-1908), Page: Quotes, Prayer (how), Quote Author, Quote Topic
Remember that not a single word is lost during prayer, if you say it from your heart; God hears each word, and weighs it in a balance. Sometimes it seems to us that our words only strike the air in vain, and sound as the voice of one crying in the wilderness. No, no; it is not so!…The Lord responds to every desire of the heart, expressed in words or unexpressed.
–Saint John of Kronstadt (1829-1908)
John of Kronstadt (1829-1908), Page: Quotes, Quote Author, Suffering
Both Holy Scriptures and personal experience testify that, in order to draw near to God, it is necessary for the sinner to suffer, weep, shed tears, and convert his deceitful heart:
–Saint John of Kronstadt (1829-1908)
John of Kronstadt (1829-1908), Page: Quotes, Quote Author
If the fervor of faith in our heart is not kept alight, then our apathy may entirely extinguish our faith. Christianity, with all its sacraments, will completely die for us.
–Saint John of Kronstadt (1829-1908)
John of Kronstadt (1829-1908), Page: Quotes, Prayer (how), Quote Author, Quote Topic
The psalms have also a wonderful power to awaken in our hearts the desire for every virtue. Athanasius says: ‘Though all Scripture, both old and new, is divinely inspired and has its use in teaching, as we read in Scripture itself, yet the Book of Psalms, like a garden enclosing the fruits of all the other books, produces its fruits in song, and in the process of singing brings forth its own special fruits to take their place beside them.’ In the same place Athanasius rightly adds: ‘The psalms seem to me to be like a mirror, in which the person using them can see himself, and the stirrings of his own heart; he can recite them against the background of his own emotions.’
–Saint Pius X (1835-1914)
Detachment, John of Kronstadt (1829-1908), Page: Quotes, Quote Author, Quote Topic
For what purpose does the Lord add day after day, year after year, to our existence? In order that we may gradually put away, cast aside, evil from our souls, each one his own, and acquire blessed simplicity; in order that we may become, for instance, gentle as lambs, simple as infants; in order that we may learn not to have the least attachment to earthly things, but like loving, simple children, may cling with all our hearts to God alone, and love Him with all our hearts, all our souls, all our strength, and all our thoughts, and our neighbor as ourselves.
–Saint John of Kronstadt (1829-1908)
