If you want to cure your soul, you need four things. The first is to forgive your enemies. The second is to confess thoroughly. The third is to blame yourself. The fourth is to resolve to sin no more. If we wish to be saved, we must always blame ourselves and not attribute our wrong acts to others. And God, who is most compassionate, will forgive us.
–Saint Kosmas Aitolos (c. 1714 – 1779)
If a man insults me, kills my father, my mother, my brother, and then gouges out my eye, as a Christian it is my duty to forgive him. We who are pious Christians ought to love our enemies and forgive them. We ought to offer them food and drink, and entreat God for their souls. And then we should say: “My God, I beseech thee to forgive me, as I have forgiven my enemies.”
–Saint Kosmas Aitolos (c. 1714 – 1779)
Do we forgive our neighbors their trespasses? God also forgives us in his mercy. Do we refuse to forgive? God, too, will refuse to forgive us. As we treat our neighbors, so also does God treat us. The forgiveness, then, of your sins or unforgiveness, and hence also your salvation or destruction, depend on you yourself, man. For without forgiveness of sins there is no salvation. You can see for yourself how terrible it is.
–Saint Philotheos of Sinai (1300-1379)
Keep in mind God’s precept that states, “Judge not, and you will not be judged” (Lk. 6:37), and in no way meddle in the lives of others.
–Saint Symeon the New Theologian (949-1022)
Above all, always see Jesus in every person, and consequently treat each one not only as an equal and as a brother or sister, but also with great humility, respect, and selfless generosity.
–Blessed Charles de Foucauld (1858–1916)
It is a good thing to use the tongue sparingly, and to keep a calm and rightly balanced heart in the use of speech. For it is not right to say things that are foolish and absurd, or to utter all that occurs to the mind. We ought instead to know and reflect that, though we are far separated from heaven, God hears what we say, and that it is good for us to speak without offense.
–Saint Gregory Thaumaturgus ( c. 213– c. 270)
